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When Will AWS Move Up the Stack to Real Applications?

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Re: When Will AWS Move Up the Stack to Real Applications?

#51

Post by Spooky23 »

iamacynic wrote: post #49
user5994461 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they are fickle and extremely price sensitive Not at all. Most customers couldn't care less about money. There are numerous people who are price sensitive, the amateurs who are running a test app and complaining that digital ocean is cheaper, then move to the weirdest hoster they could find because that's only $2 a month. These are NOT AWS customers.

> Not at all. Most customers couldn't care less about money. you're out of your mind. customers at the high end care MORE about money, not less. the company spending $1 million/month on AWS is desperately looking for ways out. DESPERATELY. their entire business is being held hostage by amazon. jeff bezos has them by the balls and is squeezing harder and harder by the day. they have hired consultants to do the analysi…

If they're spending $1M/week, what do they expect to spend on their own?

If you're too dumb to manage costs on AWS, the answer is "we have no clue".

Re: When Will AWS Move Up the Stack to Real Applications?

#52

Post by reilly3000 »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #7

I think Amazon QuickSight is probably a good example of the types of "real" applications they'll be launching more of in the future. Services slightly further up the stack that reinforce the value of their infrastructure services. For example, I could see them launching a competitor to ESP/Marketing automation services (reinforcing AWS SES).

Quicksight fell short for us in a number of ways. We ended up using Looker with their app hosted on our AWS account. Amazon wins either way. That being said, after this and equally disappointing WorkDocs it will be a while before I look at their products as a first choice.

Re: When Will AWS Move Up the Stack to Real Applications?

#53

Post by 013a »

user5994461 wrote: post #41
iamacynic wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i don't think i agree. i think they're moving up the chain to plug weaknesses in their model. 1. good customers - infrastructure customers are not good customers. they are fickle and extremely price sensitive, which is tough to do on a super capital intensive business like hosting, even on amazon cloud's insanely high cost. 2. less complex products - i don't understand how there is there anything about amazon's cloud…

> they are fickle and extremely price sensitive Not at all. Most customers couldn't care less about money. There are numerous people who are price sensitive, the amateurs who are running a test app and complaining that digital ocean is cheaper, then move to the weirdest hoster they could find because that's only $2 a month. These are NOT AWS customers.

I have to agree with your other responders. Cloud consumers are, fundamentally, price sensitive. The only ones who might not be are venture-backed startups with deep pockets.

Individual consumers are price sensitive, as you say. That's one of the reasons why Lightsail exists; its easier to understand why you're being charged what you are.

Large customers are also highly price sensitive. They negotiate huge contracts that last for years and save them 35% or more on their end bill. We don't think of them as sensitive because they move slow, but their size essentially allows them to tell Amazon "give us this price or we go to Google." All the big cloud providers play ball with them.

Re: When Will AWS Move Up the Stack to Real Applications?

#54

Post by 013a »

iamacynic wrote: post #49
user5994461 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they are fickle and extremely price sensitive Not at all. Most customers couldn't care less about money. There are numerous people who are price sensitive, the amateurs who are running a test app and complaining that digital ocean is cheaper, then move to the weirdest hoster they could find because that's only $2 a month. These are NOT AWS customers.

> Not at all. Most customers couldn't care less about money. you're out of your mind. customers at the high end care MORE about money, not less. the company spending $1 million/month on AWS is desperately looking for ways out. DESPERATELY. their entire business is being held hostage by amazon. jeff bezos has them by the balls and is squeezing harder and harder by the day. they have hired consultants to do the analysi…

I agree. This is definitely the impression I've gotten from people I've talked to.

In an ideal world, how would they solve this? Is it to move back to self-hosted infrastructure? Isn't that the same problem; they're just hostage to their own employees and capex instead of Amazon?

Re: When Will AWS Move Up the Stack to Real Applications?

