

AWS Marketplace - psychotik
https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/

======
chwahoo
This is close to what we'd want to replace the business model of a bunch of
sketchy startups.

Startups with nice "todo"/personal data apps, etc. (cases where it's silly for
the user to put their data in strangers' hands for no apparent reason) could
"sell" them to users. If the startup disapeared, the user could still pay for
web-app hosting.

The problem with using this particular AWS offering for that purpose is that
every app would cost you hourly to run and would vastly underuse the computing
resources that the user is paying for. It would be great if there were a
similar offering based on a programming model where many apps could be
provided by a single instance, or even perform on-demand provisioning.

I think this is the future! Somebody make it happen.

~~~
mckoss
pageforest.com? (my project). But ... no payments system built in. I found
that the JavaScript clientside-only programming model was hard to get
developers to adopt.

~~~
chwahoo
Looks promising, particularly for the Todo-list type webapps which I suspect
could be implemented to run entirely on the client. Are there any apps in
particular that you'd recommend I look at to see what your platform can do?

I think a full solution will allow people to implement server-side
functionality as well. Perhaps that's in your plans? Also, I think the ability
to sell access to apps would help attract developers to your platform.

------
alexchamberlain
That's cool. However, people must still understand the software they are
using. For instance, someone is selling Nginx 0.8. The latest version is
1.0.15.

~~~
sshconnection
Agreed. I saw "turnkey rails" in the sidebar and thought I'd take a look into
it. It's very unclear what versions of software are included. The last
changelog entry on 2011/12/06 says nothing about ruby or rails versions. The
last mention was 2011/01/27 claiming REE 1.8.7-2010.02_i386_ubuntu10.04.

To give a perspective on update frequency, according to the same page
(<http://www.turnkeylinux.org/updates/rails>), two updates before that was
Fri, 2009/10/23 - 16:35. This update claims to have ruby 4.1 installed. It
seems that their VM image also includes a time machine.

Not getting a huge feel of confidence from that being featured on their
landing page. An open market can be good, but when it comes to supplying an
image for my production env, that type of thing could leave me feeling a bit
uneasy.

~~~
alexchamberlain
It's a shame, because this is how we get massive security scares that affect
the whole industry. One person couldn't be bothered to upgrade Apache and the
whole industry is insecure.

------
defied
Too bad it's currently US only if you want to sell something :(

"AWS Marketplace currently only supports Sellers with a US Subsidiary that can
submit a W-9 tax form. "

~~~
tjic
> "AWS Marketplace currently only supports Sellers with a US Subsidiary that
> can submit a W-9 tax form. "

Sounds like you can blame the government here, not Amazon.

~~~
fierarul
How does Apple manage to pay iOS developers from all the rest of the
countries?

~~~
ceejayoz
Subsidiaries in those countries, most likely.

~~~
zerostar07
American companies can perfectly well pay foreigners, in which case the
foreign entity provides a W8BEN form.

------
nikcub
I wish Google had a better version for AppEngine. One click provisioning and
integration with Apps domains for authentication and user info with a SaaS
style payment processing built in.

~~~
patd
They have a Google Apps Marketplace:
<https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/>

~~~
nikcub
A bit different. What I would like to do is instead of provisioning users on
my own appengine instances, give them a button where they can sign in with
their own Google accounts and deploy the same code to their own instances,
where they can then take care of their own billing, integrate with their own
users, etc.

Add to that a way to customize the price so that in addition to the appengine
billing the developer gets an extra $x per month for app licensing

Edit: for those interested, there is more info in this Issue :
[http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=58...](http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=5821)

It has been acknowledged and given a priority of medium. Hopefully that Amazon
announcement will prompt something more out of them.

I requested this in the group last year:
[http://groups.google.com/group/google-
appengine/browse_threa...](http://groups.google.com/group/google-
appengine/browse_thread/thread/c0f71aaccebd9cf9)

if anybody else is interested in this please star the issue

------
floydprice
This is Huge! EC2 has made provisioning hardware and OS's stupid simple but
building a rock solid stack is still beyond most people.

