Was AWS really first? > There will be some kind of competition already out there. I remember LAMP providers and FTP'ing PHP files before AWS. I remember cPane

Was AWS really first? > There will be some kind of competition already out there. I remember LAMP providers and FTP'ing PHP files before AWS. I remember cPanel and phpMyAdmin. I remember Unix boxes that gave you free user accounts w/ open ports and everyone operated on the honor system. While nobody could quite grasp the vast IT supply chain AWS would end up becoming, the writing had been on the wall for years. It only made sense to evolve from "here's a server" to "here's a server running a service" to "here's a service" to "here's a solution." I bet quite a few people had been dreaming of a platform like AWS by the time it came along, but of course they likely did not have the backing of a major tech company with superstar business leaders and tech experts (shoutout to Jeff Barr!).