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Netflix to give $100,000 in prizes to developers who best improve the cloud

Netflix to give $100,000 in prizes to developers who best improve the cloud

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Once again, the video-rental service is offering cash prizes for new ideas

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netflix ipad retina display 1200
netflix ipad retina display 1200

Netflix is handing out prizes again. The web's top video rental service will award a total of $100,000 in prize money to the developers who do the best job of improving cloud-computing features as part of a contest the company is calling the Netflix Cloud Prize, Netflix said today in a statement.

The company also said there will be ten categories that each offer $10,000 in prize money. Contestants will be judged on how they "improve the features, usability, quality, reliability and security of computing resources" as part of an internet cloud service. Netflix has tried tapping into the brain power of the masses before. In 2009, Netflix paid $1 million to BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos, the winners of the Netflix Prize. BellKor created an algorithm that proved to be better than Netflix's at guessing which movies users would enjoy.

Netflix said it embraced cloud computing very early and has placed big bets on the technology. The company said that every video watched by its 33 million members worldwide is delivered from the cloud. The Netflix Cloud Prize starts March 13, 2013 and ends September 15, 2013. The winners will be announced in October and prizes paid out in November at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Invent conference in November.