Some people like to assemble complex systems (houses, computers, or furniture) from parts. They relish the planning process, carefully researching each part and selecting those that give them the desired balance of power and flexibility. With planning out of the way, they enjoy the process of assembling the parts into a finished unit. Other people do not find this do-it-yourself (DIY) approach attractive or worthwhile, and are simply interested in getting to the results as quickly as possible without having to make too many decisions along the way.

Sound familiar?

I believe that this model applies to systems architecture and system building as well. Sometimes you want to take the time to hand-select individual AWS components (servers, storage, IP addresses, and so forth) and put them together on your own. At other times you simply need a system that is preconfigured and preassembled, and is ready to run your web applications with no system-building effort on your part.

In many cases, those seeking a preassembled system turned to a Virtual Private Server, or VPS. With a VPS, you are presented with a handful of options, each ready to run, and available to you for a predictable monthly fee.

While the VPS is a perfect getting-started vehicle, over time the environment can become constrained. At a certain point you may need to step outside the boundaries of the available plans as your needs grow, only to find that you have no options for incremental improvement, and are faced with the need to make a disruptive change. Or, you may find that your options for automated scaling or failover are limited, and that you need to set it all up yourself.

Introducing Amazon Lightsail
Today we are launching Amazon Lightsail. With a couple of clicks you can choose a configuration from a menu and launch a virtual machine preconfigured with SSD-based storage, DNS management, and a static IP address. You can launch your favorite operating system (Amazon Linux AMI or Ubuntu), developer stack (LAMP, LEMP, MEAN, or Node.js), or application (Drupal, Joomla, Redmine, GitLab, and many others), with flat-rate pricing plans that start at $5 per month including a generous allowance for data transfer.

You get the simplicity of a VPS, backed by the power, reliability, and security of AWS. As your needs grow, you will have the ability to smoothly step outside of the initial boundaries and connect to additional AWS database, messaging, and content distribution services.

All in all, Lightsail is the easiest way for you to get started on AWS and jumpstart your cloud projects, while giving you a smooth, clear path into the future.