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1 points by LabSlice ↗ HN
I've put together a new startup (http://LabSlice.com) that uses Amazon EC2 to enable Virtual Demos, Evaluations and Training environments. It's still early days, but I would love to get some feedback here.

The concept is to enable sharing of virtual machines with anyone --- you can just log in, click on a server to share and your customer will immediately receive an email with a link that launches a Unix or Windows box on a timed lease. Easy.

Vendor can use this technology to give out demos, evaluations and POCs to their customers. Trainers can use it to issue pre-built training servers to all students in their classroom. The biggest benefit is cost: Amazon EC2 machines can lease for as low as 2 cents/hr, which makes this concept of VM sharing very attractive, even for small businesses.

You'll need your EC2 accounts to register: http://LabSlice.com/Register. If you don't have EC2 then you can sign-up (Amazon's new deal actually gives Micro-sized machines for free for one year if you sign up this week!) and then come back to the website ;-). Or you could just go to the contact page, tell me you're from YC, and I will add you onto my test lab account.

Thanks in advance for feedback, Simon @ LabSlice.

2 comments

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pilom
couple questions: How does licensing work? Let's say I'm teaching a class on how to use dreamweaver. Obviously I'd like to simply launch 30 instances for 1 day and then give them to each of the students, but I don't think the license works that way.

Or, I give one to a customer to test drive my software. How do I know the customer wont just download the executable off the machine or something similar? I guess the answer is make sure anything I send out this way requires a complete installation not just an executable but there still isn't any security to keep it on the VM.

LabSlice
You raise good questions about usage costs... Right now charges are still being tweaked, but I would like to keep all scenarios to a max of $100/month. An upper tier plan would permit, at this stage, the launch of 1500 instances per month. That's 75 per business day, which would meet the scenario you mention above quite easily.

You're right about your second point. Customers can rip off whatever they want from the VM. But they can do this today. I've been selling a thick client solution for the last 7 years and change the registration code every couple of months. Within two days you'll find cracks for the latest release. It's the nature of the game.

I see the use of Virtual Demos more for the distribution of enterprise software, and less for ad-hoc demos by small businesses. I've worked in banks and found that 90% of vendors have powerpoint as their selling tool, but only 10% can actually give you a functional copy of their app to test. Enterprise software is bulky, complex to install and configure, and frequently has SW or HW requirements that are difficult to meet easily with resources at hand. With LabSlice Virtual Demos I want to enable a Sales Engineer to walk into a company, show off their powerpoint and then finish off by sending an email with a LabSlice link to a functional product demo/evaluation, launch as a VM through our environment.

Appreciate the feedback. Please let us know more of your thoughts...