Amazon Web Services Announces 'AWS Activate' to Expand Resources Available to Startup Customers in the Cloud

NEW DELHI and SEATTLE, October 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

AWS Activate Provides Startups With Benefits Including AWS Credits, Training, Developer Support, a Special Startup Community Forum and Special Offers From Third Parties to Help Them Successfully Build on AWS

Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ:AMZN), today announced the availability of AWS Activate, a structured package of resources for startups, including AWS credits, training, developer support, a special startup community forum and special offers from third parties. AWS Activate bundles resources in packages, designed to enable startups of different types to easily and quickly get started with AWS and successfully use the AWS platform to help grow their businesses. To learn more about AWS Activate, visit: aws.amazon.com/activate.

For startups, it is paramount to gain access to technology resources that enable them to quickly and easily get started and scale as their business grows. Cloud computing allows startups to go beyond the often restricted resources they have and use on-demand, pay-as-you-go services that can be adjusted as needed, while allowing these startups to focus on what really matters - serving their customers and innovating. AWS Activate helps address startups' needs for technology, support, knowledge sharing and additional resources that make it even easier to use the cloud to grow their businesses.

AWS Activate is organized into two packages - a self-starter package, which any startup can apply for, and a portfolio package, which can be applied for by startups in select accelerator, incubator, venture capital seed funds or entrepreneur organizations. Each package includes varied levels of resources to help fit customers' needs. Startups receiving either package get access to the Startup Forum, where AWS experts and other startup customers can share best practices. The Startup Forum gives startups a way to learn from and interact with a community of peers building world-changing apps on AWS. In addition, startups accepted into AWS Activate may have access to special offers, such as product discounts, from select third-party companies in the AWS ecosystem, providing startups with additional valuable technologies and tools.

With the self-starter package, startups receive:

• Access to the AWS Free Usage Tier: With the AWS Free Usage Tier, new AWS customers have up to one year of free access to a variety of AWS services, enabling developers to launch new applications, broaden their AWS knowledge or simply gain hands-on familiarity with the services - all while incurring no charges.  See http://aws.amazon.com/free/terms/ for full offer terms and restrictions.

• One month of Developer-level AWS Support: AWS Support is a one-on-one, fast-response support channel that is staffed 24x7x365 with experienced technical support engineers to help customers of all sizes and technical abilities successfully use AWS. Developer Support includes client side diagnostic tools, best practice guidance and email support with a 12-hour response time from an AWS cloud support associate.

• Web-based training and one self-paced lab: Self-paced labs, available online, are hands-on tutorials designed to help customers acquire new skills and gain practical experience with AWS technologies.

• AWS Startup Forum: The AWS Startup Forum offers the opportunity to tap into the vast body of knowledge in the AWS startup community, including access to tips from experienced startup founders and advice from knowledgeable AWS solutions architects.

• Access to offers on products from select third-party companies: AWS Activate includes special offers from select third-party companies that provide valuable tools for startups.  Offers include software for testing, security and automation on the AWS platform. 

With the portfolio package, eligible startups receive:

• AWS credits: AWS credits can be redeemed against fees for eligible services, including Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, Amazon CloudFront, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon EMR, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Glacier and more.

• Business-level AWS Support for up to one year: Business-level AWS Support includes all of the benefits of Developer-level AWS Support, plus AWS Trusted Advisor and access to phone, chat, email and screen sharing support with a one-hour response time from an AWS cloud support engineer.

• Web-based and instructor-led training, including class labs and credit for four self-paced labs: AWS Technical Professional and AWS Essentials courses provide a technical and thorough overview of AWS products and common solutions, and coupled with self-paced labs can help customers gain hands-on experience working with AWS technologies. AWS Essentials is available both on-demand and in live instructor-led trainings.

• Startup Forum privileges: The AWS Startup Forum offers the opportunity to tap into the vast body of knowledge in the AWS startup community, including access to tips from experienced startup founders and advice from knowledgeable AWS solutions architects.

• Access to offers on products from select third-party companies: AWS Activate includes special offers from select third-party companies that provide valuable tools for startups. Offers in the Portfolio package build on those available to Self-Starter package customers, and include software for testing, security and automation on the AWS platform.

