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This is a persistent myth that needs to die, AWS was not built to host their websites, and indeed did not do so for many years after it was established. AWS wa

by throwaway2048 9y ago

This is a persistent myth that needs to die, AWS was not built to host their websites, and indeed did not do so for many years after it was established. AWS wasnt their "spare capacity" nor was it them exposing their internal systems to the world so they could sell them off, It was developed from day one as a public facing service.

tyingq 9y ago
Does amazon.com, today, run directly on the same AWS we use, or on some private copy of it, or some hybrid of the two?
obastani 9y ago
I don't think what you are saying contradicts the gp. All the expertise that went into developing tools to host their own website probably went into developing AWS. Just because they maintained two separate infrastructures doesn't mean that it's not an example of turning an internal tool into a product.
supercanuck 9y ago
I think it is you who is incorrect https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3161246 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3161246
- Retric 9y ago
  Your misunderstanding that comment. It was built "in the same datacenters by the same IT engineering team" but it was always it's own thing. "AWS services were quickly adopted by many teams" after it was built and a commercial product. Sure, the intent was Amazon IT would eventually move to that system. But, they could let other companies work out the issues first vs. risking their main website. Just consider the risk for them if AWS goes down and take their own site outline while they are trying to sell high up time. That's simply a risk they had no reason to take. PS: Remember, well executed traditional large scale infrastructure has higher up-time than AWS because AWS adds complexity.
bryanlarsen 9y ago
AWS was built to host Amazon. Sure, it was a public facing service first, but AFAICT Amazon.com was always the primary target customer, and probably still is. AWS was built based on the needs and experience for hosting Amazon.com.
- skookum 9y ago
  The experience of hosting and scaling Amazon may have informed some early AWS thinking but AWS was not built specifically to host Amazon and Amazon was never the primary target customer. This is evidenced by nothing more so than by the fact that despite Amazon's prescriptive initiative to move to AWS being well over 5 years in[1], much of retail & digital still runs on Oracle, dedicated HW, and bespoke internal services. To make the statement today that Amazon "probably still is" the primary target customer betrays a lack of understanding of the scope of AWS and IaaS in general. [1] It might be even 8+ years. I don't recall when it officially started so using 5+ as a very conservative estimate.
  - bryanlarsen 9y ago
    When you work on a product that has both internal and external customers, there are two possibilities: - the external customers get priority because they're real customers that pay real money. - the internal customers get priority either because they're the "real" business of the company or because they have the right connections Amazon uses a very tiny fraction of AWS, but I'm willing to bet that their bug reports and feature requests are accorded a fairly high priority.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]

tyingq 9y ago

Does amazon.com, today, run directly on the same AWS we use, or on some private copy of it, or some hybrid of the two?

obastani 9y ago

I don't think what you are saying contradicts the gp. All the expertise that went into developing tools to host their own website probably went into developing AWS. Just because they maintained two separate infrastructures doesn't mean that it's not an example of turning an internal tool into a product.

supercanuck 9y ago

I think it is you who is incorrect https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3161246 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3161246

Retric 9y ago
Your misunderstanding that comment. It was built "in the same datacenters by the same IT engineering team" but it was always it's own thing. "AWS services were quickly adopted by many teams" after it was built and a commercial product. Sure, the intent was Amazon IT would eventually move to that system. But, they could let other companies work out the issues first vs. risking their main website. Just consider the risk for them if AWS goes down and take their own site outline while they are trying to sell high up time. That's simply a risk they had no reason to take. PS: Remember, well executed traditional large scale infrastructure has higher up-time than AWS because AWS adds complexity.

bryanlarsen 9y ago

AWS was built to host Amazon. Sure, it was a public facing service first, but AFAICT Amazon.com was always the primary target customer, and probably still is. AWS was built based on the needs and experience for hosting Amazon.com.

skookum 9y ago
The experience of hosting and scaling Amazon may have informed some early AWS thinking but AWS was not built specifically to host Amazon and Amazon was never the primary target customer. This is evidenced by nothing more so than by the fact that despite Amazon's prescriptive initiative to move to AWS being well over 5 years in[1], much of retail & digital still runs on Oracle, dedicated HW, and bespoke internal services. To make the statement today that Amazon "probably still is" the primary target customer betrays a lack of understanding of the scope of AWS and IaaS in general. [1] It might be even 8+ years. I don't recall when it officially started so using 5+ as a very conservative estimate.
- bryanlarsen 9y ago
  When you work on a product that has both internal and external customers, there are two possibilities: - the external customers get priority because they're real customers that pay real money. - the internal customers get priority either because they're the "real" business of the company or because they have the right connections Amazon uses a very tiny fraction of AWS, but I'm willing to bet that their bug reports and feature requests are accorded a fairly high priority.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]