Amazon makes cloud play for Windows users

Amazon Web Services has expanded its free starter package for cloud services in a bid to entice Windows developers onto the service.

The public cloud compute operator said today that it had expanded its free usage tier to include EC2 instances running Windows Server 2008 R2.

The offer matched the technical specifications offered under Amazon's previous free tier offer of a Linux micro instance.

"Customers eligible for the AWS Free Usage tier can now use up to 750 hours per month of t1.micro instances running Microsoft Windows Server for free," AWS said.

"With this announcement, customers familiar with Windows Server can gain hands-on-experience with AWS at no-cost."

The move appeared to be aimed at winning over a set of customers who might otherwise have tested cloud systems on Microsoft's own Azure platform.