Amazon.com has the world's largest retail website. It takes a lot of infrastructures to run such a site. But such infrastructure is also a valuable asset if it can be monetized. Amazon seems to be trying to do just that. You want to provide the infrastructure that will power the next wave of websites. 

The amazing thing about Amazon Web Services is that you can easily opt for cost optimization of aws and there are no setup fees or other upfront costs to set up scalable, world-class web applications. If you can imagine it, you can build it on top of Amazon's framework.

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So here's what they actually offer and what they mean.

Amazon's simple storage service (S3)

This is a gem in Amazon's web service offering. Crane storage (theoretical) is unlimited. Despite some initial issues and some limitations (maximum object size 5 GB), the S3 offers scalable, accessible, and secure permanent storage. 

Amazon's Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2)

So cool that it's hard to fully explain. Consider steroid virtualization. Unlimited computing power when you press. There are no setup fees and the processor costs 10 cents per hour and you have something really exciting. 

This is a highly technical service that requires a lot of knowledge and setup skills, but it creates just one more market for technical businesses to provide support services for EC2 and other services.

Simple DB on Amazon

If you're thinking about the next killer app at this point and all you need is some money from the VC for it, you'll be excited. 

You start looking at strategies that allow you to load your business and applications without paying a lot of money for rake servers and data centers.