TL;DR -- It is a big YES. Go go: http://aws.amazon.com/websites/
It's hard to get a review on AWS web hosting, since google is cluttered with everyone using all these search terms / keywords as ways to go "I have a great review" and then just advertising a "Top 10" list with affiliate commissions packed in, causing super bias.
What's worse is getting creative won't help -- the keyword market here is so saturated the only way to search it is forum searching.
However I did find something interesting: You can buy a website host through a company that uses Amazon cloud for 100% of their hosting.
So if a hosting company is using amazon to run everything as opposed to owning their own servers... I'm guessing that's the way to go:
https://hostedftp.com/
And it makes sense. Look at LEAF: Software verticals aren't buying servers any more -- they are simply moving to the cloud.
THE CLOUD = NEW TECH
The cloud means your speed isn't reliant on a server or even location -- it's reliant on virtual servers supported by an infastructure of servers.
New tech, other people relying on Amazon, whole companies making the switch, not to mention scalable costs, all lead me to one conclusion -- I must try and test Amazon. The answer has been obvious the whole time... tonight's work has just helped me realize I'm probably not making a mistake speed wise (although price wise? Still uncertain. But given the costs I've paid for their service already, I'm not too worried.)
What WILL Slow it down and How to Test:
The following is from: http://www.copyblogger.com/website-speed-matters/
"What slows down site speed?
The first place to look is your host.
Your speed problem may be from the uneven quality of service that comes with sharing a server. Some days are good. Some days are bad.
It could also come from choosing a generic hosting provider as opposed to one whose stack is finely tuned for your CMS. For example, WordPress users will see significant performance improvements by going with a premium managed WordPress host.
A good managed host should also be able to help you solve the litany of additional factors that could be slowing down your site. I’ll list a few here and then jump into what you need to do to test for these issues.
- Widget or plugin overload: In this category you’ll find common household names like a comment plugin or Hello Bar — notorious for killing page speed. In fact, Matthew Ogborne discovered that his Facebook Like button was downloading 83 Kb of data at 1.34 seconds of load time. He yanked it. Joshua Bixby had the same reaction when he discovered that it took 2 seconds to download the original Google+ button. Google has since fixed the problem, but the lesson is clear: know what kind of burden a widget or plugin will put on a site.
- Too Many Ads: Of course there is a temptation to display ads once you’ve got high levels of traffic. However, one of the major causes of high-bounce rates are slow-loading ads. Weigh the cost of each additional ad.
- Bloated images: Giant graphics can grab attention and pull readers in. But large images can also make downloading the page a burden.
- Incompatible Browsers and Apps: Chrome and Shockwave Flash are a great example. They don’t play nice. Who to blame? Google, of course, but it’s your responsibility to test your site (and all the pretty trinkets hanging from it) across browsers.
- Design Theme: A theme is your blog’s paint job. It’s what makes heads turn. It’s what makes people bristle with envy. And in some cases, it’s what makes your site painfully slow. Use a framework that works.
- Analytics Code: That snippet of code you dropped across your site to measure performance might add a hair’s breadth of drag to your site speed. Maybe 100 milliseconds here. 100 milliseconds there. But it all adds up.
- Sign Up Forms: The back end code of a sub form (like Aweber or Google Feedburner) can make additional calls to your SQL server that trip up your speed.
- Affiliate Code: Another line of code … another call to the server … keeps your site crawling.
The issues above … bandwidth thieves. All of them. Here’s how to round ‘em up.
6 tools to test your site’s speed
Fortunately there are plenty of free tools out there to test how fast your site is. And except for the Plugin Performance Profiler, there is a lot of overlap between the tools.
Since these tools are fast and free, it’s worth testing your site on all of them to see if there are problems another tool might miss.
Drop your URL into the text box of this dandy little tool, click “Submit,” and you’ll get an instant report of your site’s performance. You’ll see a list of recommendations that are broken down into high-, medium- or low-priority. If you are the curious sort, you can even explore the experimental recommendations (but not until after you knock out the others). A must use.
Joost de Valk of Yoast.com created a sweet Google Analytics plugin that includes a Site Speed feature, too. Performance reports will show you how quickly or slowly your page loads across different browsers and around the world.
If you want to test individual pages, Pingdom can deliver some robust reports. The nice thing about Pingdom is that your results will reflect real-world conditions, because the tests are performed on real browsers like Chrome.
4. YSlow
Yahoo! designed this tool based on their rules for high performance pages. Run a test and you’ll get a summary report that includes recommendations for site performance. What makes this tool unique is the performance analysis tools they offer, like Smush.it and JSLint.
Anyone who uses WordPress knows that plugins are a beautiful thing. These applications can help you do just about anything you want. Theme-Check tests your theme to make sure it meets WP standards. TweetMeme adds a button that lets visitors share your content on Twitter. PopUp Domination may help you capture leads.
There are more than 21,000 plugins to choose from. But each one adds a cost. Each one can steal bandwidth and make your site crawl. So you have to make hard decisions about which plugins are worth the extra load to your site. The Plugin Performance Profiler will audit your plugins and identify which ones are hogging bandwidth. Root out the culprits — and then disable it when you are done.
6. Load Impact
This test simulates thousands of users hitting your site at the same time — which might happen if you get a tweet from Lady Gaga or a link on the front page of Reddit. You’ll be able to see where your site breaks, spot your bottlenecks, and fix problems before real users land on your site.
In conclusion …
Building and maintaining a fast website comes down to these general principles: eliminate what you don’t need. Run new features you want to add through a cost/benefit analysis. Keep whatever you truly need. Ditch whatever you don’t.
The most efficient way to get this process started? Make sure the right hosting company is running your site with the right software."
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