6 ms·

First thing I noticed was Amazon in there Stack. Amazon really owns the internet...

philippnagel 12y ago
In what way does Amazon own the Internet? Yes, they own some of the computers that make up the Internet, but by far not all of them.
- metaphorm 12y ago
  they are the dominant vendor of hardware/hosting to the largest and most complex web applications on the internet. AWS is the pillar that some of the most high volume sites on the internet (like Twitter and Netflix) rely on. Its safe to say that without AWS (or some other similar vendor) the internet as we know it wouldn't exist.
  - latch 12y ago
    That's ridiculous. It's like you're saying: without Honda, the car industry, as we know it, wouldn't exist. The hosting industry is huge. There's a ton options, many of them better, larger and older than AWS. There are so many sites that don't use AWS. For example, I believe that, pre-Google, youtube used ServerBeach.
    - sanderjd 12y ago
      > There's a ton options, many of them better, larger and older than AWS. Some examples would be more interesting than a general "you're wrong".
      - latch 12y ago
        For every site that's reliant on AWS, there's probably more than 10 000 that aren't. The giants, for example: Google. Facebook. Wikipedia. Microsoft. It's hard to get actual numbers, but Equinix might be the largest. I believe their Singapore data center is actually what AWS, Digital Ocean and Azure use. (there's a lot more of these, such as Internap and Level 3 (which provided (and might still) services for Netflix and iTunes.)) AT&T is quite large. World of Warcraft used to be hosted on AT&T's infrastructure (might still be). The above tend to be for large setups. Going smaller, you have the Rackspaces and Softlayers (now IBM). And, to a lesser extent, providers like OVH and Hetzner. And, you can't forget the likes of Digital Ocean and Linode. It's hard to come up with examples because more things are examples than aren't. AWS' market share is growing, but that's to be expected, in a lot of ways, despite EC2 being ~10 years old , it's still a new player. AFAIC, what's more interesting about AWS is: 1 - How dominating it is over Microsoft and Google 2 - How popular the less invasive offerings are. A lot of people are sticking to their colocated, dedicated or VPSs, while using some part of AWS for DNS, backups or email. I hope they keep this up.
        sanderjd 12y ago
        Thanks for the reply—exactly what I was hoping for!
      - nullrouted 12y ago
        I'm not saying right or wrong but here are some examples: WhatsApp (Pre-Facebook) - Softlayer Youtube (Pre-Google) - ServerBeach Vevo - Rackspace Zendesk - Rackspace GoCardless - Softlayer Snapchat - Softlayer

In what way does Amazon own the Internet? Yes, they own some of the computers that make up the Internet, but by far not all of them.

metaphorm 12y ago
they are the dominant vendor of hardware/hosting to the largest and most complex web applications on the internet. AWS is the pillar that some of the most high volume sites on the internet (like Twitter and Netflix) rely on. Its safe to say that without AWS (or some other similar vendor) the internet as we know it wouldn't exist.
- latch 12y ago
  That's ridiculous. It's like you're saying: without Honda, the car industry, as we know it, wouldn't exist. The hosting industry is huge. There's a ton options, many of them better, larger and older than AWS. There are so many sites that don't use AWS. For example, I believe that, pre-Google, youtube used ServerBeach.
  - sanderjd 12y ago
    > There's a ton options, many of them better, larger and older than AWS. Some examples would be more interesting than a general "you're wrong".
    - latch 12y ago
      For every site that's reliant on AWS, there's probably more than 10 000 that aren't. The giants, for example: Google. Facebook. Wikipedia. Microsoft. It's hard to get actual numbers, but Equinix might be the largest. I believe their Singapore data center is actually what AWS, Digital Ocean and Azure use. (there's a lot more of these, such as Internap and Level 3 (which provided (and might still) services for Netflix and iTunes.)) AT&T is quite large. World of Warcraft used to be hosted on AT&T's infrastructure (might still be). The above tend to be for large setups. Going smaller, you have the Rackspaces and Softlayers (now IBM). And, to a lesser extent, providers like OVH and Hetzner. And, you can't forget the likes of Digital Ocean and Linode. It's hard to come up with examples because more things are examples than aren't. AWS' market share is growing, but that's to be expected, in a lot of ways, despite EC2 being ~10 years old , it's still a new player. AFAIC, what's more interesting about AWS is: 1 - How dominating it is over Microsoft and Google 2 - How popular the less invasive offerings are. A lot of people are sticking to their colocated, dedicated or VPSs, while using some part of AWS for DNS, backups or email. I hope they keep this up.
      - sanderjd 12y ago
        Thanks for the reply—exactly what I was hoping for!
    - nullrouted 12y ago
      I'm not saying right or wrong but here are some examples: WhatsApp (Pre-Facebook) - Softlayer Youtube (Pre-Google) - ServerBeach Vevo - Rackspace Zendesk - Rackspace GoCardless - Softlayer Snapchat - Softlayer