You’re a start-up and you’re using Amazon Web Services? Here’s something that might be of interest to you!

Amazon has recently launched this year’s AWS Start-up Challenge. The 2011 competition expects participants from all around the word, granting a regional initial selection. Start-ups will be competing for a prize of $50k cash and $50k worth of AWS credits.

Amazon Web Services is a cloud computing platform that offers IT infrastructure services to businesses. AWS is a solution used worldwide by websites and client-based applications. All provided services are payed with a “pay for what you use” policy.

Applications and competition mechanism

Applications for the AWS Start-up Challenge 2011 are open from the 1st of August to the 2nd of October and are available for three major regions: America, Asia Pacific and EMEA. The competition is open for individuals and privately held businesses which have not generated more than $10m.

In the first round, five finalists from each region will be selected. Each of these will receive $2.500 in AWS credits. After the second round, six finalists will be selected, which will receive $10k in AWS credits and a trip to Palo Alto where they will attend the final judging.

For the final round, contestants will prepare a 30 minute presentation and a business plan proposal, which will be presented in front of an AWS Judges Panel. They will also give a ten minute pitch in front of a panel of venture capitalists, who will then make recommendations to the AWS Judges Panel.

Judging and awards

Projects will be judged by their implementation and integration of the Paid Services, originality and creativity, likelihood of long-term success and scalability and effectiveness in addressing a need in the marketplace.

The big winner will receive, besides the $50k in cash and in AWS credits, four one-hour mentoring sessions from an AWS Technical Expert and AWS Premium Support Gold for one year.

For applications and more info on AWS Start-up Challenge 2011, go to http://aws.amazon.com/startupchallenge.