I am very excited to announce AWS Activate, a program designed to provide startups with the resources they need to build applications on AWS.

Startups will forever be a very important customer segment of AWS. They were among our first customers and along the way some amazing businesses have been built by these startups, many of which running for 100% on AWS. Startups operate in a world of high uncertainty and limited capital, so an elastic and on-demand infrastructure at low and variable cost aligns very naturally with their needs. By reducing the cost of failure and democratizing access to infrastructure, the cloud has enabled more startups to build, experiment, and scale.

When we launched AWS the original mission was

To enable businesses and developers to use web services to build scalable sophisticated applications

We’re continually amazed at the incredible sophisticated applications that these startups have built on top of our foundational services. That includes the startups that have become household names – Instagram, Spotify, Pinterest, Dropbox, Etsy, AirBnB, Shazam – as well as incredibly successful companies that you might not yet have heard of, such as Twilio, Viki, Redbus, Floorplanner and Tellybug, and many more. We’re proud to have helped all startups achieve their goals.

As I’ve traveled this past year for AWS Summits I’ve met startups in countries all over the world building apps for every imaginable use case. What’s exciting to me is infrastructure is no longer a bottleneck to innovation. The democratization of infrastructure means that an internet startup in Bangalore or Sao Paulo or Manila has access to the same compute power as Amazon.com; the same durability as Dropbox; the same scalability as Airbnb; the same global footprint as Netflix. The result is we’re beginning to see more and more startups grow up in more places.

We’re excited to be a part of this global momentum in the startup ecosystem. The challenge now is to support and assist an increasing number of startups across the world.

To that end, today we’re pleased to announce AWS Activate, a new program for startups. AWS Activate is designed to provide startups with the resources they need to build applications on AWS. It includes access to web-based AWS Training courses, to help startups become familiar and proficient with AWS services; an AWS Support period, to provide expert guidance when a startup might need it; and in some cases AWS Promotional Credit. AWS Activate also allows startups to leverage the unique and robust ecosystem that has grown around AWS, both in terms of the developer community and third-party software vendors. The new Startup Forum will give startups a place to find and share tips and lessons learned – there are already posts from customers like Coursera as well as best practice guidance from AWS Solutions Architects. In addition, AWS Activate will include discounts on software that many startups find useful. Included already are exclusive offers from Opscode (for automation), AlertLogic (for security), and SOASTA (for testing).

The best part is – it’s free to join. You can learn more and sign up at AWS Activate.