gigatech-1-decAmazon announced a new tool called Shield. It is a product that is meant to protect online properties from Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks like the ones that took down online giants like Reddit, Netflix, and Twitter in 2016. This launch puts Amazon in direct competition with other internet companies like Cloudflare which provide similar services.

There are two options, one called AWS Shield Standard with basic integrated DDoS protection, which will be turned on by default for AWS customers. This is a huge selling point for any potential customers looking to move infrastructure to the cloud and considering all the possible options.  There is also a premium version called AWS Shield Advanced for more sophisticated and targeted online attacks.

“I think this will really help you protect yourselves even against the largest and most sophisticated attacks that we’ve seen out there,” said Werner Vogels, the Amazon chief technology officer, announcing Shield at the event today.

There is no comparable service on Microsoft Azure at this point. Considering how pervasive these DDoS attacks have become, it is likely to be a standard part of all cloud computing services going forward.

After the recent attack on online DNS provider Dyn, which was responsible for hosting the DNS infrastructure, Amazon has discontinued its reliance on the DNS provider. Amazon is now following the Dyn recommendation and using multiple root DNS servers for redundancy.


gigatech-2-decAmazon Web Services just announced the launch of Lightsail. It is a VPS (virtual private server) service and starts at a low $5 per month.

One of the biggest barriers to adoption of AWS has been the level of technical knowledge required by users. For startups and large businesses that are the most common customers on AWS, that level of expertise is available in-house. Most small businesses are used to going to providers like Godaddy and just signing up for a server.

Lightsail will now take care of that for users. It takes care of all the technical details such attaching the storage, creating groups, IP address assignment and even launching of the virtual machine. This is a huge reduction in complexity in comparison to creating all of those components individually and then setting it up together.

Dan Scholnick, a partner at Trinity Ventures, says this announcement shows AWS is moving into a variety of markets. “They are ferociously protective of their turf and are moving aggressively to shore up any part of their business that might be vulnerable to competitors.” With this move, they are also targeting some of the lower-end server and VPS providers.

This move is perfect for companies who want to move into AWS and don’t have the skills or the time to figure each step of the way. The beauty of this approach is that once the server is setup, as users become more familiar, they can add and remove components and delve deeper into the AWS feature set.