Last week at the D6 conference, Om Malik caught Jeff Bezos on video after his on-stage appearance (in which he talked about a new pay-per-download movie service). In the five-minute hallway interview (embedded below), Bezos explains why a Web retailer is offering cloud computing services. The answer is because Amazon, as a Web-scale application, had to build these services for itself anyway. (Many investors and Wall Street analysts apparently still don’t get the connection).
Also, when asked if Amazon is considering starting its own venture fund to encourage Web Services startups like the iFund or the fbFund, Bezos laughs, and points out that plenty of venture-backed startups are already using Amazon’s Web services.
If you haven’t seen the video yet, here it is:
THAT is ONE HOT guy.
Sas
If necessity really is the mother of invention, then the fact that Amazon is marketing that expertise — platform as a service (PaaS) — doesn’t seem odd to me. Particularly, given the higher profit margins.
STL Partners, at their Telco 2.0 event, were essentially telling the broadband service providers to likewise find similar new complementary business models that leveraged their inherent expertise — in a meaningful way with other downstream service providers.
Amazon has, for a long time, had Google on its radar as they are slowly developing divisions which are in direct competition with one another… they are like Google in a way, they are always trying new things, falling flat on their face and picking themselves up all the wiser!
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com – Create Unique Memories!
Amazon web services kickass, and thats the bottom line.
bezos one of smartest man alive
Cloud computing is (or has been already) the future of hosting. if you already have the capacity, and in some cases, alot of capacity, why not monetizing it and give your customers some access to it? makes sense.
Bezos is a stud. Love the way he handles the “why is a book retailer developing this kind of technology?”
http://ryanagraves.com/blog/
More cloud computing services are launching everyday. Look for Diomede Storage in a couple months…
Great interview; shows the essence of why JB kicks ass…
ceo
Cloud computing is on the rise but it seems like it increases a company’s vulnerability to have its data stored in several geographically distant locations that are out of its direct control. Or do I not “get” it?
Cloud computing is indeed the future. I left Media Temple several months ago for EC2/S3. I couldn’t be happier. Now, my website, PBX and other things are all “in the cloud”.
Also, when I think of “Amazon,” I don’t think of just online shopping. I think of an all-inclusive service provider. The name is “bigger than life” and it truly reflects their latest efforts to diversify their business, which is smart.
Amazon’s approach to cloud computing is the best I know of to date. The little guy can now be the big guy without going broke.
Finally, it’s becoming a promising income generator for indie tech and media consultants like myself. Developers and corporations alike are seeking information about cloud computing at an increasing frequency. It’s exciting stuff.
Was the camera shot at a weird angle, or does Jeff Bezos always lean his head that way? Needs to see a chiropractor.
you see the eyes on that guy? truly and interdimensional being
@Ronald Lewis
Any specific reason for leaving Media Temple? my site darrb.com is hosted in their cloud and till now their service is fine (except for few instances). Did you leave them for a specific incident or its just a better deal?
Im surprised to hear that wall street analysts dont get it. Not only does it make perfect sense but they have an amazing line-up of services.
Running online video contests you never know when an insane video is going be be uploaded and get massive traffic. With AWS we’re always ready and that is VERY reassuring to our clients. Its also ridiculously cost effective. Anybody running a startup needs to at least consider Amazon.
@JHC I agree, nothing better.
Ryan
lesson in brevity: http://www.mofata.com
Wall Street is right to question it. It might be a great service for consumers, but Wall Street is concerned whether AMZN will make any money from it–at a rate that exceeds their cost of capital.
The justification–well, they needed it anyway–is not sufficient. Lots of companies need services that they end up building themselves, sometimes even to world-class levels. But they don’t necessarily turn them into a business unless they make sense as a standalone unit.
For example, Google may have world class IT service, corporate cafeteria, or janitorial system. Microsoft may have the best-manicured lawns in all of tech. Or a world-class recruiting organization. While any of those might be the case, none of them are necessarily good businesses when offered as a service to others.
Amazon has long past reached the point where its web services are used to amortize the fixed costs of servers they use themselves–they are expending capital to build the platform for others use. What Wall Street wants to know is whether this is a profitable (in the economic sense, taking into account the cost of capital deployed) enterprise.
Just ’cause something is cool and the Valley kids like it doesn’t mean it’s a great business (or a business at all).
wtf is wrong with his neck…
God, he laughs so great!
Bogus, you’re right in there with the 20-something-ish wall street kids. – missing the long term point and threat of Amazon in web services. AWS is just the starting point, not the end strategy. They are what I call a “business model-based competitor”. Dell has these same tendencies.
As a small business owner that uses Amazon Web Services, I have nothing but respect for Jeff Bezos and Amazon. In my opinion, he’s like a humble Steve Jobs. Now, if he could just get Jonathan Ive to help out with the next version of the Kindle…
web service diffcult…
Hi, just surfed in. I enjoyed looking around your web site. This site has been very useful to me so far and I have barely scrathed the surface of it.
Nice Posting. I believe Cloud computing is the future.
Sandeep
Nice blog. I believe the future is Cloud computing.
Sandeep
Does any public company use AWS?
I wonder how a internet business would explain their reliance on AWS to the street.