Amazon Web Services Starts Data Warehousing Program

Amazon Web Services, the cloud-based Internet unit of Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), the No. 1 online retail site, announced a major upgrade to offer data warehousing to enterprises.

Dubbed Amazon Redshirt, the Seattle-based company said initial users include Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), NASA and Flipboard, the social magazine.

The new service came in response to customer demand for data warehousing services that are cheaper than those provided by traditional network management companies, said Raju Galabani, VP of database services for Amazon Web Services.

“Amazon Redshirt not only significantly lowers the cost of a data warehouse, but it also makes it easy to analyze large amounts of data very quickly,” Galabani said.

The new service is available with two node types, one for accessing as many as two terabytes of data, the other for 16 terabytes. Then data requirements can be scaled higher, the company said.

In the third quarter, Amazon Web Services accounted for revenue of $648 million out of overall revenue of $13.8 billion, or 60 percent more than the year-earlier quarter.

Shares of Amazon rose $1.60 to $245 in Wednesday trading.