Amazonia for February 4, 2019
February 4, 2019
The Bezos retail bulldozer could be slowing. Nevertheless, the AWS jungle continues to flourish with hefty growth. Eweek remains a cheerlead stating confidently that “Amazon’s AWS cloud business will continue to grow.” Other jungle news includes:
Yahoo Reports about Amazon Disappointing Outlook
Yahoo. I thought that was Oath. The purple financial service reported that Amazon’s outlook [is] disappointing. The story asserted:
AWS’s revenue continued to grow at a breakneck pace. Its revenue growth isn’t accelerating anymore, as it was for several quarters through to Q2 2018, but it’s also not decelerating, as it did last quarter. In constant currency, the cloud computing service’s revenue has increased year over year as follows: 46% in Q4 2018, 46% in Q3 2018, 49% in Q2 2018, 48% in Q1 2018, 44% in Q4 2017, and 42% in Q3 2017.
Rekognition Denied Respekt
Gizmodo reports that it knows of only one law enforcement client for Amazon’s Rekognition facial recognition policeware. The issue is the accuracy of FAR as these systems have been described by some observers. According to “Defense of Amazon’s Face Recognition Tool Undermined by Its Only Known Police Client”:
the only law enforcement agency Amazon has acknowledged as a client says it also does not use Rekognition in the way Amazon claims it recommends, Gizmodo has learned. In doing so, the law enforcement agency undermines the very argument Amazon uses to discredit critical research about Rekognition.
How accurate are FAR systems? The Gizmodo article reports:
…researchers from the MIT Media Lab published a study indicating that Rekognition’s facial analysis function showed it struggled to correctly identify women of color. Once again, Amazon suggested the results stemmed not from bias in the software itself, but from incorrect threshold settings….
Amazon is likely to face more scrutiny for its FAR than other, lower profile firms. This is likely to be a contentious issue for Amazon as it ramps up its sales efforts to the LE and intel community. Competitors may find it an attractive issue to discuss in their sales presentations.
Amazon and Banking
Bank Innovation reports that Amazon may move Alexa into voice and cloud based banking. You can read the analysis at this link. The story points out that
E-commerce giant Amazon mentioned its cloud computing platform Amazon Web Services, or AWS, 58 times, its virtual assistant Alexa 25 times, and retail just once in its earnings release for the fourth quarter of 2018.
Is there a connection among Amazon’s law enforcement services and the financial sector? The write up does not explore that angle.
MongoDB: An Analyst’s View
“Amazon’s Move Against MongoDB Does Not Worry Me” explains:
Amazon is effectively pitching customers on using AWS to get the best of MongoDB when there’s already a more functional version of the database available on not only AWS but also on Google Cloud and Microsoft‘s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Azure. It’s called Atlas, and last quarter this cloud version of MongoDB accounted for 22% of MongoDB’s revenue. Total cloud revenue from Atlas soared 300% year over year in the third quarter. The following chart shows what Amazon is after with DocumentDB — replacing or enhancing the majority of Mongo deployments hosted on-site or co-located in a data center.
No problem. Amazon is using an older version of MongoDB. No worries, says the expert.
Amazon and Facebook
First, Apple showed Facebook that it is not able to control its destiny. Killing the Facebook calendar and other in house functions was a bit of a wake up call for the move fast, break things outfit.
Now Facebook perceives Amazon as a threat as well. According to “Facebook Thinks Amazon’s Ad Business Has Officially Become a Threat,” Facebook is nervous. Facebook mentions Amazon in its annual report.
One interesting Amazon data point, if it is accurate, is:
Amazon’s share of the online digital ad market is expected to grow to 2.8% in 2019, up from 2.1% last year, according to eMarketer.
There may be some headroom for Amazon to expand.
Amazon Plays Rugby AI
Who knew Amazon was athletically able to imitate IBM’s marketing of AI in sports?
According to Investor Ideas, Amazon Web services has been chosen for the Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship. If you are into the use of smart software and brutal sports, you can find more information at this link.
