SQL Server and ASP.NET encompassed by Amazon

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is getting chummier with Microsoft all the time. The latest example? Microsoft developers, and there are a ton of them, can now more easily write code again AWS.

In particular SQL Server and ASP.NET coders can either migrate existing code or write fresh stuff to run up in the Amazon cloud, thanks to two new Amazon services.
1. Amazon Relational Database Services (Amazon RDS) for Microsoft SQL Server
2. AWS Elastic Beanstalk for support of ASP.NET

In the case of SQL, only relatively new versions apply -- SQL Server 2008 R2 and the spankin' new SQL Server 2012 to be exact.

That means AWS supports a rich complement of commercial and open databases, including MySQL, Oracle, and SQL: Express. Low-end SQL installs (a paltry 20 GB) are free.

ASP.NET joins the already supported PHP and Java.

Amazon Web Services aims to make life easier for Windows developers

Amazon Web Services (AWS) now allows ASP.NET developers to take advantage of Elastic Beanstalk, which has been developed to make it easier to roll out cloud-based applications, the company said on Tuesday.

Using the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio, developers can upload their ASP.NET applications to Amazon's cloud, and Elastic Beanstalk then automatically takes care of deployment details such as capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling and application health monitoring, according to the company.

A Beanstalk environment using default settings will run on a single Amazon EC2 micro instance and an Elastic Load Balancer. More resources can be added using the auto scaling feature or the management tool.

Elastic Beanstalk, which is still a beta version, uses the Windows Server 2008 R2 AMI (Amazon Machine Image) and IIS (Internet Information Services) 7.5 to run .NET applications.

To get started, developers install the Visual Studio toolkit and make sure they have signed up for an AWS account. They can then deploy any Visual Studio Web project to AWS Elastic Beanstalk, including ASP.NET MVC projects and ASP.NET Web Forms.

Elastic Beanstalk is compatible with Java and PHP applications, as well.

There is no additional charge for using Elastic Beanstalk, but enterprises still have to pay for the AWS resources needed to store data and run their applications, unless they qualify for a free usage tier, according to Amazon.

Amazon has also launched Amazon RDS for SQL Server, which is compatible with Express, Web, Standard and Enterprise Editions of SQL Server 2008 R2. Amazon also plans to add support for SQL Server 2012 later this year, it said.

For users that want try out the service, Amazon offers a free usage tier that includes 750 hours per month of a Amazon RDS micro instance with SQL Server Express Edition, 20GB of database storage and 10 million requests per month for up to a year.

Beyond that there is a plethora of service and payment options, with prices starting at US$0.035 per hour.

Amazon RDS Now Supports ASP.NET

Online retail giant Amazon just announced a new update which allows users to run Microsoft’s database and web programming platform ASP.NET, on its Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). Amazon reveals that users can now use Microsoft tools they are accustomed to – to deploy, manage and scale SQL Server databases and ASP.NET applications. Amazon also points out that RDS presently runs SQL Server 2008 R2, with an upgrade SQL Server 2012 pending.

Charlie Bell, Vice President, Amazon Web Services, states, “Amazon RDS now supports three of the most popular relational database engines, giving businesses the flexibility to launch a managed Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle or MySQL database based on the needs of their application. With Amazon RDS, customers no longer have to become experts in database set-up and management and can shift their focus to building and improving the capabilities of their applications. We’re excited to give Windows and ASP.Net developers new options for taking advantage of AWS to quickly deploy and easily manage their databases and applications in the cloud.”

Some might see this as a tactic to lure users away from Microsoft’s own Azure cloud environment. After all, the two compete – soon after Amazon launched its CloudSearch, Microsoft turned around and adapted Bing search to Azure.

In related news, a different sector under the Amazonian umbrella just beat out Netflix in a customer satisfaction survey, indicative of possible things to come, as Amazon delves further into the business of streaming content.