AWS announces Lightsail virtual private servers
Amazon 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.
