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This feels like a new level of gross for Amazon in terms of their previous "this open-source thing is mine now" strategy. Not only is this taking-and-running a

This feels like a new level of gross for Amazon in terms of their previous "this open-source thing is mine now" strategy. Not only is this taking-and-running an open source project, but on top of that, the pricing is per user? This feels like a step beyond "hosting software for you", and towards "building a business with someone else's product" I see that this is in partnership with Grafana Labs, which I guess is a good thing, but I can't comprehend why Grafana would have gone along with this (short of some sort of "well we're doing it either way" threat from Amazon). I don't see anything new here that Amazon is providing on top of what Grafana Labs already did. What am I missing?

wmf 6y ago
What if some of that pricing is passing though to Grafana Labs?
- nrmitchi 6y ago
  Do you have some special knowledge from a different source that indicates this would be the case? If not you're just speculating that Amazon is acting in an very un-historical-Amazon way.
  - jimn 6y ago
    https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/how-aws-and-grafana-labs-are-collaborating-to-improve-grafana-for-all/ https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/how-aws-and-grafana-... Down in the Conclusion section at the bottom: "AWS, working with Grafana Labs, will be contributing licensing revenue and code to help make Grafana even better, not just for the AWS service, but also for open source users and Grafana Cloud customers."
    - nrmitchi 6y ago
      Well that is good then. The initial content that I had read indicated that it was Grafana Enterprise licences that would be contributed back. This is a new step for Amazon, which is good. In this case this feels closer to a first-party AWS Marketplace app for Grafana.
    - rhizome 6y ago
      Embrace (the tech), Extend (their revenues), Extinguish (the company). The financial connection of the "partnership" is now a leash and collar. What's the survival rate of Amazon partners?
temp667 6y ago
The only reason amazon does this is because their third party provider requires it. Same with book prices. Lots of cheap e-books, and then I see "price set by publisher" and its $29.99.
- ensignavenger 6y ago
  While you are probably right, as far as ebooks go, Amazon keeps a higher percentage of the ebook price than a lot of their competitors do, so I would not be surprised if some publishers charge more on Amazon to cover the Amazon take.
heliodor 6y ago
Grafana has been fine with this for many years, as far as I can tell. They take a "big tent" approach to this. Plenty of companies incorporate a hosted Grafana in their product. A few monitoring platforms too: https://HostedGraphite.com https://HostedGraphite.com for many years now, and my own https://HostedMetrics.com https://HostedMetrics.com in the last few years.
- nrmitchi 6y ago
  I see your point, but there are 2 key differences here that I see. 1. Your product is integrating multiple tools and data sources to provide value beyond "just grafana". 2. You're are not Amazon, and I think that is actually a big point here. It's unlikely that someone will choose your product over Grafana if they are just looking for a hosted Grafana. I don't think that's really the case with an AWS alternative.

wmf 6y ago

What if some of that pricing is passing though to Grafana Labs?

nrmitchi 6y ago
Do you have some special knowledge from a different source that indicates this would be the case? If not you're just speculating that Amazon is acting in an very un-historical-Amazon way.
- jimn 6y ago
  https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/how-aws-and-grafana-labs-are-collaborating-to-improve-grafana-for-all/ https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/how-aws-and-grafana-... Down in the Conclusion section at the bottom: "AWS, working with Grafana Labs, will be contributing licensing revenue and code to help make Grafana even better, not just for the AWS service, but also for open source users and Grafana Cloud customers."
  - nrmitchi 6y ago
    Well that is good then. The initial content that I had read indicated that it was Grafana Enterprise licences that would be contributed back. This is a new step for Amazon, which is good. In this case this feels closer to a first-party AWS Marketplace app for Grafana.
  - rhizome 6y ago
    Embrace (the tech), Extend (their revenues), Extinguish (the company). The financial connection of the "partnership" is now a leash and collar. What's the survival rate of Amazon partners?

temp667 6y ago

The only reason amazon does this is because their third party provider requires it. Same with book prices. Lots of cheap e-books, and then I see "price set by publisher" and its $29.99.

ensignavenger 6y ago
While you are probably right, as far as ebooks go, Amazon keeps a higher percentage of the ebook price than a lot of their competitors do, so I would not be surprised if some publishers charge more on Amazon to cover the Amazon take.

heliodor 6y ago

Grafana has been fine with this for many years, as far as I can tell. They take a "big tent" approach to this. Plenty of companies incorporate a hosted Grafana in their product. A few monitoring platforms too: https://HostedGraphite.com https://HostedGraphite.com for many years now, and my own https://HostedMetrics.com https://HostedMetrics.com in the last few years.

nrmitchi 6y ago
I see your point, but there are 2 key differences here that I see. 1. Your product is integrating multiple tools and data sources to provide value beyond "just grafana". 2. You're are not Amazon, and I think that is actually a big point here. It's unlikely that someone will choose your product over Grafana if they are just looking for a hosted Grafana. I don't think that's really the case with an AWS alternative.