EC2 Loses its Last Limit
Up until now, frequent dumps to s3 and a slim chance of losing ~10 minutes of data were the price you had to pay for hosting databases on ec2. But now that’s gone. Once again Amazon focuses on a simple tool that can be used in a variety of ways. The only improvement I could want is for it to be a replicated block device a la MSR Boxwood or DRBD.
I think David Young’s comments comparing single provider platforms to open clusters are spot on. For some users AppEngine is very attractive. But there will always be many companies that can’t abide building their business as a vassal on the plot the lord of the manor gives them. Amazon is quickly becoming the key provider for this market, but I think we’ll see plenty of competition in the future.
