Amazon Web Services now lets customers file support requests via an API, and has deepened the links between its performance-management software and the rest of its cloud.

The release of the AWS Support API for Business or Enterprise support customers on Thursday lets cloud punters open cases, check on their status, and resolve cases programmatically – no dashboard required. It also makes capacity management available via the API by integrating with AWS Trusted Advisor.

"The AWS Support API also gives you access to best practices recommendations generated by the AWS Trusted Advisor. You can get the list of checks, access the latest results, and re-run the checks to refresh the results," the company wrote in a blog post.

"This has been a much requested feature for customers who wish to integrate support case management into their in-house ticketing systems, and with the release of Support API’s we have delivered on this request."

The API lets punters file cases, add notes to the tickets, describe severity levels, and add Trusted Advisor resource checks, among other capabilities. A full list of both Trusted Advisor and Support API commands is available online (PDF).

The API currently supports English and Japanese, and outputs its results in a JSON format. It is available immediately to all Business and Enterprise support customers.

By adding support for Trusted Advisor within the AWS Support API, Amazon is weaving the resource management and performance system further into its software stack, which puts third-party AWS support companies such as Newvem at a mild disadvantage.

But the availability of the API means developers can now write scripts to take information from their own case tracking and management systems and pass it into AWS support requests. Theoretically, this should allow simple if/then scripts to file support cases if certain parameters are met, but AWS had not responded to our queries about this at the time of writing.

Cloud cost analysis and management service CloudVertical said it would be "integrating fully" with the AWS Support API and layer tools on top to generate the data.

Though the API gives preference to Trusted Advisor by default, is also demonstrates AWS's ongoing efforts to weave its ecosystem of partners closer and closer to its cloud. At the time of writing, neither Microsoft nor Google had similar API schemes in place, though both companies are broadening their support options to maintain parity with Amazon – if only Bezos & Co would have the decency to stand still... ®