#55

Post by sciurus »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #7

I think Amazon QuickSight is probably a good example of the types of "real" applications they'll be launching more of in the future. Services slightly further up the stack that reinforce the value of their infrastructure services. For example, I could see them launching a competitor to ESP/Marketing automation services (reinforcing AWS SES).

Also Workmail, Connect, etc...

Re: When Will AWS Move Up the Stack to Real Applications?

#56

Post by 013a »

nebabyte wrote: post #33
placeybordeaux wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like amazon's fundamental strength is dealing with price sensitive customers and running margin business with extremely thin margins.

That's one of their strengths - a company as large as Amazon can easily spread itself into multiple concerns without endangering its core business. They can even shut out competition by adding new Prime benefits for various services. Even the risk is mostly offloaded to existing companies. All Amazon has to do is wait to see what is viable/sustainable, figure out how to undercut their competition (likely their own cu…

It is brilliant. But their track record doesn't seem to be all that great. They add services to Prime like Video and Music, but their competition is still around. No one is leaving Netflix or Spotify.

More importantly, the main reason to pay for Prime is shipping. The rest are value-adds that might dissuade someone from unsubscribing, but I just don't think many people think "Wow, I need to pay for Prime Video!"

Their SaaS offerings on AWS are the same. Do people get excited about Quicksight, WorkDocs, or WorkMail? Not that I've seen. They have customers. People use them. But compared to their crown jewels; EC2, S3, SQS, Lambda... they're nothing.

Amazon will inevitably try to expand upward. But I see it being as successful as Prime Music or Amazon Cloud Drive. Its too much "can we do this" and not enough "should we do this".

Re: When Will AWS Move Up the Stack to Real Applications?

#57

Post by koverstreet »

iamacynic wrote: post #49
user5994461 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they are fickle and extremely price sensitive Not at all. Most customers couldn't care less about money. There are numerous people who are price sensitive, the amateurs who are running a test app and complaining that digital ocean is cheaper, then move to the weirdest hoster they could find because that's only $2 a month. These are NOT AWS customers.

> Not at all. Most customers couldn't care less about money. you're out of your mind. customers at the high end care MORE about money, not less. the company spending $1 million/month on AWS is desperately looking for ways out. DESPERATELY. their entire business is being held hostage by amazon. jeff bezos has them by the balls and is squeezing harder and harder by the day. they have hired consultants to do the analysi…

Just curious who you work for and if you're hiring?

Sounds like exactly the kind of thing I'd like to be doing.

Re: When Will AWS Move Up the Stack to Real Applications?

#58

Post by iamacynic »

Spooky23 wrote: post #51
iamacynic wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not at all. Most customers couldn't care less about money. you're out of your mind. customers at the high end care MORE about money, not less. the company spending $1 million/month on AWS is desperately looking for ways out. DESPERATELY. their entire business is being held hostage by amazon. jeff bezos has them by the balls and is squeezing harder and harder by the day. they have hired consultants to do the analysi…

If they're spending $1M/week, what do they expect to spend on their own? If you're too dumb to manage costs on AWS, the answer is "we have no clue".

a competitor that charges literally 75% less.

except they won't do it, because they are SCARED out of their MINDS.

Re: When Will AWS Move Up the Stack to Real Applications?

#59

Post by iamacynic »

koverstreet wrote: post #57
iamacynic wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not at all. Most customers couldn't care less about money. you're out of your mind. customers at the high end care MORE about money, not less. the company spending $1 million/month on AWS is desperately looking for ways out. DESPERATELY. their entire business is being held hostage by amazon. jeff bezos has them by the balls and is squeezing harder and harder by the day. they have hired consultants to do the analysi…

Just curious who you work for and if you're hiring? Sounds like exactly the kind of thing I'd like to be doing.

what's stopping you?

Re: When Will AWS Move Up the Stack to Real Applications?

#60

Post by koverstreet »

iamacynic wrote: post #59
koverstreet wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious who you work for and if you're hiring? Sounds like exactly the kind of thing I'd like to be doing.

what's stopping you?

Not really up to bootstrapping a startup myself at this point in time :)
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