Now you can use supported production stacks, for instance
[https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B0078VKDDI/ref=brs_res...](https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B0078VKDDI/ref=brs_res_product_title)
is a supported Rails production stack its secure and has an SLA... This is a
big deal.

~~~
alexchamberlain
As in my other comment, they are using an old version of Nginx.

~~~
floydprice
My point is more general than that specific stack, the concept of one click
deployment stacks which are built by Sys-Admins and have support is a big
deal.

~~~
alexchamberlain
As is mine. This is a great move by Amazon, but there is a huge security risk
if the community doesn't squeeze out bad practice.

------
aeden
I wonder if they will allow multiple apps sold from the marketplace to run on
the same instance? I haven't gone through the process yet of setting up an
instance via the marketplace, but I think that it's essential that I can a.)
install multiple copies of the same software on an instance and run them via
virtual hosting (for example running multiple Wordpress instances on a single
node and b.) allow different kinds of software to run on a single instance
(let's say an instance with a bug tracker and a log analysis tool, just as a
made-up example).

The other thing that I find interesting is that there doesn't seem to be an
API yet. I would love to be able to provision apps on nodes via an API to the
marketplace.

I'm definitely going to play around with it a bit and see what's possible
though.

~~~
ridruejo
You can do this with the Bitnami instances available in the marketplace. You
can launch one of the LAMP-based ones and then download modules from
bitnami.org and install them from the command line

------
chrisacky
The only thing that struck out at me as odd from this announcement was that it
wasn't phrased like: "Amazon is excited to announce!" (Most of you probably
know what I'm talking about)...

[http://blog.mailchimp.com/the-email-person-at-amazon-web-
ser...](http://blog.mailchimp.com/the-email-person-at-amazon-web-services-is-
really-really-excited/)

This is the _first_ _ever_ _ever_ product announcement that I've _ever_ seen
Amazon make where they weren't excited to announce.

> Amazon Web Services is pleased to announce AWS Marketplace, an online store
> where customers can find, buy, and quickly deploy software that runs on AWS.

~~~
reitzensteinm
Whoever writes the AWS announcement emails probably read that blog post, and
has sworn off the phrase for life.

------
gcao
It's good to see this coming. However I don't understand the price structure
some vendors are offering. Take Zend Server(below is the link) as an example,
why should they charge a lot more on high-memory/high-cpu instance? Is it
because the incurred traffic or usage is much higher? How does this compare to
setup your own server but buy server license from them.

[https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B0078UB5X6/ref=gtw_msl...](https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B0078UB5X6/ref=gtw_msl_title?ie=UTF8&pf_rd_r=1GWZN26BFTX1HZFPFDPP&pf_rd_m=A33KC2ESLMUT5Y&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=awsmp-
gateway-1&pf_rd_p=1356058402&pf_rd_s=center-2)

~~~
wpietri
The typical enterprise pricing approach is to try to price according to their
value, not to your costs. If you are willing to pay up for a bigger server,
you are probably getting more value, and therefore should pay more.

------
tybris
So suddenly you can have managers telling their sysadmins they've set up a new
SQL server? That's pretty big.

------
marcusEting
A lot of us get those emails from amazon.com, like the one this morning,
"Introducing AWS Marketplace -- Find and Buy Software that Runs on the AWS
Cloud". This is great, but I have a friend who likes reading about these but
doesn't want to launch servers. Is there some way people can subscribe to the
Amazon AWS mailing list without creating an AWS account?

~~~
tfishbein
Why not create an AWS account? It's free and you don't have to "launch
servers" or do anything else with it.

~~~
marcusEting
I guess RSS is the best option. Even if you don't have to launch servers I
still believe you need to confirm your phone number and some other things. I'm
just looking for a way to share news with friends without having to forward
the e-mails every time.

~~~
glanch
But.. but.. HN told me there's a war on RSS!

------
marathe
Quick write-up here: [http://webdev360.com/amazon-cements-cloud-dominance-
with-aws...](http://webdev360.com/amazon-cements-cloud-dominance-with-aws-
marketplace-42063.html) I like how this isn't competing directly with MS's
Azure Marketplace, which seems more focused on data, sector-specific SaaS,
etc.

