

Cloud based startup - LabSlice

I've put together a new startup (http://LabSlice.com) that uses Amazon EC2 to enable Virtual Demos, Evaluations and Training environments. It's still early days, but I would love to get some feedback here.<p>The concept is to enable sharing of virtual machines with anyone --- you can just log in, click on a server to share and your customer will immediately receive an email with a link that launches a Unix or Windows box on a timed lease. Easy.<p>Vendor can use this technology to give out demos, evaluations and POCs to their customers. Trainers can use it to issue pre-built training servers to all students in their classroom. The biggest benefit is cost: Amazon EC2 machines can lease for as low as 2 cents/hr, which makes this concept of VM sharing very attractive, even for small businesses.<p>You'll need your EC2 accounts to register: http://LabSlice.com/Register. If you don't have EC2 then you can sign-up (Amazon's new deal actually gives Micro-sized machines for free for one year if you sign up this week!) and then come back to the website ;-). Or you could just go to the contact page, tell me you're from YC, and I will add you onto my test lab account.<p>Thanks in advance for feedback,
Simon @ LabSlice.
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pilom
couple questions: How does licensing work? Let's say I'm teaching a class on
how to use dreamweaver. Obviously I'd like to simply launch 30 instances for 1
day and then give them to each of the students, but I don't think the license
works that way.

Or, I give one to a customer to test drive my software. How do I know the
customer wont just download the executable off the machine or something
similar? I guess the answer is make sure anything I send out this way requires
a complete installation not just an executable but there still isn't any
security to keep it on the VM.

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LabSlice
You raise good questions about usage costs... Right now charges are still
being tweaked, but I would like to keep all scenarios to a max of $100/month.
An upper tier plan would permit, at this stage, the launch of 1500 instances
per month. That's 75 per business day, which would meet the scenario you
mention above quite easily.

You're right about your second point. Customers can rip off whatever they want
from the VM. But they can do this today. I've been selling a thick client
solution for the last 7 years and change the registration code every couple of
months. Within two days you'll find cracks for the latest release. It's the
nature of the game.

I see the use of Virtual Demos more for the distribution of enterprise
software, and less for ad-hoc demos by small businesses. I've worked in banks
and found that 90% of vendors have powerpoint as their selling tool, but only
10% can actually give you a functional copy of their app to test. Enterprise
software is bulky, complex to install and configure, and frequently has SW or
HW requirements that are difficult to meet easily with resources at hand. With
LabSlice Virtual Demos I want to enable a Sales Engineer to walk into a
company, show off their powerpoint and then finish off by sending an email
with a LabSlice link to a functional product demo/evaluation, launch as a VM
through our environment.

Appreciate the feedback. Please let us know more of your thoughts...

