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

311–320 of 410 posts

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

#311

Post by vvanders »

__d__ wrote: post #220

I sold to Walmart for 4 years. In the beginning we believed we were lucky to become vendors. Then we realized how much stress they created. Every single year they would short pay our invoices. We would have to submit a claim with Walmart accounting. This process was completely and utterly time consuming. But the worst of it, they wouldn't pay the invoices owed until a year later. It's hard to float a $100,000 short p…

I've seen Game Publishers do this with milestone payments but for a different effect. One of the common clauses is that the publisher gets all assets(source code, art, etc) in the case of a studio folding.

They then intentionally delay milestone payments about 3/4 of the way though the project, watch the company fold(since that's the highest-burn part of the project) and then re-hire 2/3rds of the existing staff who are now out of a job to finish the title.

It doesn't produce the highest quality games but I'm sure it earns them a bit more money.

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

#313

Post by kakarot »

gregatragenet3 wrote: post #299

Seems as if this is a reasonable request, which is being framed as an unreasonable one. WalMart has asked a Data-Warehousing service (via its customer) to please not do what it does - data-warehouse internal information about sales, revenue, etc - on their retail-competitor's servers. Data which could give Amazon sensitive inside information on WalMart's operations and financials.. I dono if they've made other less-r…

I don't use AWS, but it's not against their ToS to encrypt data at all stages, right? How does that not that solve this problem? I would hope that anyone using a cloud provider follows that practice.

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

#314

Post by [deleted] »

vvanders wrote: post #311
__d__ wrote: post #220

I sold to Walmart for 4 years. In the beginning we believed we were lucky to become vendors. Then we realized how much stress they created. Every single year they would short pay our invoices. We would have to submit a claim with Walmart accounting. This process was completely and utterly time consuming. But the worst of it, they wouldn't pay the invoices owed until a year later. It's hard to float a $100,000 short p…

I've seen Game Publishers do this with milestone payments but for a different effect. One of the common clauses is that the publisher gets all assets(source code, art, etc) in the case of a studio folding. They then intentionally delay milestone payments about 3/4 of the way though the project, watch the company fold(since that's the highest-burn part of the project) and then re-hire 2/3rds of the existing staff who…

[deleted]

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

#315

Post by johncolanduoni »

zaccus wrote: post #272
SilasX wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, consumers get lower prices at Walmart, it doesn't just have the effect of higher profits. Second, the real danger in both cases (though people only see it in one, hence my point) is that you're killing off the OEMs this way. No one wants to bring innovative new products to market if some monopsonist will just force them down to the mandated n% profits.

Nope. 1) Walmart doesn't pass savings to consumers, it passes them to shareholders, as they have a fiduciary obligation to do. The "lower prices" thing is just marketing; WM's prices aren't particularly low once they've driven away their competition. 2) If drug companies want to charge a R&D premium for bleeding-edge innovative products, that's fine. What's not fine is price gouging consumers for drugs they depend on…

Post-patent drugs usually have insane prices due to reasons outside of what can be effectively combatted by the bargaining power of universal healthcare (e.g. regulatory capture in the case of EpiPen). That tactic is rarely necessary once generics enter the mix, as long as nothing is artificially preventing them from getting to market.

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

#316

Post by johnflan »

randcraw wrote: post #288
dkrich wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A few points in refutation. I see Amazon as far ahead of Walmart in all ways that promise growth: 1) Walmart may be the biggest retailer in the US, but they don't have half of the US homes as subscribers. Amazon Prime does. I doubt Walmart.com attracts any where near as many e-tail visitors as Amazon, and I suspect the gap is widening. 2) Amazon is decades ahead of Walmart in the online shopper experience. I grit my…

Walmart also launched jet.com

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

#317

Post by Johnny555 »

CaptSpify wrote: post #306
Johnny555 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

Forgive me as I don't know xen that well, but... Couldn't they just make a copy of the vm, isolate it, and then break into that one? sure the data will be "old", but not by a lot, and it would theoretically be undetectable.

That only gives them the data that's in-flight and already decrypted for processing, but any security conscious company will have their data segmented into many sections that are broken up into smaller pieces with their contents encrypted separately with a decryption key that's stored in a hardware HSM.

If they want to capture the entire data stream, they'll need to capture it in real-time.

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

#318

Post by tyingq »

086421357909764 wrote: post #298
randcraw wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in the IT division of a Fortune 100 pharma. About four years ago I was astonished as a senior business director proudly bragged to us about the company's successful accounts payable strategy of paying all vendor bills as late as possible. This allowed the company to earn a higher yield on overnight investments, despite the continuing outcry from business partners. I imagine most giant corporations now behave t…

I see most firms start with NET30 now, but many have begun pushing NET90. We started putting terms in our contract that show bill due prior to work commencement, most don't pay attention and expect you'll just fall in line. Those are usually customers we don't want. The smart ones that actually pay attention will usually counter with a tiered approach. 50/50 or 40,30,30 with milestones. It can easily make or break a…

Doesn't work all the time, but my approach to this is to pad rates 10% beforehand, then offer a 10% discount on any invoice that follows one that was paid NET10. Whatever bean counter is pushing for NET45 or worse usually sees the benefit of going to NET10.

Discounting only the single invoice that follows one paid on time keeps them honest. Short or late pay me, and the next invoice gets no discount.

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

#319

Post by johncolanduoni »

randcraw wrote: post #292
mschuster91 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When companies are able to do this, they should be broken up, period. Unfortunately we are in a system that's essentially the worst of capitalism with none of the good (and especially not with regulations), so there is no hope left and more jobs will migrate to China. That's what Trump should tackle if he wants to stop job migration, but it seems like he's focused on anything but regulating BigCos.

I've long wondered, with the rise of the internet, is prosecution really necessary to address unsavory business practices like these? Why not force the company into the light, posting this information in a useful form that informs the public and shames the malefactor? I'm a strong proponent of open . If shady behavior arises in business, government, public services, and even public discourse, I'd love to see a modera…

Because ultimately most people won't care enough to stop going with the cheaper option, especially when all you can point to is negative effects for vendors. It's not like Amazon is going around creating spurious libel lawsuits against people for publishing criticism of their business practices, or paying for people to muddy the waters with counter-articles. It's just that the information largely fall on deaf ears. I'm not sure what a judge or moderator would do when there's no real back and forth.

A lot of conduct unbecoming like this becomes public (Intel is a good example). How many people stopped buying their products even with literal judges finding them guilty of some particularly nasty anti-competitive practices?

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

#320

Post by paulddraper »

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…

Read "immoral" as "immortal". Maybe that's more accurate.
Post reply on HN