Stephen E Arnold, January 4, 2019
Amazonia for January 28, 2019
January 28, 2019
Amazon and Open Source
We learned from GeekWire that Amazon Web Services continues open-source push with code behind SageMaker Neo. The write up told us:
Amazon Web Services has decided to release the code behind one of its key machine-learning services as an open-source project, as it continues to push back against critics who find its relationship with open-source software out of balance.
Amazon wants to make friends with the open source world.
The write up pointed out:
The release is also another sign that AWS increasing involvement with the open-source community, after years of criticism over its tendency to use open-source projects as the foundation for revenue-generating services without contributing much back to the community. Neo-AI joins Firecracker, which was also unveiled at re:Invent 2018, as another fundamental technology advance that the cloud leader has decided to release as an open-source project.
Amazon has some interesting use cases for open source. Some of these reminded DarkCyber Annex of Microsoft’s efforts years ago but blended with a little of the IBM lock in methodology.
Amazon Backup: Good Bye Cohesity and Veeam?
Amazon has rolled out its official back up service. “AWS Backup, a fully-managed, centralized backup service that makes it faster and simpler for customers to back up their data across AWS services and on-premises, helping customers more easily meet their business and regulatory backup compliance requirements.” Source: About Amazon
Amazon Helps Lots of Small Businesses. Yep, Lots.
According to Neowin, Amazon has helped 50,000 small businesses. The dollar volume of the help was pegged at $500,000. Plus, an additional “200,000 SMBs managed to generate $100,000” in revenue.
Alexa Team Number 10,0000
What are 10,000 people doing with Alexa. We assume that the Alexa in the auto device is high on the list. Business Insider listed some other important projects in the Bezos jungle:
- Machine learning
- Making Alexa “more knowledgeable”
- Giving Alexa a personality.
Another area of activity is improving the question and answer capability of Alexa.
Amazon Facial Recognition Performance
The New York Times revealed that Amazon’s facial recognition may have some accuracy challenges. For example, Amazon’s Rekognition mistakes women as men 19% of the time, and darker-skinned women as men 31% of the time, more than similar services from IBM and Microsoft.
Amazon and Zigbee. Zigbee?
Amazon is ubiquitous. At least that is what Quartz has concluded. Good catch. Zigbee, which does not occupy too much of my time, is now joined the Board of Directors of the Zigbee Alliance, reports The Verge. The write up states:
Amazon now has a say in the development of a commonly used smart home standard, giving the company more power as it continues to push smart speakers, cameras, doorbells, and all other kinds of gadgets into its customers’ homes.
Another path cut through the jungle by the Bezos bulldozer is being blazed.
Amazon Drivers Unhappy?
We spotted a news item from the CBS affiliate in Dallas, Texas. The write up states:
More than a dozen of Amazon packages were found on the side of the road in Arlington Sunday, addressed to homes not far from where they were left.
A single unhappy driver, perhaps. A signal that pesky humans can foil the well oiled Amazon machine? Amazon delivery robots may be the answer. But humans are still needed for Amazon’s house cleaning service which is becoming more widely available in the US. Humans are still required for this, however.
Stephen E Arnold, January 28, 2019
Amazonia for January 21, 2019
January 21, 2019
The online bookstore has been busy. Developments we noted at DarkCyber included:
Amazon Wants to Make Coding Easier
GeekWire reported that Amazon has a secret “low code / no code project. The idea is “anyone to create business applications around their custom needs.” Disintermediation may be one consequence if this initiative takes root and bears fruit. The catchphrase for the project may be “AWS for everyone.” Source: GeekWire
Build AWS Using AWS
With Amazon becoming a development platform, one can use the Amazon command line environment. A user can also use Microsoft Visual Studio. You may need the AWS command line interface and Python. What are the implications for developers? Amazon is in your future. Source: Virtualization Review
How to Build a Serverless Solution
A how to which makes what might be a complex process less complicated. The article includes nods to developers who use Microsoft tools. There are code snippets too. The Amazon system screenshots are legible and labeled. The message is, “Use Amazon.” Source: Medium
Rackspace Embraces AWS
Rackspace, a vendor of cloud services, rolled out a suite of Amazon friendly services. The company suggested its services is designed to help companies leverage adoption of Amazon Aurora, Amazon Redshift, AWS Glue and Amazon Athena. Why embrace a competitor. The company’s rationale is “the database service gives customers the ability to prep, load and query data sets while reducing operational costs and time to market.” Source: ZDNet
Amazon Is Your Backup
The company rolled out a centralized backup service. The idea is that if you deal direct with Amazon, backups can be automated. The services meshes nicely with some other Amazon services. Our source said: [The new services helps] “customers more easily meet their business and regulatory backup compliance requirements. AWS Backup makes protecting storage volumes, databases, and file systems easier by giving customers a single service to configure and audit the AWS resources they backup, automate backup scheduling, set retention policies, and monitor recent backups and restores in one place.” Cloud and on premises data can be handled with the backup service. Source: AsianAge
Where Does One Run and AWS Workload?
