A while back, I moved all of my websites over to Amazon Web Services (AWS). SO much faster and more responsive than my home web server. I’m glad I did it. However, I found through much trial and error that you absolutely must know what you are doing when creating a proper LAMP server. This is the third iteration of this web server on AWS and I think I finally got it right.
I would recommend AWS to anyone wishing to host in the “cloud”, but make sure you do your homework and try to stick with documentation published on the AWS website, not other sources unless absolutely needed. Also, take frequent snapshots of your volumes in between changes you make. You WILLÂ need them when you screw it up.
Perhaps one day, I will be proficient enough. I like it more and more each day. I wish I was able to spend more time in it so I could actually put it on my resume… likewise with Salesforce.com.