Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS • Hacker News Board

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#71

Post by dvfjsdhgfv » Tue, May 12, 2020, 7:36 AM UTC

ksec wrote: post #21

If Hetzner ( Also from Germany ) cant / isn't competing with AWS, why does Lidl thinks they can? It then also mention Delivery in UK, and ecommerce projects . Which makes me doubt if the publication knows what AWS really is. The whole piece ( If you can even call it a piece ) is very poor reporting, to the point I am thinking of should I be flagging this. Edit: Please Read Comment by Cu3PO42 https://news.ycombinator.…

> If Hetzner ( Also from Germany ) cant / isn't competing with AWS, why does Lidl thinks they can?

Hetzner has a completely different business model and so far it has been working very well for them. They are good at optimization of all their available resources via flexible pricing. As their loyal customer for almost 10 years I love one their aspect that I hate with AWS: with Hetzner, I'm 100% sure how much I'm going to pay at the end of the billing period. Actually, for several of my customers I turned on yearly billing as the amounts are so ridiculously small.

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#72

Post by patagona » Tue, May 12, 2020, 7:36 AM UTC

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #12

I don't want to sound dismissive, but I don't think their acquisition is going to be enough for them to compete with AWS. https://www.camao.one/de-de/referenzen Unless they have some other cards they haven't played yet, this sounds more like a headline intended for investors rather than customers.

Yea, the german link above doesn't even mention the acquisition and the german source for the english article ("Lebensmittel Zeitung") doesn't talk about "cloud specialists" either. CAMAO IDC are software developers (who know how to use the cloud), not "cloud specialists" in the sense that they know how to run a cloud provider.

Source: I work there

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#73

Post by barbecue_sauce » Tue, May 12, 2020, 7:36 AM UTC

bflesch wrote: post #60

I've been to LIDL / Schwarz Group headquarters in Heilbronn last year, and while they're a super young company with a vibrant atmosphere (which quite unique amongst large German companies), IMO they are ultimately too much attached to their legacy cash cows. They are not streamlining retail processes because they earn too much money with it. They have great IT talent, which is building fancy pilots all day, but refus…

I've only been to Lidls in the US, but their stores seem pretty streamlined to me.

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#74

Post by mediascreen » Tue, May 12, 2020, 7:37 AM UTC

discodave wrote: post #62

bigtones wrote: post #7

"The acquisition, which completed on May 1, brings 70 cloud specialists into the wider group”. For comparison, Amazon has 40,000 employees in AWS.

Looking up "Amazon Web Services" on LinkedIn, and going to the "people" tab gets you 50k people in 2020. So maybe you're even underestimating!

Doesn't that include anyone who has ever worked for AWS?

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#75

Post by oblio » Tue, May 12, 2020, 7:37 AM UTC

estsauver wrote: post #8

I'm really confused why they think european data protection laws are likely to be a big barrier. I think Amazon is well poised to let you choose regions for things, and unless LIDL knows something we don't, will probably be able to adapt to almost any new regulations as well or as fast as Lidl could. I also wonder why I would trust LIDL to execute on a vital part of infrastructure for us, when they can't manage an SA…

Both the Patriot Act and the Cloud Act apply anywhere in the world.

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#76

Post by discodave » Tue, May 12, 2020, 7:38 AM UTC

speedgoose wrote: post #61

discodave wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just EC2 networking (VPC) is several hundred, maybe 1000 employees. My guess at the total headcount for EC2 would be several thousand employees. Source: worked as an engineer at Amazon, including EC2 for 5 years.

Some cloud providers have a lot fewer employees and are doing well. They don't have as many features compared to EC2 and VPC but it's not a major problem for them.

If you're talking about GCP, and MS, then they have thousands of engineers too.

If you're talking about Digital Ocean, Mongo, and other medium sized players, then I only give them a couple more years before things get really ugly.

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#77

Post by markvdb » Tue, May 12, 2020, 7:40 AM UTC

estsauver wrote: post #8

I'm really confused why they think european data protection laws are likely to be a big barrier. I think Amazon is well poised to let you choose regions for things, and unless LIDL knows something we don't, will probably be able to adapt to almost any new regulations as well or as fast as Lidl could. I also wonder why I would trust LIDL to execute on a vital part of infrastructure for us, when they can't manage an SA…

I rather see them cancelling SAP as a positive sign. They seem to know what they are doing...

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#78

Post by hobofan » Tue, May 12, 2020, 7:40 AM UTC

Jnr wrote: post #9

abhisuri97 wrote: post #3

Ignorant American here who has never heard of Lidl/Schwarz Group before. Is there anything in their history that would show that they know how to do compute? Is their infrastructure right now really solid/better than AWS?

Who could forget their SAP failure two years ago. https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252446965/Lidl-dumps-500...

That was also the first thing I thought of when I read the headline.

Might have been a wake up call for them to put more resources into IT and make it a core competency in the future.

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#79

Post by raverbashing » Tue, May 12, 2020, 7:41 AM UTC

ksec wrote: post #21

If Hetzner ( Also from Germany ) cant / isn't competing with AWS, why does Lidl thinks they can? It then also mention Delivery in UK, and ecommerce projects . Which makes me doubt if the publication knows what AWS really is. The whole piece ( If you can even call it a piece ) is very poor reporting, to the point I am thinking of should I be flagging this. Edit: Please Read Comment by Cu3PO42 https://news.ycombinator.…

> If Hetzner ( Also from Germany ) cant / isn't competing with AWS

This makes as much sense as saying "So if Digital Ocean (also from the US) can't compete with AWS, who can?"

They're different niches

Re: Lidl to Launch Rival to AWS

#80

Post by discodave » Tue, May 12, 2020, 7:41 AM UTC

mediascreen wrote: post #74

discodave wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking up "Amazon Web Services" on LinkedIn, and going to the "people" tab gets you 50k people in 2020. So maybe you're even underestimating!

Doesn't that include anyone who has ever worked for AWS?

I'm 90% sure it doesn't include people who have updated their LinkedIn after they leave.