Amazon: More Than Warehouse Staff Hired?
April 10, 2020
Google and Microsoft are taking away some of Amazon’s growing technological power. Jeff Bezos is not happy that, so AWS is hiring more people. What is the logic behind that? The Register explains why in the article, “AWS To Double Sales Droids As. Google, Microsoft’s Growing Clouds Threaten To Gobble Larger Slices of Bezos’ Pie.”
Due to the growing amount of sales Google and Microsoft are making in their cloud departments, AWS is hiring more sales people. AWS hopes that by increasing their sales staff they will make more sales and steal customers away from its rivals. These will not be regular sales people, though. AWS is hiring experts in security, AI, and data analytics. AWS will not reveal the size of its sales team or the exact number of people its hiring. Supposedly there are thousands on the team.
AWS currently dominants the cloud computing market at 32.3%. Microsoft has 16.9% and Google has 5.8% of the market. Will that growth last in 2020?
“But the Jeff-Bezos-run titan’s enormous growth has begun to slow recently as other providers catch up. Of the big four cloud providers, Google grew the most last year, swelling 87.8 per cent, Microsoft came in second, with 64 per cent growth. Alibaba was close behind with 63.8 per cent. But AWS’s growth, at 36 per cent, was half that of its nearest rival. AWS still posted the biggest revenue increase in absolute terms – with $9.2bn compared with Microsoft’s $7.1bn – but many saw the pair’s recent financial results as an early sign that rival services were beginning to catch up with Bezos’ behemoth.”
Google also plans to triple its size team, while Microsoft is trying to poach AWS’s cloud clients. So far Microsoft has been successful. The best example is that Microsoft won the Department of Defense’s $10 billion decade-long JEDI IT supply deal. AWS did not like that business decision, so AWS appealed and the courts will decide if the contract was fairly awarded.
The new hiring is the biggest business move from AWS in years. AWS wants to focus less on its basic services that assists organizations in developing products to actually building the finished product themselves and selling them. The battle is on for the cloud market, but it looks like thugs are going to go the Google way. Google controls most of western searches and AWS will control most cloud computing systems.
Whitney Grace, April 10, 2020
Google Stadia: Amazon Jungle Sounds Startling Googzilla Maybe?
April 9, 2020
I used to live in Campinas, Brazil. Not the jungle exactly, but in the 1950s there were some interesting critters roaming around. At night, if you were lucky, we could hear snuffing at door jams. Yep, big cats, and not the Instagram type either.
Amazon announced in the way of the Bezos bulldozer that it would be getting into the online game business. You can read about that move in “Amazon Pushes into Making Video Games, Not Just Streaming Their Play.”
That bulldozer gear shift may have frightened some Googlers. A lot. DarkCyber noted “Google Stadia Now Free to Anyone with a Gmail Address.” The write up stated:
Google’s video game streaming platform, Stadia, is now free to anyone with a Gmail address, the company announced on Wednesday. To sweeten the deal, Google is also giving new users two months of Stadia Pro — including access to nine games — for free. Existing Stadia Pro subscribers won’t be charged for the next two months of the service, Google said. Previously, access to Stadia required purchasing the $129 Google Stadia Premiere Edition, a bundle that includes a Chromecast Ultra, a wireless Stadia Controller, and three months of Stadia Pro, the service that offered free games and video streams up to 4K resolution and 60 frames per second with HDR lighting.
If free doesn’t work, what’s next? A Microsoft Bing play like paying people to use a Web search service which is not particularly robust. Perhaps Google will offer coupons or run discounts on weekends like Harbor Freight. Green Stamps were popular with my mother in the late 1940s. Maybe Google could try that as a way to generate some excitement?
How long will the Googlers working on games stick to the project? Google initiatives die when the wizards realize they might miss a bonus or be left out of a really hot project that will ignite their career.
Will online games become another Dodgeball? Wait, I hear the Bezos bulldozer. Even I am frightened of the sound of crushing hopes, dreams, and shopping options. Yikes. How fast can Googzilla run?
