>>Currently we house our stack (web servers (IIS), database servers (MS-SQL), application servers, load balancers, firewalls, etc) in a local colocation facility. We are considering moving everything to Amazon AWS. Just curious if anyone else has made this move and what your experiences have been.
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>>I dream of NOT owning a rack full of servers and equipment :)
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>I have considered some of that with Network Solutions. The cost of hosting equipment at a provider location is not given. However, such a move also costs a lot. You would end up with a totally different set of IPs, would have to probably move to virtual sharing servers, would have to choose between Microsoft or Unix OS so to put your things on that and would probably require a contingency plan during the move.
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>I have started to calculate that and there are way too many risks for that to do it. As they say, when it is running, don't touch it. :) But, on the other end, cost is an issue. At least, it is for me. Right now, we have the ability to maintain our own equipment as we wish, which is not something someone can longer benefit from when moving to such hosting.
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>But, I would be happy to hear about the costs they charge on their end. I am assuming they would probably be pretty close to what Network Solutions is charging.

Most cloud solutions don't offer dedicated hardware. You can use a VM which allows OS level configuration but, for most purposes even that may be overkill. MS, for instance, offers a 'Web Role' which, essentially, allows you to upload and run one or more web applications on IIS7.

If you have a MSDN subscription it includes a reasonable free monthly usage - certainly enough for testing purposes
If you don't have MSDN then there's also a 'free for a month' option.