Amazon Web Services has started a public beta of online database service Amazon SimpleDB, and is offering customers a free tier of usage for at least the next six months.
Under the beta, Amazon SimpleDB users will receive 25 machine hours, 1GB of data transfer in and out, and 1GB of storage for free. The price of additional storage has been reduced to 25 cents per gigabyte per month.
Amazon SimpleDB provides the core database functions of indexing and querying. The service automatically indexes data, requires no schema and provides APIs for storage and access. The service, which had been in private beta testing for about a year, integrates with other AWS (Amazon Web Services) such as Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2 to provide the infrastructure for Web-scale applications.
“Traditional clustered relational databases often require a sizeable upfront investment and complex design,” said Matt Domo, general manager of Amazon SimpleDB, in a statement. “Our customers have asked us for a simple, scalable, reliable and low latency alternative. Amazon SimpleDB eliminates complexity so that developers and businesses can focus on optimizing applications and not administering their database. We’re pleased that we can now make the service available broadly and also pass along the cost savings we’ve achieved.”
Customers can also sign up for AWS Premium Support for Amazon SimpleDB. To get started using Amazon SimpleDB and other Amazon Web Services, go to http://aws.amazon.com.