Stephen E Arnold, April 9, 2020
AWS Data Marketplace Trundles Along
April 6, 2020
Interesting story appeared in Channel Life. “AWS Marketplace & Data Exchange Open to A/NZ Channel Partners” reports that “global customers are able to purchase directly from A/NZ providers through the two AWS platforms.”
DarkCyber noted this statement in the write up:
“The development and adoption of Insurtech into insurance businesses places a greater focus on customer centricity, real time reporting and improved business efficiencies,” comments JAVLN chief executive officer Dale Smith. “Through AWS Marketplace and with the support of members of the AWS Partner Network, customers will now have access to JAVLN’s insurance software platform and services internationally.”
Data and services are available. “Data” is more interesting than services along in DarkCyber’s view.
Why will companies and Australian government agencies gravitate to AWS? Probably the same reason Middle Eastern countries are using the platform framework:
Farrago AI founder and CEO Asa Cox says AWS Marketplace is a key part of the company’s regional reach for predictive analytics and machine learning products. “The ease of purchase, integration, and consumption makes the AWS Marketplace a no-brainer for existing customers to find new value added products from the partner community.”
Interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, April 6, 2020
Amazon AWS Challenge to Microsoft JEDI Win Reported
March 27, 2020
If you follow the grudge match between Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, you may be interested in “AWS Charges Pentagon Wants to Give Microsoft a Do-Over on Contested JEDI Bid.” The article states:
In a court filing made public today, Amazon Web Services Inc. is charging that the Pentagon is unfairly favoring rival Microsoft Corp. as part of its reevaluation of the JEDI contract.
The today is March 24, 2020.
The article quotes the document as saying:
“Offerors would be able to change only the services they proposed for Price Scenario 6, and would not be allowed to adjust the unit prices and discounts for those services.
Discriminatory? Maybe.
The article also quotes the document as saying:
“DoD provides no meaningful commitment to evaluate the other serious errors identified by AWS’s protest,” the company wrote. “Even if taken at face value, DoD’s proposed corrective action fails to address in any meaningful way how it would resolve the technical issues AWS has raised, or which specific technical challenges it intends to address.”
Stay tuned.
Stephen E Arnold, March 26, 2020
Mr. Bezos, A 21st Century News Outfit Wants You to Do a Daily Briefing, Just Like a Government Leader
March 24, 2020
I read “It’s Time for a Regular Amazon Daily Coronavirus Briefing.” The title alone is remarkable for two reasons: [a] Amazon is a company talk outputs enormous amounts of information in its blogs, on its Web site, and in its public statements and [b] news organizations are supposed to go and find information, not demand that companies give daily briefings.
What the article demonstrates is that reporting is supposed to be like the second grade. Students show up. A teacher outputs. The student listens, practices, or whatever.
The subtitle to the write up (I am not sure what to call it) asserts:
The company’s distribution network is understandably struggling — and it’s time that Amazon started answering questions about it
It is good to know that a 21st century news outfit can take a parental approach: “Understandably struggling.” Yeah, news flash. Many companies are struggling because employees are falling ill and certain attendant disruptions are amplifying. But “understandably.”
The subtitle also demands, like an old fashioned grade school teacher; for example, “It’s time that Stevie Arnold stops daydreaming in class.” How did that work out? I still daydream, and I am not sure external inputs are going to change me. I had to inform one millennial via a LinkedIn message that I was not looking for a consultant to improve my marketing of my blog. I explained, “Not a chance, gentle millennial.”
What’s the write up “reporting”? Here’s an example:
The company has temporarily stopped taking orders for non-essential items that are shipped through its fulfillment service while it focuses on getting more important items to customers.
The company also suspended Prime Pantry, a service for getting rapid delivery of discounted grocery and household items, amid a surge in demand. And — at the request of local governments — it downgraded the quality of streaming on Prime Video in Europe in an effort to reduce the strain on the internet.
