[18] – Not choosing AWS cloud as Amazon will take away my Business

Recently I am hearing some companies Not opting for AWS Cloud and going with other cloud vendors, as they are afraid of Amazon taking over their Business.

This sounds like Not buying an iPhone and going for a Next Best Alternative because Apple mistreats their workers in their sub-contracted Chinese factories. Clearly the focus is misplaced, unless you are a human rights NGO

Also, this fear is not restricted to a particular business or industry. It seems to be prevalent everywhere in business ranging from a small underwear maker to a large truck maker.

Ironically, the companies who are already operating in the same space as Amazon, like Netflix (Prime video), Walmart, JC Penny (Retail) and many others, have no qualms about hosting their systems on AWS cloud and are happily going about using it more and more every year.

So, I sincerely hope that these companies who are Opting Out of AWS cloud have some other reason like the other cloud vendor offering better incentives to go with them, or something else which I may never understand.

And these things cannot be said in press release and social media, so someone came up with this nifty new fear mongering statement that they cannot use AWS cloud as Amazon will learn everything about them and then open a similar business to knock them out.

But if the true reason for not choosing AWS cloud is actually because of fear, then I think it is unfounded.

I suspect that the CXO’s responsible for making these decisions are not in touch with ground realities and are living in their rarified environments of meetings, conferences, business dinners etc. and believe whatever they see or hear in social media.

I think these are the same Executives who in year 2012 vowed to Never migrate their systems to public cloud at Any Cost. Now the same Executives are compelled to consider migration for (drumroll please) saving the costs. Of course, there might be other reasons too, like acknowledging that their systems are more Secure in Cloud then in their own data centers.

If you get to know them more, you will find that their another recent pet peeve was Not going with One cloud vendor because of Vendor Lock-In. So, they dream up of this grand multi-cloud strategy and after a couple of years of the project being in Design phase, you come to know that the project has been shelved because of exhausted budget.

Talking about Vendor Lock-in, if you ask which ERP systems they use, they will promptly answer SAP (move over, No Lock-in here). If you enquire about what is their primary enterprise database, the answer is Oracle (again, don’t look with crossed eyes, there is No Lock-in here)

Now, these same Executives line up to get Permission and Approval from SAP to make some changes in their Own Systems and they are waiting for a free slot from Oracle to schedule an upgrade.  But that does not constitute a lock-in.

However, if you have Bill on your Speed-dial or Larry is your neighbor in Hamptons, then it is entirely a different matter.

Also, we are witness to the fact that if Amazon sets its sight on some business, they will dominate and take away a large chunk of it. Judging by their history, you can be rest assured that if Amazon wants to be in the same business as you are, they will do it whether your systems are in AWS cloud or not.

So, while choosing the cloud vendor, I would encourage you to vet multiple cloud vendors yourself and choose them based on your real experiences rather than falling for their fancy marketing. With the pay-as-you-go model and availability of free-tier, you can do these experiments for free or for very small amounts.

Put more faith in your technical and engineering team’s abilities and experiences than grand promises and propagandas by vendors sales people. Look at the total experiences of Hosting and Running your systems in multiple cloud vendors. See how many Tickets are required for keeping your systems running. Check different types of services offered by cloud vendors and supported integration between them.

See how many times you need to engage with Premium Support team of cloud vendors for resolution of problems that should have not been there in the first place. Check the maturity, innovativeness and reliability of your cloud vendor and run tests to examine it yourself. See if the cloud vendor is able to meet the promised SLAs or not.

And finally, use the service thoroughly to understand its capabilities and limitations. As you are well aware, Any car doesn’t become Tesla by putting a Tesla emblem in front of it.

The Tick box checking may be ok during an RFP phase, but is not acceptable when your business depends on it.

Happy Clouding!

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