~~~
vyrotek
I wondered about this. I've used Azure at multiple companies but ever really
looked into at their marketplace. I did find this though:
<https://datamarket.azure.com/browse/Applications>

------
brudgers
Amazon's scaling of the AppStore to business is brilliant. This will bring the
SaaS to small companies.

------
skid
Does anyone have a clue why Amazon never pays any attention to graphic design
if its pages/products?

~~~
redguava
It hasn't held them back. I wonder if it's a case of their services been so
unique, cheap, competitive, etc. or if we overrate design and it's not really
that important. I tend to think it's the former, but it's an interesting
example.

------
dkl
I'm confused. What's the difference, other than Amazon taking a 20% cut of my
sale price, between this and the already existing paid AMIs? Yeah, there's a
pretty website and all, but it doesn't seem like much value for 20%.

~~~
spullara
Marketing is worth a lot.

------
zerostar07
Anyone have any idea what is amazon's cut from sellers?

~~~
tybris
"80% of the funds collected are dispersed to the software vendor and AWS
Marketplace charges a service fee of 20%."

[https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/help/200904140/ref=help_l...](https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/help/200904140/ref=help_ln_sibling)

~~~
alexchamberlain
That's quite reasonable for Amazon!

------
sparknlaunch12
Pricing for selling/listing feels alright given the market place platform...

[https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/help/200904140/ref=help_l...](https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/help/200904140/ref=help_ln_sibling)

Free for open source and BYOL. 20% service fee for commercial.

------
alecco
The listing of Linux images including EC2 charges is scary. I hope this isn't
their long term plans. If so, we'll have to start coding our way out of their
vendor lock-in.

You're sending the wrong vibes, Amazon.

~~~
ridruejo
There are plenty of free images (you only get charged by the AWS resources
used, not the software itself)

------
vasco
The guy in the video said "software" at a rate of 10.3 per minute

------
swah
I wonder if you can make something of a failed startup here?

------
tlogan
Question: Are there any software which can to obfuscate / protect RubyOnRails,
Phyton, and PHP application code so it packaged and sold via AWS?

~~~
tlogan
Question: why is this downvoted?

~~~
MrAlexWeber
Irrelevant, and use Google, and why??? (rhetorical)

~~~
tlogan
Why it is irrelevant? I want to sell my application via AWS so users can
deploy my AWS image with my application by I want to protect my IP. How to do
it?

~~~
mixmastamyk
Perhaps you could disallow ssh login and only provide a web interface to
users.

------
sparknlaunch12
Wow, is there anything Amazon doesn't sell?

Really great platform. What's next?

~~~
spazmaster
Yeah, AWS Marketplace is great. But why does the design/ux have to be so
second rate? It could be so much better.

~~~
sparknlaunch12
Maybe it is deliberate?

There is some thinking that beautiful is not always more effective:

[http://sparknlaunch.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/keep-it-
simple-...](http://sparknlaunch.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/keep-it-simple-
stupid-kiss-ugly-websites-that-went-viral/)

Craigslist, POF .... Maybe Amazon know something we don't? Or they have too
much legacy code that they cannot change?

~~~
irahul
> Or they have too much legacy code that they cannot change?

Changing the css isn't some legacy code that can't be changed.

------
pknerd
The future is Marketplace

------
Raphael
Competition for Salesforce.

------
zackattack
Congrats bushi.do, sgrove and YC on the acquisition!

Kidding aside, this must feel like wonderful validation all around on the
market.

~~~
zackattack
i bet you anything cloud stocks rally today

~~~
zackattack
crm, amzn gonna rally

~~~
zackattack
why on earth was i downvoted? ??? are you guys NOT looking at the charts????
note that i made my call BEFORE the market opened ... and i was _right_

~~~
ceejayoz
AMZN is up about a percent, which is not at all unusual and can hardly be
attributed to them launching Marketplace. Hell, they were up that much
yesterday.

~~~
zackattack
new information always changes things.

~~~
ceejayoz
Some new information for you, then: AMZN is currently in negative territory
today.

~~~
zackattack
cool story bro

------
adityar
HN is not recognizing duplicate link submissions for the AWS market place...

[http://iterin.blogspot.in/2012/04/hacker-news-not-
recognizin...](http://iterin.blogspot.in/2012/04/hacker-news-not-recognizing-
duplicate.html)