"Many of the world's most successful startups already build their businesses on the AWS cloud. Based on feedback from VCs, startups and entrepreneurs, we developed AWS Activate to help even more startup organizations get going quickly by leveraging AWS to help build their business. We're happy to offer this to startups of all kinds from around the world today," said Adam Selipsky, Vice President, Amazon Web Services.

"Amazon Web Services is amazing as it provides startups the ability to develop world class product for its customers without incurring upfront capital or worrying much about the corresponding costs. Amazon Web Services helps startups scale up their product and refine their business models. AWS Activate will make the task of developing business for startups even easier," said Pranay Gupta, Founder of 91springboard.

"Amazon Web Services has been one of the leading supporters of startups in India since we started working with them 2 to 3 years ago. With AWS Activate, it will become extremely easy for startups to plug into the AWS technologies, reduce overhead and focus on other aspects of building businesses. I can see many startups in India building invaluable products with the help of AWS Activate," said Sameer Guglani, Co-Founder of TheMorpheus.

"AWS Activate is a boon to our early stage startups. It's not just the AWS credits but the entire package, which includes AWS Training as well as the offers from automation and monitoring tool vendors in the AWS Partner Network, that makes it so attractive," said Srinivasan Subramanian, Chief Technologist at Accel Partners. "Amazon Web Services lets startups quickly learn what is available in the fast changing technology landscape and make informed choices without having to spend valuable time researching. This allows startups to focus attention on their business problems instead."

"Startups thrive and succeed by being able to experiment quickly at an affordable cost. AWS Activate brings the perfect platform to catalyze startups so that they can set up fast, try out, and keep iterating till they achieve success," said Sandipan Chatopadhaya, CTO of Just Dial.

"As a startup, we have to deal with uncertainties in every sphere. AWS Activate gives startups the space to experiment and refine product through AWS credits so that we can build scalable and reliable solutions through the AWS Support and training.  AWS Support goes a long way in advancing our chances of success," said Sajo Mathews, CTO of Red Brick Lane.

"The ability for startups to quickly build and scale is crucial to their success. With access to resources like AWS Activate, startups can swiftly and easily use AWS and focus on growing their businesses," said Mark Cranney, Partner, Andreessen Horowitz.

About Amazon Web Services

Launched in 2006, Amazon Web Services, Inc. began exposing key infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services -- now widely known as cloud computing. The ultimate benefit of cloud computing, and AWS, is the ability to leverage a new business model and turn capital infrastructure expenses into variable costs. Businesses no longer need to plan and procure servers and other IT resources weeks or months in advance. Using AWS, businesses can take advantage of Amazon's expertise and economies of scale to access resources when their business needs them, delivering results faster and at a lower cost. Today, Amazon Web Services provides a highly reliable, scalable, low-cost infrastructure platform in the cloud that powers hundreds of thousands of enterprise, government and startup customers businesses in 190 countries around the world. Amazon Web Services offers over 30 different services, including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). AWS services are available to customers from data center locations in the U.S., Brazil, Europe, Japan, Singapore and Australia.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music and Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics and Computers; Home and Garden; Toys, Kids and Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes and Jewelry; Health and Beauty; Sports and Outdoors; and Tools, Auto and Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle Paperwhite is the world's best-selling and most advanced e-reader. It features new display technology with higher contrast, the next generation built-in light, a faster processor, the latest touch technology, and exclusive new features designed from the ground up for readers. Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, features improved fonts and faster page turns. The new Kindle Fire HDX features a stunning exclusive 7" or 8.9" HDX display, a quad-core 2.2 GHz processor, 2x more memory, and 11 hours of battery life, as well as exclusive new features of Fire OS 3.0 including X-Ray for Music, Second Screen, Prime Instant Video downloads, and the revolutionary new Mayday button. The all-new Kindle Fire HD includes an HD display, high-performance processor and dual speakers at a breakthrough price.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, www.amazon.es, www.amazon.com.br, www.amazon.in, and www.amazon.com.mx. As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we", "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment and data center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings. 

Primary Media Contact: Regina Tan, [email protected], [email protected]