but once you have the BAA , does Amazon force you to run the dedicated instance 24/7 ? I'm very confused , just running an app on a dedicated instance, does not make it HIPAA compliant since the app needs encryption in-transit and at-rest to be HIPAA compliant. You can achieve that on a regular instance ...
Hi, very curious here: where did you get this from : "In order to host a HIPAA-compliant application on Amazon, there is a $1,500/month per-zone fee. "........As far as I understand, HIPAA compliant means that data has to be encrypted in transit and at rest ......so, for example, running a SQL Database on an EC2 with SSL and an encrypted file system should do the job and that doesn't cost 1500 per month ??
A "developer job abroad" may be just as bad and soul crushing as the job you have now, even though it may pay more money; so be careful about that.
Quit the job, go travel around, stay in youth hostels, make friends etc. Find a country ( or even better, a city in your own country ) that you like. Have a good time. Most important is to make friends though.