Tim O’Reilly is fond of saying that data is the new Intel inside, but I think S3 is much more deserving of that label.

Talking to a couple of startups and looking at my own side projects, I increasingly find attraction in Amazon’s service offerings, S3 and EC2.

Why would you trust a startup with infrastructure? Innovation, sure, but infrastructure and operations? For that you want a proven, stable, large company. You want Yahoo, Google, Amazon, Ebay, one of those folks. Amazon has the relative advantage that people are not overly spooked about its privacy policies, and its CEO has stated it’s committed to supporting this model.

Data is too important to trust to a startup. Amazon S3 gives it the seal of approval, the guarantee of availability and longevity. From where I stand, S3 is the new Intel Inside.