Lunch time thoughts
Has anyone played with Amazon’s S3 and EC2 service? I’ve known about these for a while, but I hadn’t looked at it until now. Basically, it is a system to gain unlimited cpu time and disk storage/transfer. It’s metered, so I’m wondering how the metering compares to a $120/mo colo plan and server?
They use some sort of virtual machine technology that I’m not familiar with. You create an “AMI”, or Amazon Machine Image, which is an encrypted disk image, and upload it to their servers. My mind is scrambling to think what could possibly done with this scenario. Some of the search engine startups in the bay area outsource their real time number crunching here because the infrastructure costs of EC2/S3 is much lower than buying/hiring/managing a physical outlay for servers.
On another topic, I’m doing some research on my block specifically. My interest has sparked a discussion on socketsite. Apparently what is going in across the street is an 81 unit BMR complex, or in English, a 14 story condo building for middle class families. “Affordable housing”. That means I might be able to afford it. :)