Amazon cloud service eases app development, automates business processes

Amazon’s newest offering, announced Wednesday, is designed to ease application development and automate business processes.

Amazon Web Services’ Simple Workflow Service (SWF) is a portal for developers to build and run cloud-based or on-premise business automation applications.

SWF could be used by businesses, for example, to smooth the flow of steps involved in an e-commerce transaction, such as charging a credit card, arranging for an item to be shipped, tracking the shipment, restocking inventory and so on, as Amazon describes in a blog post.

Check Point supports cloud security for Amazon Web Services

The service can also be used to run data analytics functions that have multiple steps, or could be used to automate the transferring of data to the cloud, Amazon said.
SWF is run through Amazon’s network and any programming language can be used.

The service is billed on a per-use basis, measured by the number of workflow executions developers run, and limited use of the product is free. Early adopters include RightScale, NASA and Sage Bionetworks.

Amazon is not the first company to offer business automation and application development services, but some reports have indicated that SWF is an effort by Amazon to expand from its IaaS products, to offering enterprise software services.

Network World staff writer Brandon Butler covers cloud computing and social media. He can be reached at [email protected] and found on Twitter at @BButlerNWW.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Featured Story

How the CTO can Maintain Cloud Momentum Across the Enterprise

Embracing cloud is easy for some individuals. But embedding widespread cloud adoption at the enterprise level is...

Related Tech News

Get ITBusiness Delivered

Our experienced team of journalists brings you engaging content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives delivered directly to your inbox.

Featured Tech Jobs