The Vendor Lock-In You Don’t See
Cloud lock-in is pernicious. It's dangerous. And it's already here.
Introducing AWS Elastic Beanstalker
The past couple of months at AWS have been consumed with “OP1.” You would be forgiven for thinking this is some form of disease. But because Amazon is a beautiful bespoke place with a language all its own, this is what they call their annual planning cycle. Big Ideas are proposed from teams and, in […]
Happy Birthday Jeff Barr!
After watching enough of his talks to recite them by heart, The Duckbill Group says "happy birthday" to Amazon CTO Werner Vogels in our own special way.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Keynotes
Welcome to Build re:Invent Next! The lights go down. It’s time for your preferred cloud vendor’s annual keynote to start. An inspiring video plays to what was charitably deemed “corporate dance music” but in practice sounds like a sped-up Enya on quaaludes. Satya / Andy / a robot walks on stage to welcome us all […]
What the #&^$ Is Happening at Oracle Cloud?
There’s something going on over at Oracle Cloud, and I think the industry is missing it entirely in favor of the easy “Oracle sucks” narrative. There’s a change afoot, and I have a sneaking suspicion of what it might be. True, Oracle Cloud is a popular target for derision and mockery—and who could blame anyone? […]
An AWS Database Safari
When we talk about vendor lock-in, one of the most common stories we see is one of databases. The database you pick to hold your data is something you’re going to be using for a good long while; migrations are painful, expensive, time-consuming, and—in some cases —barely possible. Amazon themselves ran on top of Oracle […]
AWS Ruins Own Attempt at Sabotage
This week’s analysis on multi-cloud being a bad idea is once again pushed back by breaking news. In this case, AWS is suing a former executive, Brian Hall, under his non-compete agreement. I’ve covered my thoughts on non-compete agreements in the past—it was the driver behind my decision to decline an AWS job offer several […]
How to Compete with AWS
As a Cloud Economist, I spend most of my time helping companies fix their horrifying AWS bills. But it’s something of an open secret that I periodically moonlight as an industry analyst. An analysis client recently asked me about the threat of AWS moving into their market as a strategic concern, and couldn’t understand at […]
When AWS Elastic Underpants Launches, Here’s How I’ll Learn About It
People like to ask me the same question: How do you keep up with AWS service and feature releases? I get it almost as frequently as what the hell is wrong with you? It’s a fun question, and today I’d like to take a stab at answering it in a format that goes beyond “a […]
The Lost Opportunity of Amazon Kendra
Amazon Kendra feels like a lost opportunity to onboard AWS customers of a different stripe.
How Azure’s Capacity Woes Hurt GCP, AWS, and All the Rest
Azure's capacity issues cast a pall over public cloud that extends well beyond just Microsoft.
Why Zoom Chose Oracle Cloud Over AWS and Maybe You Should Too
Updated: May 1, 2020. See the bottom of this article for some clarifications. Today, news broke that Zoom signed a deal with Oracle Cloud to host their cloud infrastructure, beating out AWS, Azure, and GCP. You might expect that this is about to be a post full of Oracle bashing. You’re about to be disappointed. […]