AWS launches Amazon Lightsail, a DigitalOcean killer offering $5 virtual private servers

At its annual re:Invent user conference in Las Vegas today, public cloud market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced Amazon Lightsail, a new way for developers to quickly and easily get access to low-cost virtual private servers (VPS).

They don’t need to worry about provisioning storage, security groups, or identity and access management (IAM) when they want to just get a box to run a simple application. They can just use Amazon Lightsail now.

The thing is, for years companies like Linode and BlueHost have offered cheap VPS options. The startup DigitalOcean has risen to popularity because it made the VPS hip and a simpler alternative to AWS. Now AWS is directly going after the DigitalOcean style of cloud infrastructure — starting at $5, the Lightsail VPS prices are certainly competitive.

VPS isn’t something that the other major cloud infrastructure providers like Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure offer. But it’s only a matter of time before that changes.

The service is currently available only through AWS’ US East (Northern Virginia) data center region, AWS cheif evangelist Jeff Barr wrote in a blog post.

Details on the service are here.