Yep, slower deliveries and downgraded video. News flash: There is a virus problem. That virus is disrupting many things. Next day delivery. Does it matter? Video quality. Why not read a book?
Here’s what the DarkCyber team has noticed about Amazon’s current situation:
- Amazon is undergoing forced change. Change is hard, and in the midst of change, there’s confusion and those on duty may find it difficult to do mission critical things at all.
- Daily briefings are what governments do. Where’s the daily briefing from the hospital supply company in Nashville? No one cares about a daily briefing even from giant companies. Daily briefings, in case the 21st century news outfits have not noticed, are theater.
- Amazon appears to have failed in three critical business functions: Securing its supply chains, maintaining existing services to customers who pay for these services, and managing employees in a way that keeps employees chipper.
My thoughts are:
- Find people who have first hand information about Amazon and talk to these people. This is research; it is difficult and time consuming. But the point is the news has to be found, not delivered like cookies and milk in grade school.
- Adopt an informed approach to assembling verifiable facts. Skip the woulda, shoulda, coulda approach to a write up. The fact is the write up itself reveals that some people are inconvenienced because Amazon cannot deliver something quickly. Wow. One has to exert effort and manage time without Amazon’s “mom” services.
- Provide useful information. That means answering questions like, “What can an Amazon customer do when an order does not arrive?”, “What are the options for obtaining video entertainment?”, “How does one apply for a job at Amazon?” Answers, not complaints, might be helpful, might they not?
Net net: Companies are not eager to be told what to do by people who know zero about a business at a point in time. It is time for “real news” professionals to do old fashioned research, analysis, and reporting in DarkCyber’s opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, March 24, 2020
NASA: Bad Math for Data Return
March 23, 2020
DarkCyber continues to monitor the Amazon Web Services drive train for the Bezos bulldozer. “NASA to Launch 247 Petabytes of Data into AWS – But Forgot about Eye-watering Cloudy Egress Costs before Lift-Off” reports that it is easy to get into the AWS orbit but the payload return may incur some interesting costs.
The Register article states:
“Specifically, the agency faces the possibility of substantial cost increases for data egress from the cloud,” the Inspector General’s Office wrote, explaining that today NASA doesn’t incur extra costs when users access data from its DAACs. “However, when end users download data from Earth data Cloud, the agency, not the user, will be charged every time data is egressed. “That means EDSIS wearing cloud egress costs. Ultimately, ESDIS will be responsible for both cloud costs, including egress charges, and the costs to operate the 12 DAACS.”
Simplifying: Easy in, expensive out.
The Register did some math, which apparently is unfamiliar to certain NASA professionals and consultants. The Register reports:
The Register used Amazon’s cloudy cost calculator to tot up the cost of storing 247PB in the cloud giant’s S3 service. The promised pay-as-you-go price for us on the street was a staggering $5,439,526.92 per month, not taking into account the free tier discount of 12 cents. The audit, meanwhile, suggests an increased cloud spend of around $30m a year by 2025, on top of NASA’s $65m-per-year deal with AWS. The existence of data egress costs are not obscure nor arcane knowledge. Which left The Register wondering how an agency capable of sending stuff into orbit or making marvelously long-lived Mars rovers could also make such a dumb mistake.
Net net: The Bezos bulldozer grinds forward with some clever cost wiring; that is, a 21st century variant of the IBM lock in strategy.
Stephen E Arnold, March 23, 2020
Open Source Weaponized: Can Amazon Dent the Future of Target and Walmart?
March 16, 2020
“Amazon Courts Walmart, Target to Join Cashierless Tech Group” is interesting but cut loose from the type of footnotes, named sources, and back up data some find helpful. Plus the WSJ states: “Retailers don’t yet plan to participate, but talks highlight Amazon’s ambition to have others adopt its technology.” If accurate, this is a page from the Amazon policeware / blockchain playbook. (For a free summary of DarkCyber’s Amazon policeware report, fill in the request form at this link.)
