Amazon Winning in the Cloud
May 18, 2010
Amazon is an unusual company. I find its use of open source technology fascinating. At one time – and maybe still – the very core of Amazon ran on commercial products. “Amazon Stealing the Cloud” suggests that Amazon is moving in directions I have not fully appreciated. The write up presents some facts and assertions about Amazon’s presence in the cloud. The sources range from a survey of developers to the MBAs and their Excel spreadsheets at an investment bank. Since the excitement about certain financial activities, I have to be upfront and say, “I am not so sure about those bank estimates.” Your view of what’s in the burgoo may vary, and that’s healthy. You might have a pet azure chip consultant in your corner like a highly paid cut man at boxing match. As long as you pay, you get that effective medical care.
Among the points in the write up I noted were these:
- Recovery.gov runs on Amazon
- Amazon hosts 365,000 Web sites
- Amazon is in the commodity business.
Let’s assume these assertions are accurate. Amazon may be out Googling Google. Many of Amazon’s services have been referenced in Google’s technical papers or its frequently dismissed patent applications. What Amazon is able to do is execute. This says a lot about Amazon and perhaps even more about Google.
Stephen E Arnold, May 18, 2010
Freebie
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One Response to “Amazon Winning in the Cloud”
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“Amazon Branches Out with Publishing Arm” Wall Street Journal, dated May 19.
According to the article, Amazon mines “its data about customer preferences to satisfy market niches that traditional publishers haven’t filled.” Now there is a second initiative, AmazonCrossing, that “will acquire rights to books and hire writers to translate them into English before printing and selling them through Amazon’s retail website”. The first from May 2009, AmazonEncore, uses data from [the Amazon site] “about self-published authors to identify and print authors that haven’t been picked up by traditional publishers. It has published 19 books so far”. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703957904575252731076614288.html
Yep, would be interesting to see what Amazon could do with parts of Google. More interesting to see how they would define those parts first, in my opinion. The message to Google? Do not answer what is not asked?