On Nov 4th I put in my $0.02 regarding Amazon Web Services (AWS). At the time I had not read Read/Write Web’s coverage on the subject. Alex Iskold, the Read/Write Web contributor that wrote this article on AWS, does a great job.

My favorite part of Alex’s post is the way he outlines AWS as a web-based operating system. The phrase “operating system” gets misappropriated a lot, but this is one of the best atypical uses of the word I have seen. AWS is certainly a webOS: it is the platform upon which web applications will rely. And like any good OS (think Linux), the individual components which comprise the OS will be modular and swappable (Think about all the different GUIs, terminals, and storage solutions that are available for the Linux kernel).

Perhaps Alex says it better as he describes the web as a platform:

Amazon’s Web Services stack is evidence of a new computing paradigm, where web services in aggregate give rise to a new web-based operating system. Like a classical operating system, this new one has the key ingredients - infinitely scalable storage, dynamic indexing service, adaptive grid, etc. These pieces, put together, provide a compelling new way to think about application development. Amazon is actively working to both define and implement the ingredients of this new Web Platform.