Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched a new package of resources aimed at start-ups.
The AWS Activate package aims to help start-ups get to grips with Amazon's cloud, quickly and easily.
The package includes AWS credits, training, developer support, a startup community forum and special offers from third parties.
AWS Activate is being offered as a Self-Starter package, which any startup can apply for, and a Portfolio package, which can be applied for by startups in select accelerator, incubator, venture capital seed funds or entrepreneur organisations.
Start-ups on the Self-Starter package will receive access to the AWS Free Usage Tier, one month of developer-level AWS support, web-based training and one self-paced lab, AWS Startup Forum access and offers on products from select third-party companies.
Those on the Portfolio package will receive AWS credits, business-level AWS Support for up to one year, web-based and instructor-led training, including class labs and credit for four self-paced labs, Startup Forum privileges and access to offers on products from select third-party companies.
"Based on feedback from VCs, startups and entrepreneurs, we developed AWS Activate to help even more startup organizations get going quickly by leveraging AWS to help build their business. We're happy to offer this to startups of all kinds from around the world today," said Adam Selipsky, Vice President, Amazon Web Services.
AWS claims cloud computing allows startups to go beyond the often restricted resources they have and use on-demand, pay-as-you-go services that can be adjusted as needed.
Event app platform, Showcase, has been using AWS for over a year, saying it suits the company well because "traffic around events is quite spiky" so the ability to "scale up capacity at the flick of a switch was important."
"Having taken a look at the AWS Activate programme, it appears the more attractive Portfolio Package is only available to start-ups in certain accelerator or fund programmes and so would not have been available to us," Showcase co-founder, Ian Kershaw told Techworld.
"The Self-Starter Package is broadly what was available to us already, though the AWS Technical Professional training credit seems new and would have been welcome in the early days as there is a bit of a learning curve with AWS," he added.
uMotif - a London-based start-up that provides self-help applications for patients suffering from long-term illnesses, like Parkinsons - currently hosts its product on VPS.net. However, founder Bruce Hellman told Techworld that AWS Activate makes Amazon's cloud offering that bit more appealing and said he will certainly consider it when deciding where to host the second version of uMotif, which is set to launch in January.
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