Amazonia for March 18, 2019
March 18, 2019
The Bezos bulldozer has run into some soil filled with largish granite boulders. Check out these developments.
Amazon and Elasticsearch
Elasticsearch, the open source search system, is a popular way for many companies to make content searchable. With add ons, one can perform many useful functions. Elastic, the company founded by Shay Banon, provides for fee services to the search and retrieval technology. The Elasticsearch open source community does open sourcey things.
Amazon is open sourcey, although with a twist. The firm wants to provide a ready-to-go version of Elasticsearch as a widget callable from the numerous AWS services. How does Amazon achieve that goal? One solution is to move farther away from the Elastic version of Elasticsearch. Early signs of this special approach have been document by Code 972. Datanami published an interesting view of the AWS Elasticsearch activity in “War Unfolding for Control of Elasticsearch.”
That write up states:
AWS is seizing upon Elastic’s actions in creating this three-tiered system – not to mention the merger of X-Pack into Elastic Stack proper with the version 6.3 release of the Elastic Stack last summer – in justifying the creation of Open Distro for Elasticsearch.
Amazon does not want to fork Elastic or Elasticsearch.
Datanami states:
Banon accused AWS copying code and co-opting the Elasticsearch product for its own use.
Will legal eagle fly? Will Elastic’s investors and customers complain? Will Amazon alter its course?
No answers at the moment.
DarkCyber hypothesizes that if Amazon comes calling, one should listen. If Amazon asks for something, one should find a way to cooperate. A failure to orbit Amazon can have consequences, fork or not. See the culture item below.
Amazon’s Culture
Amazon is, from DarkCyber’s point of view, a big, friendly Teddy bear of a company. Some insights into the culture of the company are revealed in “AWS CEO Andy Jassy Drills Down On Cloud Adoption And Amazon’s Culture.” Here are a couple of highlights:
- No PowerPoints allowed
- Move quickly (for example, pull out of New York, we assume)
- Speed build
- Employees build their destiny using AWS.
Sound exciting. You can apply at this link.
Virginia: Pushback and Maybe Incentive Pullback?
The Big Apple was sour. Now “Amazon’s second headquarters Faces New Blocks in Virginia Funding Vote.” Pity Crystal City stakeholders. Feel some remorse for the condo speculators. According to the real news outfit Reuters:
local [Virginia] officials vote on Saturday on a proposed financial package worth an estimated $51 million.
The JEDI deal seems to be stalled. Either the wheels of bureaucracy are in neutral, or the various legal challenges are fouling the smart automatic braking system for the billion dollar deal. The slower the processes move, the more time anti-Amazon forces have to refine their tactics.
Gogo to AWS
Gogo’s in flight service is now collaborating with Amazon. According to the ever reliable Verizon Oath Yahoo:
Gogo is set to shift its entire infrastructure to AWS is order to improvise cost structure and achieve better work efficiency by utilizing AWS storage, database, analytics and serverless services. Meanwhile, the company has already shifted its commercial and business aviation division.
Amazon landed these customers in the last year:
Amgen
Ellie Mae
Guardian Life Insurance
Korean Air
Mobileye
National Australia Bank
Pac-12
Santander’s Openbank
As one person told me, “Microsoft can sell better than Amazon.” Synergy Research Group figured out that Amazon had 34 percent of the cloud business.
Where did Amazon Yahoo Oath get this information? Zack’s.
Training Courses
Amazon offers more than 350 training courses for those interested in the Bezos bulldozer’s technology. You can find these at amzn.to/2Y3wX1V . IIT Kharagpur has added AWS courses to its curricula.
Connect with Startups
Amazon has had a mechanism for monitoring startups for years. Now anyone can tap into this flow of potential financial opportunities. “Amazon [is] testing a new program that connects outside investors with startups that use AWS.” The service is called Pro Rata.
The write up points out:
Amazon uses other programs such as the Alexa Fund and Amazon Catalyst to invest in startups.
New Partners/Providers
DarkCyber spotted these partners in the AWS news last week:
Duo World. Info here.
Manthan. Info here.
Symbee. Info here.
Wipro. Info here.
Amazon wants to provide more visibility to its partners and integrators. The company has launched AWS Digital CX Competency. (CX means customer experience.)
Volkswagen Fears Amazon?
Not sure if “fear” is the right word. But DarkCyber found this article suggestive: “In Picking Microsoft’s Cloud, Volkswagen Shows That Even Carmakers Have Some Fear of Amazon.” Could part of the reason stem from Amazon’s buying Mercedes’ vans?
Amazon Smart City Program
IBM does the Watson thing at MIT, but Amazon is putting is Smart City center at Arizona State University. You can get the details in “ASU, Amazon Web Services open Smart City Cloud Innovation Center.” What’s a “smart city”? Google’s angle is to get a piece of the tax money. What’s Amazon’s? The write up states:
…The new center is part of a long-term collaboration between ASU and AWS to improve digital experiences for smart-city designers, expand technology alternatives while minimizing costs, spur economic and workforce development and facilitate sharing public-sector solutions within the region.
Stephen E Arnold, March 18, 2019
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