Amazon now has an answer. The online bookstore purchase TSO Logic. The company’s software was developed to “find the optimized spot to place each and every workload.” No more trial and error for AWS developers. Amazon also purchased CloudEndure, a firm with disaster recovery tools. The deals suggest that Amazon wants to accelerate rounding out its offerings to developers. Source: SDX Central
Trade Publication Identifies MongoDB As a Target
Amazon’s document oriented database is an example of Amazon’s Bezos biceps flexing. According to CRN:
Amazon is simply trying to offer a more feature-rich document database.
The write up pointed out:
The MongoDB stock plunge after publication of an AWS blog revealing the new service… illustrates the tremendous muscle AWS has in the market and impact development of its services can have on independent software vendors.
TechCrunch describes the new database service and its license in a less decorous way. The phrase “middle finger” suggests the nature of the Amazon tactic.
Sources: Computer Reseller News and Techcrunch
Amazon’s Government Push Gains Momentum
DCD reported that “AWS will host the UK government’s Crown Marketplace.” Will the GSAAdvantage service be a target for Amazon’s sales team. The write up points out that when entities embrace large providers:
This approach has cost some small companies dearly. In 2017, Salford-based cloud provider DataCentred shut down after its largest customer, the tax collection agency Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, moved to AWS.
Source: Data Center Dynamics
Amazon Opens Its AI Conference to a Wider Audience
For conference organizers who dismissed Amazon as a worthy subject, a wake up call has been sounded. CNBC reported that “Amazon is launching a public version of its invite-only robotics and AI conference.” DarkCyber assumes that the conference will address Amazon’s policeware initiative. What’s Amazon’s policeware? Source: CNBC
Stephen E Arnold, January 21, 2018
Amazonia for January 14, 2018
January 14, 2019
Tired of buying stuff on Here’s some Amazonia to start your week off the Amazon way.
Management Romance?
“Did the ‘National Enquirer’ Finally Get One Right with Its Sensational Exposé of Bezos’s Affair?” reveals some interesting information. DarkCyber has no comment.
Buying Technology
Amazon purchased the Israel based CloudEndure. I did not know that clouds could “endure”. I get the idea though. With this technology, Amazon is able to deliver better disaster recovery. Is the technology better than that from every other cloud outfit? It may be because most cloud disaster recovery systems are not exactly the same as opening the refrigerator door. Additional details are available from GeekWire; for example, the estimated purchase price of a tiny fraction of the Bezos divorce settlement.
Yes, One Million
According to the Verge, more than one million people have preordered the Echo Auto device. It is less expensive than purchasing a Tesla. Since an errant 90 year old smashed my beloved Kia in a parking lot, I don’t think much about automobiles. But obviously a million people do and trust Amazon to deliver a better auto experience.
Amazon Partner Marketing
Becoming an Amazon partner may be a step some outfits may want to consider. Coupa, a financial outfit, is ramping up its Amazon love. According to Pymnts:
Coupa users can link their accounts to Amazon Web Services to automatically have AWS invoices sent to the Coupa platform. The integration means companies using both Coupa and AWS can more quickly process those invoices, while gaining enhanced visibility into their spend with AWS services. The integration deploys Coupa’s InvoiceSmash solution, which accelerates invoice processing and payments for users, aimed at enabling companies to capture early payment discounts from their suppliers.
