Live data from Hacker News

Wal-Mart is telling some vendors they can’t run applications on AWS

foxbusiness.com

71–80 of 410 posts

Re: Wal-Mart is telling some vendors they can’t run applications on AWS

#71
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the first option. They are pretty intent on making sure their spending doesn't make its way back to their biggest competitor.

Don't discount the latter option, corporate espionage is a very real thing that goes on far more often than people realize. Of course im about to be shouted down by a bunch of posts with [citation needed], well guess what, the goal of business like this is to ensure that nobody can ever make such a citation. There is a reason Google, Intel and Apple are extremely paranoid about their internal data, and Walmart too. I…

It doesn't even have to be anything nefarious. For example just tracking network traffic (amount, not content) would be a good signal for a competitor (like Amazon) to monitor. If supplier A started getting a lot more network traffic from Walmart IP addresses and supplier B less, then that's a tell that someone could be interested in.

Re: Wal-Mart is telling some vendors they can’t run applications on AWS

#72
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then using its monopoly power to demand their suppliers take action against Amazon's monopoly power. We really are slipping into the 1870s.

I dunno, sounds almost like competition when you put it that way.

Our economy is based on the idea that David can defeat Goliath. Seeing two Goliaths commanding armies of Davids into each other and calling it competition is a pretty strange corruption of that idea.

Re: Wal-Mart is telling some vendors they can’t run applications on AWS

#74
post #43

I know there's some complexity here, but let's just take a minute to marvel at the phenomena of Walmart complaining about another company's excessive dominance and potential to apply monopolistic power.

It is my custom to use Amazon gift certificates at Coinstar machines to dispose of my extra coins, because in that case the coins are exchanged for free. (I have many extra coins, since I usually eschew credit cards.)

Wal-mart hosts many Coinstar machines, but I have yet to see one that will produce Amazon gift certificates. You have to go to Coinstars hosted at grocery stores for that. So, they have a contract with Coinstar that specifically mentions which firms may have gift certificates on Coinstar machines.

Who knows, this may be a boon for the grocery stores?

Re: Wal-Mart is telling some vendors they can’t run applications on AWS

#75
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We know what Google and Facebook get up to with peoples data, why would Amazon not analyze or try similar to their customers? To have all that technical capability and not be curious about stuff would be a waste. Do Google, Amazon or Microsoft look at the data of their cloud offer clients? I bet that if they do and it is know their business would go to hell

Agree totally. I would find it hard to believe, that large well financed companies, with some of the most technically capable staff on the planet, would have the restraint to not peek.

So you think Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, etc spy the confidential data of their customers?

Re: Wal-Mart is telling some vendors they can’t run applications on AWS

#76

Is this because they actively want to discourage any revenue going Amazon's way from Wal-Mart related business activities, or because they don't trust Amazon not to look at the data hosted on their platform? If the latter, then I think that's just extreme paranoia. If there was ANY evidence of Amazon doing that it would destroy everyones trust in AWS and I suspect people wouldn't be able to move away fast enough (Whi…

My guess is that they know that Amazon is using AWS profits to fund losses in the ecommerce business. If they can get some large retailers off AWS, that might reduce Amazon's ability to pour cash into ecommerce and hurt their margins.

It seems that a lot of people forget that Wal-Mart dwarfs Amazon in sales volume for companies like Procter and Gamble so probably have more leverage over them than most think.

Re: Wal-Mart is telling some vendors they can’t run applications on AWS

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Great source of reviews This has not been the case for a long time, most Amazon products are filled to the brim with fake reviews and they do not appear to care at all. They've also been having massive problems with fake chinese goods being sold as the real thing, which is compounded by said fake reviews on those products.

It's not too tough to spot the fakes if you are looking.

If you're manually looking through the reviews, yeah it's easy. But it makes sorting results by star rating almost useless as you can no longer trust the average ratings until you go through and read some of them.

Re: Wal-Mart is telling some vendors they can’t run applications on AWS

#80
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We know what Google and Facebook get up to with peoples data, why would Amazon not analyze or try similar to their customers? To have all that technical capability and not be curious about stuff would be a waste. Do Google, Amazon or Microsoft look at the data of their cloud offer clients? I bet that if they do and it is know their business would go to hell

Agree totally. I would find it hard to believe, that large well financed companies, with some of the most technically capable staff on the planet, would have the restraint to not peek.

It's not just a matter of restraint. Large, well-financed companies can also afford to put some of their most capable staff on internal security.
Post reply on HN