Ignoring Amazon: Risky, Short Sighted, Maybe Not an Informed Decision
January 15, 2019
I read “AWS, MongoDB, and the Economic Realities of Open Source.” The write up does a good job of explaining how convenience can generate cash for old line businesses.
The essay then runs down the features of a typical open source business model; namely, money comes from proprietary add ons, services, training, etc. Accurate and helpful is the discussion. Few people recognize the vulnerability of this type of open source model for companies not in a “winner take all position.” A good example is Elastic’s success, and the lack of success of other open source search systems which are in most cases pretty good.
The discussion of Amazon explains that Amazon is in the service business; specifically, the software-as-a-service business. That’s mostly correct. I have given two or three talks about Amazon’s use of AWS in the law enforcement and intelligence sector, and I have to be honest. Few understood what I was emphasizing. Amazon is a disruption machine. I call it the Bezos bulldozer.
The write up draws parallels with the music business case with which the Stratechery essay begins. I understand the parallel. I agree with this statement:
AWS is not selling MongoDB: what they are selling is “performance, scalability, and availability.” DocumentDB is just one particular area of many where those benefits are manifested on AWS. Make no mistake: these benefits are valuable.
The point of the write up is mostly on the money as well. I noted this statement:
…the debate on the impact of cloud services on open source has been a strident one for a while now. I think, though, that the debate gets sidetracked by (understandable) discussions about “fairness” and what AWS supposedly owes open source. Yes, companies like MongoDB Inc. and Redis Labs worked hard, and yes, AWS is largely built on open source, but the world is governed by economic realities, not subjective judgments of fairness.
There are several facets of Amazon’s system and method for competition which may be more important than the inclusion of open source software in its suite of “conveniences.”
At some point, I would welcome conference organizers, MBAs, and open source mavens to address such questions as:
- What is the ease of entry or implementation for open source services on AWS?
- What is the future of training developers to use the AWS system? Who does the training?
- What is the short term benefit to Amazon to have developers use open source and the AWS platform to create new products and services?
- What is the long term benefit to Amazon to have new products and services become successful on the AWS platform?
- What is the mid term impact on procurements for commercial and government entities?
- What is the shape of the Bezos bulldozer’s approach to lock in?
I was recently informed by a conference organizer that no one had interest in Amazon’s disruption of the policeware and intelware sector.
Do you think that the organizer’s conclusion was informed? Do you think open source is more than the digital equivalent of a gateway drug?
I do. For information about the DarkCyber briefing on Amazon’s policeware and intelware “play,” write benkent2020 at yahoo dot com.
Stephen E Arnold, January 15, 2019
Amazon Fear: A New Marketing Hook for Google and the Softies
January 14, 2019
With the Amazon AWS bulldozer grinding away, some animals are fleeing the crushing power of the machine. Others are adopting a different tactic. “At NRF 2019, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform Court Retailers Wary of Amazon” explains that their services offer a quiet place in the jungle.
The write up explains:
Retail is one of the few industries where AWS isn’t likely to have a huge lead. That reality means Google and Microsoft can pitch their AI and cloud wares to a receptive audience.
Will Google and Microsoft adopt the IBM FUD approach? Will retailers who want to sell to the federal government become more flexible when Amazon’s GovCloud becomes more dense?
DarkCyber anticipates changes which will pose considerable hurdles to Google and Microsoft as places to sell and relax in the Amazon rain forest.
Stephen E Arnold, January 14, 2019
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
Amazon Web Services Finally Makes Handwriting of the Gods Legible
January 10, 2019
The old age joke is that doctors do not know how to write. They know the alphabet, how to read, and how to make the letters, but they do not know write legible chicken scrawl. Legible handwriting is extremely important in the medical industry, because misreading one word means the difference between life and death. ZDNet explains how Amazon is trying to resolve that problem in the article, “AWS Launches Comprehend Medical, Applies Natural Language Processing To Medical Records.”
Amazon Web Services has already piloted a recognized natural language processing program called Comprehend, now they want to apply the program to the medical field. The new endeavor called Amazon Comprehend Medical will extend the natural language processing services specifically for the medical field, primarily for medical records.
“The importance of the service is that it is another toward applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to healthcare. The ability to automate medical record reading and x-ray and MRI analysis could save time for patients as well as physicians. Comprehend can model topics, detect language, conduct sentiment analysis and extract phrases.”
