diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e4a101aa37..7d77255ab5 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -14,3 +14,4 @@ venv/
 idea_town/frontend/static/
 idea_town/frontend/static-src/vendor/
 idea_town/frontend/static-src/styles/vendor/
+docker-compose-s3.yml
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 36d60b100a..e81343bd53 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -89,11 +89,20 @@ Idea Town is not intended to replace trains for most features, nor is it a test
   `docker exec -t -i ideatown_client_build_1 touch gulpfile.js`
 
 * Want to run Python linting and Django tests on file changes? Try this:
-  ```
+  ```bash
     sudo gem install kicker
-    kicker -c -e'docker exec -t -i ideatown_server_1 flake8 ./idea_town && \
-                 docker exec -t -i ideatown_server_1 ./manage.py test -v2' ./idea_town`
+    kicker -c -e'docker exec -t -i ideatown_server_1 flake8 ./idea_town && docker exec -t -i ideatown_server_1 ./manage.py test -v2' ./idea_town`
+  ```
+
+* You can customize settings for special development cases. For example, to
+  switch to using S3 for media uploads:
+  ```bash
+    cp docker-compose-s3.yml-dist docker-compose-s3.yml
+    # Edit docker-compose-s3.yml to include your AWS credentials
+    docker-compose -f docker-compose-s3.yml build
+    docker-compose -f docker-compose-s3.yml up
   ```
+ 
 
 Testing
 -------------
diff --git a/docker-compose-base.yml b/docker-compose-base.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..868eefa83d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose-base.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+client_build:
+  build: .
+  dockerfile: Dockerfile-client_build
+  ports:
+    - "9988:9988"
+  volumes:
+    - .:/app
+  environment:
+    - NODE_ENV=development
+  command:
+      ./bin/run-client-build.sh
+server:
+  build: .
+  dockerfile: Dockerfile-server
+  ports:
+    - "8000:8000"
+  volumes:
+    - .:/app
+  command:
+    ./bin/run-dev.sh
+  environment:
+    - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
+    - PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1
+    - DATABASE_URL=postgres://postgres@db/postgres
+    - DEBUG=True
+    - ALLOWED_HOSTS=localhost,127.0.0.1,
+    - SECRET_KEY=59114b6a-2858-4caf-8878-482a24ee9542
+    - FXA_ACCESS_TOKEN_URL=https://oauth-stable.dev.lcip.org/v1/token
+    - FXA_AUTHORIZE_URL=https://oauth-stable.dev.lcip.org/v1/authorization
+    - FXA_PROFILE_URL=https://stable.dev.lcip.org/profile/v1/profile
diff --git a/docker-compose-s3.yml-dist b/docker-compose-s3.yml-dist
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..df6cdb1584
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose-s3.yml-dist
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+db:
+  image: postgres:9.3
+client_build:
+  extends:
+    file: docker-compose-base.yml
+    service: client_build
+server:
+  extends:
+    file: docker-compose-base.yml
+    service: server
+  links:
+    - db
+  environment:
+    - DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE=storages.backends.s3boto.S3BotoStorage
+    - AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID={your access key id goes here}
+    - AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY={your secret access key goes here}
+    - AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME={your bucket name here}
+    - MEDIA_URL=http://{your bucket name here}.s3.amazonaws.com/
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 2227ce90e7..4f2a85994e 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1,36 +1,13 @@
 db:
   image: postgres:9.3
 client_build:
-  build: .
-  dockerfile: Dockerfile-client_build
-  ports:
-    - "9988:9988"
-  volumes:
-    - .:/app
-  environment:
-    - NODE_ENV=development
-  command:
-      ./bin/run-client-build.sh
+  extends:
+    file: docker-compose-base.yml
+    service: client_build
 server:
-  build: .
-  dockerfile: Dockerfile-server
-  ports:
-    - "8000:8000"
-  volumes:
-    - .:/app
+  extends:
+    file: docker-compose-base.yml
+    service: server
   links:
     - db
     - client_build
-  environment:
-    - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
-    - PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1
-    - DATABASE_URL=postgres://postgres@db/postgres
-    - DEBUG=True
-    - ALLOWED_HOSTS=localhost,127.0.0.1,
-    - SECRET_KEY=59114b6a-2858-4caf-8878-482a24ee9542
-    - ADDON_URL=https://github.com/mozilla/idea-town-addon/blob/master/dist/idea-town-addon-0.0.1.xpi?raw=true
-    - FXA_ACCESS_TOKEN_URL=https://oauth-stable.dev.lcip.org/v1/token
-    - FXA_AUTHORIZE_URL=https://oauth-stable.dev.lcip.org/v1/authorization
-    - FXA_PROFILE_URL=https://stable.dev.lcip.org/profile/v1/profile
-  command:
-    ./bin/run-dev.sh
diff --git a/idea_town/settings.py b/idea_town/settings.py
index d1177e2348..7c2a859513 100644
--- a/idea_town/settings.py
+++ b/idea_town/settings.py
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@
     'django_cleanup',
 
     'rest_framework',
+    'storages',
 
     # FxA auth handling
     'allauth',
@@ -159,6 +160,14 @@
 MEDIA_ROOT = config('MEDIA_ROOT', default=os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'media'))
 MEDIA_URL = config('MEDIA_URL', '/media/')
 
+DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE = config(
+    'DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE',
+    default='django.core.files.storage.FileSystemStorage')
+
+AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = config('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID', default=None)
+AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = config('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY', default=None)
+AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME = config('AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME', default=None)
+
 SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE = config('SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE', default=not DEBUG, cast=bool)
 
 FIVE_YEARS_IN_SECONDS = 60 * 60 * 24 * 365 * 5
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index d7e3687d58..4327aeb56c 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -149,3 +149,9 @@ datadog==0.9.0
 
 # sha256: IX5Hl9o6mkqfvmci4NuYBwuEQ6iCEtes29JBp2aBQdk
 simplejson==3.8.0
+
+# sha256: dYSYx38W4muLYa8m-NDbsRm3E_LY0WZoHsiSMR81IMQ
+boto==2.38.0
+
+# sha256: 3gT6WE26Z7tSel6olB0v9HEoXLD5d8hjRP8oJ8OZgeI
+django-storages-redux==1.3