Arumbus.. I've actually been playing around with AWS a bit the past couple days.  The results were dismal.  It's actually easier to connect to it using remote desktop and one of the windows2008 servers.  No screenies; but, on the free tier my network render was chugging along at 7k s/s while my home computer was pulling 17k/sec.  contributions per second and efficiency were identical.  Then I went up to the extra-large 90cent/hr server and that same render was going at 78k/sec.  Again kc/s and efficiency were identical.  I don't have the free cash available to try the 2.60/hr quad-gpu servers; but, will when student loans hit and I have a couple fee dollars.  That won't be til 10/5 tho.