OpenSim on Amazon EC2

VintFalken has noticed a pretty amuzing use of Amazon’s EC2 elastic cloud computing : the “Sim-OnDemand” application. Basically the idea is pretty simple, if you need to host an event with a lot of people in your sim then today you need to buy a couple of server at Linden Labs, and try to get no more then 100 avatars per server if you want to deliver a decent experience to your users.
The sim-OnDemand uses EC2 specificities to let you start the sim before the event, scale to allow virtually as many users as you want get in, stop it when the event is done and be billed only for that time!

Sim-OnDemand Personal Virtual World Server – is a ready to use packaging of OpenSim 3D virtual world server (opensource) software. Sim-OnDemand’s GUI based launcher employs a simple music-player metaphor: Play-Pause-Play. Thus with the launcher, you can simply click to activate(Play) or deactivate(Pause) or reactivate(resume play) your OpenSim (EC2)server.

Amazon Web Service’s Elastic Computing Cloud(EC2) infrastructure is leveraged by Sim-OnDemand to make the OpenSim operation resource abundant. Sim-OnDemand’s charging model is based on Amazon’s pay-as-per-usage utility pricing model.