Many of Amazon’s partners are companies which have for many observers a low profile. DarkCyber Annex believes that if Amazon gains traction in the business sector, getting into the Amazon partner arena may be a wise move.
Amazon and Its Satellite Play
Why is Amazon embracing satellites? One answer may be is that cloud computing can reach into the great beyond. According to Formtek:
Amazon AWS brings new meaning to SaaS. It’s Satellite as a Service, actually named AWS Ground Service. Ground Station attempts to make the world of satellite data capture and processing into a utility service, something that can be easily turned on and off without up-front capital expenditures. Their target audience are businesses, researchers, governments and space agencies. The goal is to make the upload and download of data from satellites simpler and cost effective.
DarkCyber Annex knows that Google loves those balloons. Facebook once had solar powered gizmos. Microsoft has ground based Azure. Amazon appears to have some folks who wants to do the final frontier thing whether these is a demand or note.
The Future of Software Innovation
DarkCyber Annex believes that the future of software innovation is to use AWS. An interesting example is documented in Diginomica. The news service reports:
The way that Zendesk has built its new Sunshine platform on AWS is a groundbreaking new take on enterprise SaaS that looks to the future of CRM.
Amazon’s infrastructure will enable more than CRM.
Amazon’s Content Management Play
Amazon could print ebooks. But the company did not have a robust, ready-to-use document management system. OpenText and its like were happy with this state of affairs. Unfortunately, both open source centric and proprietary document management outfits may face a new reality. Their world has changed. ZDNet ran a story with the title “Watch Out MongoDB.AWS Launches Fully Managed Document Database Service.” The problem is that the target is not just open source database systems. Those under threat include the folks who rarely think about Amazon as much more than a glorified eCommerce site. I would wager $1 that the Omnifind crowd at IBM is unlikely to change its stripes because of this announcement. Perhaps this indifference may be a misstep?
Amazon and the Microsoft Compatibility
Amazon seems to be neutral when it comes to criticizing its cross town rival. But Amazon partners are not subject to the same management restraint. DarkCyber Annex noted that Yahoo reported via Business Wire:
ECS, a leading provider of advanced technology, science, and engineering solutions, and a Premier Consulting Partner in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN), announced that it is a launch partner of the new file-sharing system Amazon FSx for Windows File Server. An automatically scaled and fully managed file system, Amazon FSx has native compatibility supporting the features, performance, and security capabilities most used by commercial and public sector customers. The system automates time-consuming administration tasks such as hardware provisioning, software configuration, patching, and backups.
Another AWS ecosystem partner. This one is edging into Microsoft’s sacred territory. “Plug compatible” — those words signaled a change for IBM. AWS partner may be a similar token.
Stephen E Arnold, January 14, 2019
Amazonia, January 7, 2019
January 7, 2019
The Bezos bulldozer keeps on pushing through the virgin forest. Crunch, crunch—That’s the sound of the power of the machine creating new revenue streets and highways. Consider these bits of Amazonia:
One of the Five Eyes Is Smiling
One branch of the British government has inked a deal with Amazon to build the “Crown Marketplace.” Think in terms of the British version of GSA/DSA running on Amazon’s AWS infrastructure, buying goodies from Amazon’s warehouses, and getting some of the stuff delivered in nifty Amazon trucks. When will GHCQ follow the CIA’s approach and use Amazon for plumbing? Source: The Telegraph which dearly wants your email address.
GovCloud West: EC2 High Memory Arrives
Most commercial outfits won’t care or understand the steady expansion of the breadth and depth of the GovCloud. Mark your calendar, while some folks were guzzling Champaign, Amazon Amazon EC2 High Memory instances with up to 12 TB of memory to the US GovCloud West region. Source: Amazon itself. Want to know more about “high memory”? Click this link.
