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Amazon is sometimes less than perfect, but they operate in hypercompetitive markets where customers can easily switch away. This builds an entirely different k
by rdl 9y ago
Amazon is sometimes less than perfect, but they operate in hypercompetitive markets where customers can easily switch away. This builds an entirely different kind of company than an Oracle or a big defense contractor. Fundamentally CIA and DOD cloud requirements aren't that different from large existing AWS workloads so it's nearly the existing COTS product. (There's a bit of security on top, some of which is better in commercial AWS than in most locked-down S/TS environments already, some of which can be retrofitted onto AWS easily, and much of which is just policy, but the rest of the product is basically already fine.)
I would trust an arbitrary product which competes on the marketplace and is sold into government on a COTS basis more than virtually anything arising out of government/vendor insanity. (I'd probably go with a purely-Government solution if it were a really specialized thing and of small enough scale, developed organically by the end user org, more than a traditional procurement thing, but COTS generally is the winner whenever a COTS option exists.)
- youdontknowtho 9y agoIf you think that Amazon got where it has in government because of competition, I have a bridge to sell you. That's not how business is done in the public sector. It's just not. Years of legislation have built massive systems of patronage that must be satisfied no matter what service or system you provide. "Trust a product"...that's part of the problem right there. Why do we have to trust them? It's just weird how emotion becomes part of this. I'm not trying to single you out or anything. I do it too, reflexively. I guess my point is that the only difference between Oracle and Amazon are some letters in the name and some circumstances. If you think that Amazon won't behave in exactly the same way under a different set of circumstances, then you are going to be let down. Maybe I'm just rambling...I'm pretty pessimistic about the state of the IT industry and American business in general. It's all just so incredibly short sighted.
- rdl 9y agoAmazon got where it is in the general marketplace by building winning products. It then used that incumbency to be the obvious choice to expand into the public sector, competing with largely incompetent companies. It's the same thing when USG buys efficient, highly-optimized products like, say, regular pickup trucks polarises and such for fleets, rather than paying LockMart/NG/Boeing/BAE to build them a custom "non-tactical advanced transport device".
- youdontknowtho 9y agoI disagree.