Amazon moves ahead with Virtual Private Cloud

Amazon has advanced its Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) service into the public beta phase.

The company said that the move will allow all users of its EC2 cloud computing platform to access the VPC components as a beta service, taking the product out of its exclusive closed testing phase.

Amazon noted that, while the service will be available to all users, customers will only incur charges after the service is activated.

The web giant unveiled the VPC system in August, allowing companies to access EC2 through a closed, encrypted connection.

Amazon said that the service is designed to act as a secure bridge for projects that use both EC2 and on-premise IT systems by moving the web services into a secured private network setting.

The company also unveiled a new pricing system for EC2 dubbed Spot Instances, under which customers can purchase access time by bidding on unused capacity at a certain date and time.

The price of EC2 instances varies depending on the amount of activity being performed by the system, and Spot Instances can allow customers to better dictate when they use the service and how much they pay.

"For customers with flexibility in when their applications can run, Spot Instances can significantly lower their Amazon EC2 costs," the company said.

"Additionally, Spot Instances can provide access to large amounts of additional capacity for applications with urgent needs."