FBI Uses Amazon Facial Recognition Service
The policeware landscape is being reshaped by the Bezos bulldozer. Navigate to “FBI Pilot Programme Uses Amazon’s Controversial Facial Recognition Software.” Keep in mind that this write up comes from the ever friendly, always objective Sputnik News. The write up reports:
Sputnik reported that the artificial intelligence behind Rekognition, which can identify, track, and analyze people and recognize up to 100 faces in a single image, was being marketed by Amazon to US police departments for as little as $6 a month. That tiny fee gave law enforcement agencies access to Amazon Web Services (AWS). In turn, Amazon requested that those agencies recommend the brand to their partners, including body camera manufacturers, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
That’s a compelling price point for many law enforcement entities. True or false. Well, the secret region is a thing.
Perception Health Embraces the AWS Marketplace
The Amazon watchers at ArnoldIT.com noted this statement:
Perception Health, a leading provider of healthcare market prediction software, announced today their inclusion on the new machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) discovery page on AWS Marketplace.
Why? Bezos’ bulldozer is turning to health. Perception Health wants to dabble in the machine learning marketplace Amazon has built along side its streaming data marketplace. Perception likes the strokes Amazon doles out to its partners. Good partner, the Bezos bulldozer rumbles softly. Source: PRNewswire
Where’s That Blog Belong?
The answer is on AWS. WordPress is a popular blogging platform. WPEngine stated:
WP Engine leverages a modern technology stack to make sure our customers have the resources they need to scale their WordPress environments. It’s why we give our customers access to a suite of developer tools they can use to build great websites, and it’s why we utilize best-in-class technologies like Amazon Web Services (AWS) to add resiliency and speed to our digital experience platform.
Different cheer, same enthusiasm. Source: WPEngine
PHP and Amazon
You know PHP. You want zero hardware to drag down your nights and weekends. You will embrace AWS Lamda. Details are in “Severless PHP on AWS Lambda.” If you want to know more about AWS Lambda, click here. Source: PHPDeveloper
Microservices on Amazon
Screw up one part of a microservice based app and you can have an exciting time of it. But what if one wants to combine the goodness of microservices with the Bezos bulldozer? No problem. Details plus code appear in “How to Deploy a Microservice Application to AWS.” Now about those microservices which don’t “service”? Sparse info, gentle reader.
H2O Analytics Run Better on AWS
Hard to believe that an Amazon partner helps market itself and Amazon with such enthusiasm. Here’s an example of nerd cheerleading:
If you haven’t started migrating your analytics to the cloud, then hopefully this will convince you to start reconsidering. The opportunity to have access to a 64, 96 or even 128 core machines with 2TB of RAM rarely crosses the path of most Data Scientists. This can mostly be accredited to the fact that most of us don’t really need such a large machine for what we need to achieve, see Szilard’s twitter posts if you need convincing. Another reason that we don’t use these big machines are purely because we just don’t have access to such machines within our working environments. Luckily for us, access to cloud computing have become more accessible and well, lets be honest, cheap as chips.
Yep, rah rah. Source: Digital Age Economist (aren’t all economists now alive “digital age economists”?)
Amazonia, December 31, 2018
December 31, 2018
Everyone’s favorite online bookstore is thinking big thoughts. Keep tabs on the Bezos bulldozer with this week’s highlights.
Amazon Does Ontologies
Just when the jargon of the 1990s enterprise search engines has almost disappeared, Koinalert pointed out that AWS has added the ONT_Dev Platform. Yes, you can now create a list of controlled terms and use them without the likes of pesky specialist vendors. You can find more details in the Koinalert post, which points out that Google is planning a me too. Good for you, Google.
Amazon Drones Stalled
Amazon drones are not delivering burritos yet. The Gazette reported that Jeff Bezos promised drones five years ago. Amazon has not given up. The company has drone wizards buzzing away in the US, Austria, France, Israel, and the United Kingdom. Slow going for the Bezos high fliers when it comes to drones. (Site is wonky and a pay wall may be in place.)
More Store Fronts and More Pressure on Delivery Services
Whole Foods will become a whole lot bigger. Amazon is going to invest some of those AWS bucks in expanding food? Nope. Prime Now. The FedEx, UPS, and local delivery outfits may face new pressure. Plus, the subscription model adds a new twist to what consumers perceive as “free.” Source: Digital Trends. But Amazon’s food retail initiative may face problems in some countries like India, says the Economic Times.
