A diagram demonstrates how AWS Trust Advisor, a new feature of its gold and platinum support, works
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Cloud computing provider Amazon Web Services has added third-party support for operating systems running Amazon EC2, and some system software as well, according to a blog post on Monday. In addition to third-party support, customers will have access to the AWS Trusted Advisor that monitors AWS use and recommends configuration changes to save money, improve security and system performance.
According to the blog post, the features are available with the Gold and Platinum levels of AWS Premium Support and are currently in beta testing.
AWS says it is also enabling the use of desktop sharing software to give customers the option of sharing their desktop with a support engineer as needed.
This announcement comes a week after Amazon launched its AWS Storage Gateway service, a tool for connecting on-premise software appliances with its cloud storage services.
AWS has had a hard time competing with other big cloud service providers in terms of customer support, but it is clear that with these features it is looking to provide a more complete support experience more akin to web hosting providers.
AWS says customers with gold or platinum support can now ask questions related to several operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Ubuntu, Red Hat Linux, SuSE Linux, and the Amazon Linux AMI. Customers can also ask about system software including the Apache and IIS web servers, Sendmail, Postfix and FTP. AWS support engineers will help with setup, configuration, and troubleshooting of these infrastructure components.
Drawing on best practices from AWS aggregated operational history, AWS Trusted Advisor inspects AWS environments and makes recommendations where it sees opportunities.
According to the blog post, AWS Trusted Advisor includes eight separate checks, but more will be added throughout 2012. The checks are grouped into three categories: fault tolerance checks, security audits and cost optimizations.
The AWS Trusted Advisor does not have access to customers data and all of the checks are made using a “constrained subset of the existing set of documented AWS API calls.”
Customers will be notified of certain issues through support cases, and the AWS Support Engineers are available to review AWS Trusted Advisor recommendations any time a support call is placed.
In the future a regular scorecard report will be available to customers with an AWS Trusted Advisor Console with support for viewing, running, customizing, and opting out of certain checks.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson writes full-time for the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto, and has been writing for the WHIR since September 2010. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
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