In an announcement Tuesday, the Seattle-based company's Web Services division unveiled Amazon S3, which will sell excess storage capacity on Amazon's IT systems to outside developers for US$0.15 a gigabyte per month for storage, plus $0.20 per gigabyte for data transfer.

The new Web-based offering expands on Amazon's Web Services division, which was created in July 2002 to encourage software developers to create and offer custom applications to Amazon.com sellers. The sellers then pay to use the applications, including specialized inventory and tracking software, to customize their online stores in a bid to boost sales. Amazon Web Services now has more than 150,000 registered developers.

Adam Selipsky, vice president of product management and developer relations at Amazon Web Services, said the move will provide inexpensive, high-quality and secure storage to developers who need extra capacity for their work but don't want to spend money on expensive infrastructure. 'While there are probably a lot of companies that are satisfied with their own storage [systems], others will find this compelling to have this technology at low cost,' Selipsky said.

Secure S3 storage capacity is available to any developer, from college students to entrepreneurs to enterprise developers, with no start-up fees or monthly maintenance fees.

Dave Barth, product manager for Amazon S3, said that by offering excess capacity on its own networks, Amazon.com can make it easier for developers to create projects. 'It becomes a big distraction for a lot of companies' to build, expand and maintain their own storage systems, he said. 'A lot of companies are finding that handling it themselves isn't working.'