Amazon Flicks to Physical Theaters
The new Hollywood – namely, Amazon – wants to release its original films in Imax theaters. Amazon is turning on the charm to build bridges to the moguls who may fear for their financial lives. Why build theaters when there are plenty of venues in the US. Source: Telegraph newspaper
Play Ball with Amazon
The Amazonians are into sports. Reuters reported that Amazon is considering the purchase of the Yes Network. Involved in the talks are the New York Yankees. Will these folks play ball?
Amazon Wants to AWS Health Care
The capitalist tool points out that Amazon is poised to revolutionize health care. Forbes has discovered somewhat belatedly that Amazon has developed software able to make sense of patient records and clinical notes. Why? Forbes notes that the market for making sense of patient data is a $7 billion dollar opportunity for the vendor of Solimo drug store products. What’s a Solimo. See the next item.
Amazon Solimo: Stalled? What’s a Solimo
Amazon’s product line for goods sold at US type drug stores is on the landing strip with those Amazon drones. According to Marketwatch, the Solimo product line is slowing down. The number of stocking units or SKUs went up, but sales are slowing. The reason? Maybe market saturation? A warning signal perhaps? Saturation approaching?
Stephen E Arnold, December 31, 2019
Amazonia for December 24, 2018
December 24, 2018
Amazon operates at scale. For those who don’t want a lump of coal in their holiday stocking, Amazon cheer is in order:
Sharing the Digital Goodies
Amazon, according to the Inquirer, gave a customer access to another Amazon customer’s Alexa voice recordings. Just an error. According to the Inquirer,
It turns out two men has requested their data under Europe’s GDPR, and Amazon had just sent each set of files to the wrong person, ironically causing more GDPR paperwork. Source: The Inquirer
Amazon Means Delivering the Goods
Amazon is the new USPS. According to the New York Times, customers perceive that only Amazon can deliver gifts in time for the holiday. The newspaper adds its own Amazon commercial, stating “Amazon is far and away the leader in e-commerce, outpacing competitors like Wal-Mart, Target and eBay.”
Alleged Dirty Tricks
Bloomberg dissects the procurement dust up for the multi-billion dollar Department of Defense cloud computing contract. IBM and Oracle have signaled that whatever the DoD does will result in a loss for these two long-standing DoD vendors. There’s another dossier zipping around DC, complete with allegations of improper relationships. The Bloomberg story reveals that the dossier reveals that Amazon acquired ABD Advisor to pump out pro-Amazon information.
The Amazon Marketplace Jungle
Amazon’s marketplace has its own culture and its own rules. “Prime and Punishment” reveals what may be a digital jungle. Bogus reviews, dirty tricks, and eBay-inspired questionable products. Push through the underbrush for a look at the primitive life thriving in the Amazon.
Another Amazon Product Service Run Down
Wired explains why Amazon is the king of the digital jungle. The write up reveals that Amazon’s cloud services generate money. The write up states:
AWS offers so many cloud computing products and services that it would be cumbersome to name them all. In 2011, Amazon introduced AWS GovCloud, aimed at government agencies. Four years later, it launched AWS IoT, a platform for connecting and managing the plethora of connected devices known as the Internet of Things. Shortly after, the company won a $600 million contract to build AWS Secret Region, a cloud storage service for the CIA.
Advertising gets a mere three mentions, but our research teams anticipates that ads will be an opportunity for the company to put increased pressure on the fragmented colossus, Google.
AWS: How Big? $600 Billion Big
Business Insider reports that Amazon Web Services could be a $600 billion dollar business by itself. That’s a hefty number. But Excel spreadsheet fever is easy to catch at this time of year. Jeff Bezos himself believes Amazon can fail. So whom does one believe: The financial analyst or the king of the jungle?
Crystal City to Gleam Again?
The once lustrous Crystal City may gleam again. The reason? Amazon. The “Update On Amazon’s HQ2 Impact On Crystal City & Long Island City” states:
According to Trulia via Forbes, as of December 8, there were almost 100 properties for-rent or for-sale that mentioned Amazon’s new headquarters, or National Landing. A total of 44 neighborhoods across the DC metro area contained at least one listing that mentioned Amazon’s new campus (to be built) as a noted selling point.
