Amazon Web Services Blog

Amazon DevPay is pretty cool. It allows developers to use Amazon's billing and account management to layer their own business models on top of Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3. Developers using DevPay include SmugMug (for SmugVault), Wowza Media Systems, Red Hat, and SearchBlox.

Earlier today we rolled out a brand new release of DevPay. The new release has two important new features, lower fees and reduced risk.

How, you may ask, are lower fees a feature? Well, it turns out that many developers would like to use DevPay to simply pass their actual AWS charges through to their customers without marking them up. The new release makes this possible because the 3% DevPay fee is now charged only on the value added by the developer. There's still a 30 cent fee for processing each payment.

The new fee structure will be of value to developers using DevPay on top of EC2 because it allows them to pass on bandwidth charges directly. There is no longer a need to add an additional markup to cover the fees that were formerly charged on Amazon's share of the cost. This directly leads to a business model which is both better from an economic perspective and simpler from a structural perspective.

Also, with this new release, Amazon DevPay shares the risk of customer nonpayment with developers. You’re responsible for the cost of AWS services that a customer consumes only up to the amount that the customer pays. Based on your price, if the amount a customer owes is lower than the cost of AWS services that the customer consumed, you’re required to cover the difference, even if the customer does not pay.

The net result of these changes is that the fees developers will pay to use DevPay will be lower. Developers will also pay less in the event that their customers don't pay.

It is worth pointing out that both of these features were implemented as a direct result of customer feedback which started in a thread on the AWS Discussion Forum for DevPay. We're here, and we are listening, but you've got to speak up if you want to be heard!

-- Jeff;

We just finished the US and Canadian leg of the AWS Start-Up Tour! With an amazing number of start-up leaders who attended in eight different cities, it was quite an event! Each event included presentations by Amazon Web Services, and more importantly by our customers–who described their real-world experiences with AWS. From my moint of view, the most exciting aspect of the events was that some of last year’s event attendees were up front presenting this year. That says more about the value proposition and ease of implementation than anything I can think of. Thanks to each and every customer who presented!

You should check out the presentations posted on Slideshare.net, because they demonstrate the amazing range of innovation in the start-up community. One interesting observation about this year’s event so far, vs. last year is that we are seeing more applications that target the Enterprise vs. online destinations. There is obviously a lot of innovation going on around tools and even complementary services.

We’re not finished with the tour, of course. You can still sign up for our events in London (November 4, 2008), Amsterdam (November 6, 2008), and Seattle (November 20, 2008) by emailing rsvpstartup@amazon.com. Additional details are available at aws.amazon.com/startupproject/.

Finally, don’t forget the Startup Challenge. This contest is a great opportunity to gain some exposure for your application and compete for a chance to win $100,000 in cash and AWS credits.

To enter, simply submit your business application, the entry period ends October 3rd. In November, all finalists will be flown to Amazon’s offices in Seattle to participate in the final judging round and public event. I think this is an incredible opportunity: not only because of the monetary prizes–especially in the current tight funding environment, but also because of the publicity.

– Mike

Earlier this week we launched a revised version of the AWS web site.

The new site offers better navigation and easier access to the content related to each service. All of the relevant options and links are available in a series of convenient pull-down menus.

It is now much easier to find AWS news, events, and media coverage. Dedicated sections on the right side provide convenient access to information of interest to developers (including the once elusive AMI directory) and to business managers. There's information about user groups (including some guidelines for starting your own) and an ever-growing set of case studies.

We also rolled out a series of AWS Quick Reference cards.

Available in PDF form, the cards summarize the most important data types, function calls, and command line tools for each service.

Cards are now available for AAWS, DevPay, EC2, FWS, Mechanical Turk, and SQS, with more to follow before too long.

Print these out, tape them above your desk, and show your colleagues that you are an AWS-powered developer!

-- Jeff;