Official Alfresco EC2 Image Receives Significant Updates

By Dee-Ann LeBlanc | Published Nov 2, 2009

Back in September, Alfresco (news, site) released an Amazon EC2 image for those wanting to use Alfresco Server in the cloud. This image has recently received some significant updates that might interest those who've been following recent developments with Alfresco products.

Image Basics

The ready-to-use public EC2 image offers the chance to try out the following in the cloud:

Alfresco Explorer and Alfresco Share
CMIS development and integration
Web script development
Alfresco Share Dashlet development

You can even customize Alfresco in the image and then make a new EC2 image based off of the official one. For those who are curious, here's a video demonstrating the install of the Amazon image:

Launching Alfresco AMI installation

New Features

In general, updates to the EC2 image have revolved around the operating system (Ubuntu Linux) and the addition of 64-bit images for both the U.S. and E.U. regions. The two biggest additions to the EC2 image include the Alfresco iPhone client and its U.S. Department of Defense-certified Records Management suite.

Given that a recent webinar on the Records Management module turned out to be the second-highest attendance they've ever had, Alfresco remains positive that demand is high for this feature. It alone may be worth a quick visit to the cloud.

More Coming?

In addition to the other announcements, Alfresco also hinted that they have a hosted trial coming soon. Apparently it should be available in a few weeks and "will be an easy way for people who want to try out Alfresco in the cloud to jump in and see what's up". Stay tuned for more information.