Amazon Web Services has been a game changer in the hosting industry. Other web host providers are still playing catch up. Probably the most important feature to us at ADHD Media is that we can create & tune our own server images. Amazon Web Services helped solve some the problems involved with server software and website software incompatibilities.The latest and greatest server software isn't so great if it won't run your current website. The ability to spin up new servers with custom images has allowed us to let our clients get more life out of their websites before being forced to upgrade (which can mean unanticipated and expensive website modifications). We can break customers off who need to keep older server software for compatibility reasons. We prefer a more balanced approach to updating software that goes against the industry's current mantra of almost daily updates. We have seen more time spent updating the software (and fixing the resulting problems) than actually using it and that doesn't make sense. AWS has allowed us to stem that to a more reasonable balance of real need to upgrade (a security threat that is relavant to your site) versus being forced to upgrade because your web host provider did a server upgrade that breaks your current website. If you've ever upgraded Windows only to find a few crucial pieces of software were broken by the upgrade you can understand the issue we're talking about here. Upgrading should be done when it makes sense as opposed to shotgun approach that leaves unanticipated casualties.