What? Us Worry? Ask FedEx and UPS
FedEx and UPS may face a tough 2019. Amazon has added more aircraft to its fleet of airplane. According to CNet:
Amazon announced that it was expanding its fleet to 50 aircraft (up from 40). Amazon says this is to support the increasing number of Prime subscribers who expect free two-day delivery…. By adding 10 more aircraft, Amazon is expanding its fleet by 25 percent — a sizable increase.
UPS owns 247 aircraft and FedEx owns over 650. Nothing for these firms to worry about.
Amazon In House Brands
Amazon has more than 100 in house brands. Bloomberg points out:
Amazon has more data on what people shop for than anyone else and can lure people to its own brands with house ads and software-generated product suggestions online and through the Alexa digital assistant and prominent online placements like in the Solo and Dawn examples. And those brands may feel compelled to pay Amazon for ads to ensure their products remain front-and-center when shoppers go looking for them. Amazon loves to say it only thinks about what’s best for shoppers, but is it good for shoppers to have top product listings dominated by companies that pay Amazon for prominent placement and Amazon’s house brands?
If you own shares of Amazon, the answer is, “Yes.”
Stephen E Arnold, December 24, 2018
Amazonia for December 17, 2018
December 17, 2018
The online bookstore has been motoring forward. As Facebook and Google face heat in Europe and the US, Amazon floats in the clouds.
We noted these items this week:
A parrot has used the owner’s Alexa to play music and order products. The parrot allegedly specified strawberries, watermelon, raisins, broccoli and ice cream. — Source: Fox News
You can buy an Alexa enabled twerking stuffed bear. The bear complements the Big Mouth Billy talking fish. Source: PocketLint
Amazon is uniquely well-positioned to dethrone UPS and FedEx’s duopoly. It’s built up a strong logistics infrastructure, counting hundreds of warehouses and thousands of delivery trucks. — Source: Business Insider
AWS used to be easy, but over the last decade it’s become a specialization. Every time I wander back to it, there’s another layer of complexity in the way towards doing something simple. — Source: Hacker News post by Sonny Blarney at https://bit.ly/2SJSQjg
Amazon could be using facial recognition to create ‘database of suspicious persons’ The concept would give homeowners, police a way to more easily ID someone engaged in potential criminal activity. — Source: OCRegister.com
“Use NoSQL and do things the “dumb” way every time. Because the perf characteristics are much more obvious to the programmer and designer, now you can just do a full join, or a full table scan every time for every query. Much more stable!” — Source: Colm Mac Carthaigh at https://bit.ly/2QQ7Vm4
An interesting browser plug in surfaces. “Looking to raise awareness of Amazon’s power in the marketplace and of its HQ2 incentives, a group of tech workers in New York created a Chrome browser plug-in called Block Amazon for Me. ‘We asking people to reconsider what they are supporting and what are the real costs,’ said Woody, who is the project manager for the plug-in project…”– Source: CNet
Amazon is moving in, leaning in, and pressuring both the Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure: “Amazon Outposts, a service scheduled to become available in the second half of 2019, will allow customers to provision physical racks of Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers and have them shipped to their own data centers. The racks will be configured with the same servers that Amazon runs in its AWS data centers; once installed, the racks will connect back to the AWS mothership over the Internet and then can be configured with storage services and virtual machines through Amazon’s AWS Management Console. And just as with services hosted in Amazon’s own data centers, customers won’t own these racks—they’ll rent them. The costs and connectivity requirements associated with Outpost have yet to be determined.” — Source Ars Technica
An Alexa clock is available. Engadget notes that the Amazon Echo clock requires an Amazon Echo in Version 1.0. These Amazon gadgets will connect to gizmos like the Amazon microwave in the near future. — Source: Engadget
The “everything” is hyperbole. But a useful run down of some Amazon developments has been assembled by Vox. Here’s an interesting item: “AWS also partnered with Lockheed Martin to get a competitive edge on faster and cheaper “downlinking” (downloading, basically) of information stored on satellites, making it officially part of the military industrial complex.” — Source: Vox
Stephen E Arnold, December 17, 2018
Amazonia for December 10, 2018
December 10, 2018
The Amazon show and tell has ended. The implications of most Amazon announcements have been reported in the “real” media. The Beyond Search team identified a handful of Bezos bullets, however. Read on:
- Someone should tell one of the world’s richest me to be positive. Here in Harrod’s Creek the shocking news that Amazon will go bankrupt stuns. The Beyond Search goose thinks that Mr. Bezos is working on his legacy; that is, an early “I warned you” makes him into a digital Nostradamus.
