Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

foxbusiness.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 410 posts

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

#131

Post by jessaustin »

jbronn wrote: post #105
jessaustin wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think Amazon just stopped its collaboration with Coinstar, as it wasn't an option at the grocery store (HEB) machine I used last month.

I guess I haven't changed any coins in the last month, but I just looked at the Coinstar website listing for the kiosk I usually use, and "Amazon.com" is still listed as an "eGift" brand.

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

#132

Post by jameskegel »

retailtech wrote: post #102

I work in retailtech and this feeling is very common across retailers. Everyone feels like amazon is their biggest competitor and they don't want any of their money going (even indirectly) to amazon. Especially when the technology in question is supposed to help them compete better against amazon.

Is "retailtech" a real term now, or is that a typo?

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

#133

Post by dkrich »

toyg wrote: post #127
dkrich wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But retail-oriented companies are just a percentage of the global market. I don't think Walmart really has the power it thinks it has. As a distributor, I'm sure they know very well how to bully their supply chain, they are used to being the biggest fish in their pond; but in the grand scheme of things, from an AWS perspective, that supply chain is not that massive. Every company doing business with Walmart could dro…

Yeah, I don't disagree that AWS can survive without Procter and PepsiCo, but the point is that Wal-Mart is just trying to take a cut out of Amazon's bottom line (however large or small). This is becoming an all-out war between Wal-Mart and Amazon and I think Amazon feels more threatened by Wal-Mart than a lot of people think. For example, Amazon recently cut the minimum order size to $25 from $35 for free shipping in direct response to Wal-Mart reducing it's minimum to $35.

My guess has been that Amazon wants to continue to add value to the Prime program in the hopes that they can start to ratchet up the cost or create different classes of Prime to try and extract more profit. The more steps that competitors like Wal-Mart take to pressure Amazon's ability to cross-subsidize and raise the price of Prime, the harder it's going to be for Amazon to extend its lead in ecommerce.

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

#134

Post by deegles »

KirinDave wrote: post #94

This is... Not the best? That Wal-Mart is powerful enough to dictate the internal business practice and tech decisions of it's vendor. On the other hand, Amazon is a massive immoral monster devouring the US economy and replacing it with something vaguely worse, year by year. It's rapidly approaching a "too big to be allowed to fail" status, and that's awful for Americans. Since anti-trust laws weren't written by a ge…

Wal-Mart is "powerful" but Amazon is "immoral"? Can you elaborate on how moral you think Wal-Mart is?

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

#135

Post by arthulia »

KirinDave wrote: post #119
cholantesh wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Amazon is a massive immoral monster devouring the US economy and replacing it with something vaguely worse, year by year Hasn't the same thing been said about Walmart?

Yes. And I'd agree. To wax metaphorical, I'd rather the monsters devour each other while we race for a super-weapon to defeat all monsters and protect real people. This situation where corporations are effectively replacing the state is not exactly what I had in mind when I said the world would be a better place with a diminished role of the State in individual life.

Could you elaborate on what you did mean by 'diminished role of the state', and what you imagined?

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

#136

Post by jessaustin »

mtanski wrote: post #92
jessaustin wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "strong" form of tu quoque you evoke here seems sort of like bullshit. "Do as I say, not as I do" is fine if we're talking about uncontroversial stuff like buying too many lottery tickets or drinking too much beer. If the point is actually in doubt, which it always is for economic questions, it's no fallacy to demand that I put my money where my mouth is. If I really believe that people can safely jump out of air…

I was going for the case "you too" / "they too" which tu quoque literally translates to from Latin. Say we accept that Amazon does these things (the parent didn't actually provide any evidence / argument for that case). Pointing out the hypocrisy of the other party (or 3rd party) is not a valid rhetorical argument why they should be allowed to do it (Walmart).

It's a perfectly valid prima facie argument. Now, of course, it could be that Amazon should use these tactics and Wal-Mart shouldn't, perhaps because Amazon are paragons of taste and virtue while Wal-Mart are a bunch of sadistic cretins, but the burden of proof is on anyone who wants similar firms to be considered differently.

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

#137

Post by dkrich »

KirinDave wrote: post #94

This is... Not the best? That Wal-Mart is powerful enough to dictate the internal business practice and tech decisions of it's vendor. On the other hand, Amazon is a massive immoral monster devouring the US economy and replacing it with something vaguely worse, year by year. It's rapidly approaching a "too big to be allowed to fail" status, and that's awful for Americans. Since anti-trust laws weren't written by a ge…

I think concerns about Amazon becoming a monopoly are greatly exaggerated. They are getting attacked from all sides, by Microsoft in the cloud and Wal-Mart in ecommerce. As Microsoft grabs share from them in web services it'll reduce Amazon's ability to cross-subsidize its ecommerce business. As Wal-Mart and Costco continue to catch up in ecommerce and free two-day shipping becomes table stakes in ecommerce, Amazon's value proposition for Prime is going to diminish.

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

#138

Post by deegles »

sharemywin wrote: post #108
mabbo wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peeking at competitor data would be a short term great idea, long term terrible idea. You do it once, you'll do it again. You do it too many times, someone will rat you out and now your losing customers fast. Amazon may not be the most ethical company, but they've never been accused of short term thinking. It's just completely outside of what if expect from them.

Amazon is a collection of individuals. It only takes a small number of employees to circumvent the best protocols.

I'm sorry but that's ridiculous to say. If you had enough knowledge about AWS security practices to assert that, you'd know not to say it.

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

#139

Post by 013a »

I'm ok with this. I think the fear of important BI data entering a competitor's platform is real. Yes, its a bit of a tinfoil hat, but if the cost of using a different platform like Azure or GCP is roughly the same... I'm fine with it.

Here's an analogy. Let's say Walmart rented out space on their trucks to any company that needed it. Would Amazon be crazy to tell retailers on their platform that they can't use Walmart trucks, or they don't want Walmart trucks driving up to their loading bays? I don't think so. Corporate espionage is a real thing.

Its just a bonus that Amazon is a garbage company who deserves as little business as possible.

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

#140

Post by Johnny555 »

firebird84 wrote: post #20
snowwolf wrote: post #17

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…

By the same token, if I were in Amazon's position, if I were to use the data, I'd make sure nobody knew about it. However, I'd then be in the unenviable position of the Enigma codebreakers, attempting to use information without the enemy knowing I had it.

And also puts them in the impossible position of having enough top-notch Xen developers that can code a Xen data interception module that runs in the hypervisor to snoop traffic in real-time from instances, while at the same time, expecting this team to keep quiet about it while also making sure that no other team members who aren't "in the know" don't stumble upon the spying code and reveal it.

They have to snoop the data from the hypervisor since the only place it's available decrypted is on the virtual machine processing the data.

Post reply on HN