AWS is building a Comprehend model that understands medical terminology, medications, and other information for accurate medical records. The biggest hurdle is making Comprehend HIPAA compliant, which means making sure it is secure and can protect patients’ information. Comprehend Medical is HIPAA eligible, but not HIPAA complaint at the moment. AWS can resolve that it during the test trials and add extra security levels.
What other handwriting will Amazon be able to read?
Whitney Grace, January 10, 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
Calling Dr. Bezos
December 31, 2018
Amazon has dominated every market it has entered, from books to cloud computing. With their eyes trained to the medical world, it looks like there is little to stop them. We discovered a little more about this intention from a recent Health Data Management story, “Amazon Launches NLP Service to Process Unstructured Text.”
According to the story:
“Amazon Comprehend Medical is being touted as a natural language processing service that makes it easy to use machine learning to accurately and quickly extract relevant information from unstructured text, such as medical notes, prescriptions, audio interview transcripts, as well as pathology and radiology reports.”
Proponents of this new endeavor tout the advances and ease that it will provide. However, not everyone thinks Prime for medical decisions is such a slam dunk. Thankfully, there are clear-eyed individuals, like Wharton School looking at this issue from all angles. As you might expect, there are a lot of grey areas and periods of adjustment that must be made in order for Amazon’s medical wing to really take flight. However, we have seen these hurdles jumped over before and have a hunch Amazon will make it work.
Patrick Roland, December 31, 2018
Amazon Hungry to Take Over More Diverse Industries
December 27, 2018
Amazon Web Services is the secret juggernaut of the home shopping giant. It has been reported far and wide just how many businesses, from private and public sector alike, use AWS to host their material. While Amazon has been raking in the money, they are starting to make enemies from…their clients? It looks that way judging from a recent CNBC story, “AWS is Competing With its Customers.”
According to the story:
“AWS is the world’s biggest public cloud, generating $6.68 billion in revenue for Amazon in the third quarter, up 46 percent year over year. But as Amazon expands into countless new areas, from grocery stores to health care, some companies that have previously worked with Amazon have found a partner becoming the competition overnight.”
This would not be the first time we’ve heard of Amazon entering a market and gobbling it whole. However, this particularly puts artificial intelligence companies in a tough spot. Many are known to use AWS, but with news like that of Amazon redoubling its efforts to break into AI, suddenly this partnership doesn’t seem so rosy. We’d be watching our backs if we were any industry reliant on AWS, which is…pretty much everyone.
Patrick Roland, December 27, 2018
Relatives Got You Down? Check Out BigQuery and Redshift
December 25, 2018
I read “Redshift Vs BigQuery: What Are The Factors To Consider Before Choosing A Data Warehouse.” With Oracle on the ropes and database technology chugging along, why pay attention to old school solutions?
The article sets out to compare and contrast BigQuery (one of the Google progeny known to have consorted with a certain Mr. Dremel.) Amazon has more database products and services than I can keep track of. But RedShift is one of them, and it is important if an intelware company uses AWS and the RedShift technology.
Which system is more “flexible”? I learned:
In the case of Redshift, if anything goes kaput during a transaction, Amazon Redshift allows users to perform roll-back to ensure that data get backs to the consistent state. BigQuery works on the principle of append-only data and its storage engine strictly follows this technique. This becomes a major disadvantage to the user when something goes wrong during the transaction process, forcing them to restart from the beginning or specific point. Another key point is that duplicating data in BigQuery is hard to achieve and costly. Both the technologies have reservations regarding insertion of streaming data, with Redshift taking edge by guaranteeing storage of data with additional care from the user. On the other hand, BigQuery supports de-duplication of streaming data in the most effective way by using time window.
The write up points out:
As compared to BigQuery, Redshift is considerably more expensive costing $0.08 per GB, compared to BigQuery which costs $0.02 per GB. However, BigQuery offers only storage and not queries. The platform charges separately for queries based upon processed data at $5/TB. As BigQuery lacks indexes and various analytical queries, the scanning of data is a huge and costly process. In most cases, users opt for Amazon Redshift as it is predictable, simple and encourages data usage and analytics.
Which is “better”? Not surprisingly, both are really swell. Helpful. But the Beyond Search goose was curious about:
- Performance
- Latency for different types of queries
- Programming requirements
But swell is fine.
Stephen E Arnold, December 25, 2018
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
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