- Ever try to pay for something in an airport store? I have. Sometimes I leave my overpriced bag of trail mix amongst the M&Ms because no one waits on me. Amazon may solve this problem. “Amazon Looks to Airports to Expand Its Checkout-Free Store Footprint” explains that Amazon’s no human check out may solve this problem. Will the price of trail mix go up? Yeah, you know the answer to that.
- What’s with Amazon in the space data game? We learned about “Amazon’s Plan to Profit from Space Data” from the Daily Herald. Here’s the plan: “Rather than build its own satellite dishes and ground stations, the company has brokered an exclusive “multiyear strategic business agreement” with Bethesda-based defense contractor Lockheed Martin, which manufactures and operates satellites for the U.S. military.” Useful for policeware and intelware use cases, don’t you think? Nah.
- What’s the economic impact of Amazon saying it will put a big office in the DC area? A mere $15 billion impact. Get the semi analysis in the Zon-meister’s very own newspaper here.
- Axios said, “Amazon faces a politically perilous moment.” The JEDI deal is headed for another appeal. Oracle wants to keep its Pentagon power it seems.
- How much money does Amazon’s Prime video generate? Variety states that it is $1.7 billion. I thought Prime was for shipping. What about the data those viewing habits spin out? What happens if those data are cross matched to book browsing, purchase history, and method of payment? Grab some popcorn and kick back. Relax. It’s Amazon.
Stephen E Arnold, December 10, 2018
Amazonia: December 3, 2018
December 3, 2018
The ecommerce giant has been busy. Selected items which caught our attention in Harrod’s Creek include:
Amazon and Germany: The Waltz Begins
We learned from the ever reliable source Bloomberg that Germany is looking at Amazon as a swinging bar door. The idea is that Amazon is a “gatekeeper.” We think the idea is that Amazon is in control, gets paid when customers buy something from the online catalog and gets paid when other vendors use Amazon to sell. Amazon may also get paid when some vendors pay Amazon to host their own Web sites. Amazon, of course, will cooperate, but it is unlikely that it will change its business model too significantly. Members of the Bundeskartellamt use Amazon too.
The Contrast: Amazon and Microsoft
At the same time Amazon was announcing that it has decided to release some of the technical goodies the company has provided to a certain US government agency for four years, Microsoft demonstrated its technical excellence too. Among Amazon’s more interesting revelations was that it is making its own chips. Microsoft, to respond to this challenge, said that it would release redesigned icons for its Office suite. Also, to counter the technical innovations in Amazon’s Big Data crunching ability, Microsoft also pulled a chess master move when it released a roadmap for its fur covered computer. Not the computer, a road map. Amazon is probably struggling to cope with these strategic body blows from Microsoft.
DeepLens under the Microscope
Not many online shoppers pay much attention to Amazon DeepLens. In my lectures for LE and intel professionals, most of those in the audience don’t either. But eight members of the US Congress want Amazon to explain its facial recognition technology. The issue is accuracy. At some point members of Congress will get the picture for Amazon’s policeware capabilities and come to appreciate the value of DeepLens like systems whether they operate at the levels of accuracy depicted on TV programs and in Netflix videos. Note to Congress: The train has left the station.
Amazon Is Edging into Health Care
Imagine. You need some sort of medical treatment. Do you want to go to an emergency room or let Amazon help you out. Amazon is in the prescription game. Now Amazon has a deal with Xealth, a spin out of Providence St Joseph Health. Ecommerce is coming to the doc’s office. Maybe health care delivery will come with a Prime membership and arrive on one’s door step like a new Amazon Basics T shirt?
Stephen E Arnold, December 3, 2018
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