We have yet to get any VC money and are going to be depending on S3 + EC2 for our startup. Our biggest reason is because we are going to have extremely spiky traffic (it is a website centered on hurricanes and tropical cyclones), so it is very appealing to be able to call N-dozen EC2 instances into action when the need comes (which for us is predictable) rather than have to have our own setup year-round.
We have considered going with a grid system from a different provider, but given our satisfaction with S3 and the free travel between S3 and EC2 instances, we are going to try Amazon all the way through.
My partner got our first EC2 image up and running just a day or two ago, and it was without much trouble largely thanks to the documentation and ironing-out that has been done by those that have already blazed the trail.
We have considered going with a grid system from a different provider, but given our satisfaction with S3 and the free travel between S3 and EC2 instances, we are going to try Amazon all the way through.
My partner got our first EC2 image up and running just a day or two ago, and it was without much trouble largely thanks to the documentation and ironing-out that has been done by those that have already blazed the trail.