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OVH CEO: Unlike Amazon, Google, “we will never be in competition with you”

datacenterdynamics.com

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Re: OVH CEO: Unlike Amazon, Google, “we will never be in competition with you”

#2

Post by adamnemecek »

I used to have a server with them however the UI was ...beyond words. It was impossible for me to renew my subscription because the site was throwing a JS error. Has this improved? Their offering was very good bang for buck I've seen.

Re: OVH CEO: Unlike Amazon, Google, “we will never be in competition with you”

#4

Post by Fizzadar »

adamnemecek wrote: post #2

I used to have a server with them however the UI was ...beyond words. It was impossible for me to renew my subscription because the site was throwing a JS error. Has this improved? Their offering was very good bang for buck I've seen.

The "OVH Manager" is still pretty bad, although it has improved a lot since they switched over a year (or two?) ago. At that price point there's really not much alternative, only Hetzner come to mind, certainly nothing in the US.

Re: OVH CEO: Unlike Amazon, Google, “we will never be in competition with you”

#5

Post by dmoy »

arenaninja wrote: post #3

I think it's safe to say that Amazon's ambition is unlimited at this point in time. I fully expect them to jump into commercial banking in the near future

So there are fairly strong regulations on what other things a bank can do. I can't remember exactly what it entails. It's possible Amazon could get around that with holding company structure or something, but I'm not sure.

I agree with your general point though, maybe just not the bank part.

Edit1: It's not reg W, damn I cannot remember which section describes this. There's too many bank regs in the US.

Edit2: ok 12 CFR 225.21 &238.51 we're closer: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/12/225.21

Bank or bank holding can't own anything other than other fin, ag, or family stuff.

I'm still at sure to what extent this would stop Amazon from starting their own bank. (IANAL, but this was explained to me years ago by an expert on us federal banking regulation so I have hazy memories of it)

Aaaand I just wasted 15 minutes of my morning looking through the CFR on banking regulation, time to stop reading hackernews.

Re: OVH CEO: Unlike Amazon, Google, “we will never be in competition with you”

#6

Post by wpietri »

This is a nice PR bit, but I wonder if it really matters?

I would be very reluctant to do a startup centered on, say, GMail or Amazon Marketplace as a platform. If you get too successful, it's too easy for them to say, "Hey, here's a proven high-value business for us to get into." And then they have my customer right there, so I'm screwed. (An example that comes to mind is Swype. They invented the swipeable virtual keyboard and made a great product. So great that Google added the feature to their own Android keyboard. And then released it for free on iOS, too.)

But I'm not worried at all about using their infrastructure services, because it doesn't give them much in way of competitive advantage. Netflix, for example, has a lot of their stuff running in AWS. Amazon has Prime Movies + TV as a direct competitor, but I don't think Netflix really cares. I as a consumer sure don't; from my perspective Netflix and Amazon are completely separate.

Re: OVH CEO: Unlike Amazon, Google, “we will never be in competition with you”

#7

Post by thejosh »

adamnemecek wrote: post #2

I used to have a server with them however the UI was ...beyond words. It was impossible for me to renew my subscription because the site was throwing a JS error. Has this improved? Their offering was very good bang for buck I've seen.

Yeah their UI is beyond useless.

Their support is beyond useless.

Can't even cancel my servers, but everything else was great.

Ended up having to use their API to cancel the server, since support wouldn't cancel the server for me - here is an actual email they sent me: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DY2rWiLU8AA_mKt.jpg:large

Re: OVH CEO: Unlike Amazon, Google, “we will never be in competition with you”

#8

Post by arenaninja »

dmoy wrote: post #5
arenaninja wrote: post #3

I think it's safe to say that Amazon's ambition is unlimited at this point in time. I fully expect them to jump into commercial banking in the near future

So there are fairly strong regulations on what other things a bank can do. I can't remember exactly what it entails. It's possible Amazon could get around that with holding company structure or something, but I'm not sure. I agree with your general point though, maybe just not the bank part. Edit1: It's not reg W, damn I cannot remember which section describes this. There's too many bank regs in the US. Edit2: ok 12…

There's a lot of banking regulations but Amazon has enough money to either buy an existing online solution or develop their own

Re: OVH CEO: Unlike Amazon, Google, “we will never be in competition with you”

#9

Post by adamnemecek »

thejosh wrote: post #7
adamnemecek wrote: post #2

I used to have a server with them however the UI was ...beyond words. It was impossible for me to renew my subscription because the site was throwing a JS error. Has this improved? Their offering was very good bang for buck I've seen.

Yeah their UI is beyond useless. Their support is beyond useless. Can't even cancel my servers, but everything else was great. Ended up having to use their API to cancel the server, since support wouldn't cancel the server for me - here is an actual email they sent me: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DY2rWiLU8AA_mKt.jpg:large

Oh yeah, the support was lol. And I have seen a fair share of terrible customer support.
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