Technology Forecast: cloudy

Jinesh Varia, Amazon Web Service’s (AWS) evangelist – just how they come up with job designations like that – was there to explain the various advantages that AWS has to offer for startups and enterprises.

The pitch could not have been simpler and straight-forward: “Just imagine getting Amazon’s computing infrastructure do the number crunching for small and medium enterprises,” he said.

The on-demand utility computing that AWS offers is not only cost-effective but also an extremely time-efficient solution as some of the participants pointed out.

A case in point was the employee payroll operation executed by a group from Cybernet Slash Support (CSS) – what would normally take several man hours on a limited number of computers took them just two days, as several parallel computers of AWS number crunched the data in just a couple of days.

Engineers from CSS, who supported the user group meet as part of their open-source community outreach programme, also showcased a batch process (ant task) they developed that simplifies deployment of cloud computing in AWS.

Balaji Sowmyanarayanan, an AWS user group enthusiast and founder of a paper file tracking system called Tag & Monitor, says though there are other similar service providers, AWS’ cloud computing has a strategic clarity that is unmatched. “Amazon is able to make all its infrastructure available for its users. There are able to go the whole hog.”

There are, however, some non-technical issues with AWS, especially over services that involve receiving payments online. The services are open only to those who have registered in addresses in the US. Mr.Varia said AWS was looking into the legalities in India.