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What's always blown my mind is the trend for businesses to fail to understand this. Building your entire company around AWS means a future competitor also alrea

What's always blown my mind is the trend for businesses to fail to understand this. Building your entire company around AWS means a future competitor also already has full control of your company and access to your data. And I think the most hilarious example is Microsoft, a trillion-dollar level company which chose to hand over the entirety of the web (by switching to Chromium) and mobile (by abandoning WinMo for Android) and doesn't understand how they handed control of their entire business to their top competitor. The architects of those two decisions probably guaranteed the future collapse of Microsoft.

wolpoli 4y ago
Microsoft tried to continue to maintain their own browser for years without any market share to show for it. For whatever reason, the browser just couldn't match the level of polish in Google Chrome or Apple Safari. This current situation is stable for Microsoft - the fact that Microsoft is gaining market share with Edge means that Microsoft could threaten to fork Chromium, thus keeping Google in check there. ...as for mobile. I agree and wish Microsoft good luck.
TranquilMarmot 4y ago
The way I see it, Microsoft did that because they didn't view the web or mobile as mission-critical to their success as a business. Obviously they tried to invest in those areas and failed miserably (pre-Chromium Edge was awful, Windows Mobile was doomed to fail against iOS/Android). Here's an interesting breakdown of their profit: https://techbehemoths.com/blog/how-microsoft-makes-billions https://techbehemoths.com/blog/how-microsoft-makes-billions Azure is a huge cash cow, even in the competitive market (AWS, GCP, IBM, etc. etc.) because nobody wants to handle their own servers now. Many organizations are still a "Microsoft shop" and Microsoft makes loads of money from those contracts, not to mention enormous contracts with the government. It's interesting to see the money they make from gaming so strong; Google tried to get into gaming and keeps failing (see Stadia) and Apple seems to be having mixed results with it. Don't underestimate the strength of the Xbox brand!
- ocdtrekkie 4y ago
  Azure, however, is a platform built atop the web platform. Google, a competitor with Azure, has complete control of the platform Azure is built on. Even if Edge or WinMo aren't successful in their own right, nobody in their right mind should hand the underpinnings of their business to a competitor. Like, this would be if the US decided to use Russian rocket motors on their nuclear missiles because their best tech expertise was the warhead.
  - TranquilMarmot 4y ago
    > Azure, however, is a platform built atop the web platform Not necessarily, though, right? "The web" isn't just web browsers and mobile devices. Most code that I write that's run in the cloud is just "compute" and is crunching numbers. If anything, Microsoft is relying on Intel/AMD for all of their processors, as well as any other third party hardware manufacturers. Intel could force Microsoft to change all of their Azure servers in some way for them to upgrade and they wouldn't have much of a choice. Probably why Apple and Google have started to develop their own chips and hardware.

wolpoli 4y ago

Microsoft tried to continue to maintain their own browser for years without any market share to show for it. For whatever reason, the browser just couldn't match the level of polish in Google Chrome or Apple Safari. This current situation is stable for Microsoft - the fact that Microsoft is gaining market share with Edge means that Microsoft could threaten to fork Chromium, thus keeping Google in check there. ...as for mobile. I agree and wish Microsoft good luck.

TranquilMarmot 4y ago

The way I see it, Microsoft did that because they didn't view the web or mobile as mission-critical to their success as a business. Obviously they tried to invest in those areas and failed miserably (pre-Chromium Edge was awful, Windows Mobile was doomed to fail against iOS/Android). Here's an interesting breakdown of their profit: https://techbehemoths.com/blog/how-microsoft-makes-billions https://techbehemoths.com/blog/how-microsoft-makes-billions Azure is a huge cash cow, even in the competitive market (AWS, GCP, IBM, etc. etc.) because nobody wants to handle their own servers now. Many organizations are still a "Microsoft shop" and Microsoft makes loads of money from those contracts, not to mention enormous contracts with the government. It's interesting to see the money they make from gaming so strong; Google tried to get into gaming and keeps failing (see Stadia) and Apple seems to be having mixed results with it. Don't underestimate the strength of the Xbox brand!

ocdtrekkie 4y ago
Azure, however, is a platform built atop the web platform. Google, a competitor with Azure, has complete control of the platform Azure is built on. Even if Edge or WinMo aren't successful in their own right, nobody in their right mind should hand the underpinnings of their business to a competitor. Like, this would be if the US decided to use Russian rocket motors on their nuclear missiles because their best tech expertise was the warhead.
- TranquilMarmot 4y ago
  > Azure, however, is a platform built atop the web platform Not necessarily, though, right? "The web" isn't just web browsers and mobile devices. Most code that I write that's run in the cloud is just "compute" and is crunching numbers. If anything, Microsoft is relying on Intel/AMD for all of their processors, as well as any other third party hardware manufacturers. Intel could force Microsoft to change all of their Azure servers in some way for them to upgrade and they wouldn't have much of a choice. Probably why Apple and Google have started to develop their own chips and hardware.