Retailers don’t yet plan to participate, but talks highlight Amazon’s ambition to have others adopt its technology
Amazon’s online bookstore bulldozer is revving through supply chain and demand mud. Despite the overheating of the big diesel engine, the S-Team is not resting on its laurels.
According to the Murdoch-inspired newspaper, “sources” have revealed “Amazon is making some of the software that underpins its Go stores available through an organization called Dent.” The idea seems to be that some of the technology would be open source.
DarkCyber finds the sourceless news interesting. Let’s assume that the write up is 100 percent accurate. Why give away a technology that could make Amazon’s AWS system some money? How open source is the Bezos bulldozer? What bits and pieces of digital connective tissue will be needed to make the open source technology work?
There are no answers to these questions. DarkCyber has formulated some other questions, and these also cannot be answered in a definitive way. Let’s look at these:
- Is Amazon use of open source a weaponization of the core ideas of open source software?
- How will the open source community respond to Amazon’s alleged embrace of open source?
- What type of pressure will Amazon’s open source play, if it indeed an accurate characterization of the WSJ sources’ factoids is accurate, put on its competitors?
- What does Amazon gain by making Target and Walmart look like outfits who don’t want to ride the Bezos bulldozer?
Net net: If the WSJ story is accurate, DarkCyber will have to reassess Amazon’s willingness to use certain types of digital data as a weapon. Like many weapons, caution is usually prudent. Mishandling can make downstream events in a chain quite interesting. Just Walk Out may garner a new connotation.
Stephen E Arnold, March 16, 2020
Amazon Versus Microsoft: A Jedi Fight Development
March 13, 2020
DarkCyber spotted this story on the BBC Web site: “Pentagon to Reconsider Jedi $10bn Cloud Contract.” Since we are in rural Kentucky, the intrepid team does not know if the information in the Beeb’s write up is accurate. The factoids are definitely interesting. The story asserts:
The US Department of Defense is to “reconsider” its decision to award a multi-billion dollar cloud contract to Microsoft over Amazon.
The story points out that Microsoft is confident that its Azure system will prevail. Amazon, on the other hand, is allegedly pleased.
What’s at stake?
- Money
- A hunting license for other government contracts
- Implicit endorsement of either AWS or Azure
- Happy resellers, integrators, and consultants
- Ego (maybe?)
When will JEDI be resolved? Possibly in the summer of 2020.
Stephen E Arnold, March 13, 2020
Google and Amazon: Two Dominant Dogs Snap and Snarl at One Another
March 13, 2020
DarkCyber read “How Google Kneecapped Amazon’s Smart TV Efforts.” The uptake on criminal lingo continues. For those not hip to the argot of some technology savvy professionals, the Urban Dictionary defines the concept this way:
The act of permanently destroying someone’s kneecaps. Often done with a firearm (as popularized in film and television), a baseball bat or lead pipe or other blunt instrument, or a power drill (often used in conjunction with a countersunk drill bit and popular with the IRA).
Yes, the elegance of business competition requires these metaphors it seems. DarkCyber thinks the article is “about” the collision of cleverness and rapaciousness. But enough of our philosophical wanderings. What did Google do to Amazon, assuming online services have joints which keep bone and joint doctors busy?
The write up states:
Any company that licenses Google’s Android TV operating system for some of its smart TVs or even uses Android as a mobile operating system has to agree to terms that prevent it from also building devices using forked versions of Android like Amazon’s Fire TV operating system, according to multiple sources. If a company were to break those terms, it could lose access to the Play Store and Google’s apps for all of its devices.
Ah, ha! The kneecapping is not physical; those making devices sign a contract.
Plus, there’s another Googley twist of the 6 mm drill bit, a metaphor for kneecapping explained above:
At the center of Google’s efforts to block Amazon’s smart TV ambitions is the Android Compatibility Commitment — a confidential set of policies formerly known as the Anti-Fragmentation Agreement — that manufacturers of Android devices have to agree to in order to get access to Google’s Play Store. Google has been developing Android as an open-source operating system, while at the same time keeping much tighter control of what device manufacturers can do if they want access to the Play Store as well as the company’s suite of apps. For Android TV, Google’s apps include a highly customized launcher, or home screen, optimized for big-screen environments, as well as a TV version of its Play Store. Google policies are meant to set a baseline for compatible Android devices and guarantee that apps developed for one Android device also work on another. The company also gives developers some latitude, allowing them to build their own versions of Android based on the operating system’s open source code, as long as they follow Google’s compatibility requirements.
Interesting.
How will the issue be resolved? Legal eagles will flap and squawk. Customers can vote with their purchases. But TVs cost very little because “advertising” and data are often useful sources of revenue. Regulators can regulate, just as they have since Google and Amazon discovered the benefits of their interesting business activities.
Regardless of the outcome between the assailant and the victim, the article reveals some of the more charming facets of two “must have” businesses. How can a person advance his or her understanding of the kneecapping allegation.
DarkCyber will run a Google query for business ethics and purchase a copy of Business Ethics: Best Practices for Designing and Managing Ethical Organizations from Amazon. You have to find your own way through the labyrinths of the underworld, you gangster, no mercy, no malice, as the pundit, scholar, entrepreneur, and media phenomenon Scott Gallaway has said.
Stephen E Arnold, March 12, 2020
Factoids about the Cloud Battles
March 10, 2020
DarkCyber noted “Stress Test the Cloud: Alibaba Cloud, AWS, Azure, GCP.” The write up presents “factoids” and observations based on these factoids in a helpful way. Here are the points which captured DarkCyber’s attention:
The cloud will be the way of the future in computing. The meltdown of Robinhood’s trading platform was pegged on stress. When a cloud system is stressed, it may and will fail.
Amazon Web Services
- “Amazon’s e-commerce business is the market leader in the U.S., Europe, and close to number 1 in India”
- “AWS is very much battle-tested and constantly “stressed out” by its parent company’s core e-commerce operation. It has moved all of its businesses onto AWS, and off of other systems like Oracle, after a multi-year effort.”
- Amazon’s businesses are generally not prone to unexpected spikes in traffic, which happens more to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Weibo.”
Amazon’s system may not be optimal for surprise spikes.
Alibaba Cloud
- “Alibaba’s core e-commerce business has many similarities to Amazon’s…”
- “This accomplishment is well-deserved; Alibaba has basically created and survived the mother of all stress tests.” The reference is to the large volume of sales on Singles Day.
- “Alibaba Cloud’s technical and operational expertise can certainly be applied in regions outside of China, but only until there’s customer demand and the data centers to serve it.”
Alibaba dumped American vendors as part of its journey.
Google Cloud
- “Google has arguably the only, truly global infrastructure, because its services and users are global.”
- “Google‘s services cannot anticipate traffic spikes, unlike a planned shopping holiday, and must be ready wherever, whenever it happens.”
- “Google’s products do not naturally lead to processing many complex transactions, like online shopping orders, offline delivery, or payments.”
Google can accommodate stress, but it’s not so good in Amazon-style transaction complexity.
Microsoft Azure
- “None of these [Microsoft] businesses have to be “always on”, in the same way that an e-commerce marketplace or a search engine needs to be on.”
- “Azure is still doing amazingly well from a revenue and market share standpoint. This success has more to do with Microsoft’s years of experience in selling products into large enterprises and aggressively moving users of its non-cloud license-based products onto the same products that are now on-cloud and subscription-based. Microsoft is very good at being “enterprise ready”, but not that good at being “Internet ready”.”
- “It [Microsoft] has by far the most number of Single-AZ Regions, which has led to outages and issues that could’ve been avoided with a multi-AZ design. Multi-AZ Region is the default in AWS, GCP, and most of Alibaba Cloud.”
Microsoft is good at sales, not so good at the cloud.
Net Net
Alibaba is darned good. At any time the company can push into other markets and create some pain for the American companies it seems.
Stephen E Arnold, March 10, 2020
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
