This is the third in a series of articles based on the popular Cloud Matters lecture series I’ve been giving to executives and their top staff at global Fortune 100, 500 and 1000 companies since 2012. These articles are for working pros at all levels and are delivered without icing and sprinkles.
Whether your organization is already in the cloud or looking to make a cloud move, an important question that needs answering is which service provider to choose. If you’ve looked at the field, you know there’s a veritable sea of options. Amazon Web Services, AWS, is one of these options and a dominate player in the cloud space.
Although AWS delivers a smorgasbord of services and solutions for many different types of cloud scenarios, AWS is especially well suited for Software As A Service (SAAS) and Platform As A Service (PAAS), making AWS a strong choice for mobile, app, and messaging solutions as well as platform development. AWS also is strongly positioned for use in implementation of virtual meeting, chat and streaming desktop solutions.
Where AWS falls short is with regard to Infrastructure As A Service (IAAS), especially if you want to say move your company’s data center to the cloud or implement a hybrid enterprise cloud. AWS is slowly improving in these areas (think tortoise), but the options are not as robust as those offered by their leading competitors (by far).
Another area where AWS underwhelms is customer service and responsiveness. When I advise clients regarding AWS, the first thing I do is look at the potential size of business they are looking to bring to Amazon, dividing them into four categories:
Under $1M annually, clients who will be lucky to get the time of day
$1M - $2M annually, clients who are likely to get middling responsiveness half the time
$2M - $5M annually, clients who will get better responsiveness most of the time
Over $5M, clients who will get best responsiveness
An example? Sure. Recently, I contacted AWS on behalf of a group of clients. The AWS rep who received my emails didn’t even seem to read them before responding with generic, auto responses. This happened time and again over the course of the several weeks, where I got half-answered responses and half-attempts to deliver needed resources and answers. Mostly, I was directed to generic online help and documentation.
My experience was similar to that of multiple other clients, who couldn’t get anyone at AWS to give them proper focus and attention. During the course, of my discussions with AWS, I asked if it weren’t possible to actually block out calendar time to work with me to answer questions, gather materials and resources, etc. I was again pointed to generic online help and documentation, and then I received no further replies or responses to my inquiries or follow up whatsoever. Again, similar to what clients who went with AWS experienced and largely a reason they were moving elsewhere or going with alternate solutions for additional cloud needs.
Something else I’ve told my clients. When you consider Amazon, also consider it’s 20-year history of abusive labor and business practices. Below the executive, the general staff at Amazon is notoriously underpaid and overworked, meaning even the well-intentioned contacts your teams work with may not be able to properly support you in the first place. And when it comes to ethical, fairness as a business partner? Losing your wallet due to overbilling, extra charges, etc will likely be the least of your worries.
So there you have it, AWS served up raw on a platter. As always, these are my opinions and I reserve the right to change my position. Who knows, maybe Amazon will stop its draconian ways, clean up its unfair practices and stop minting billionaire executives while underpaying and overworking other staff. I won’t be holding my breath for that to happen. In the meantime, it’s why I’ve directed $100M+ in business away from AWS since I started lecturing.
This is cloud matters, part 3. If this strikes a chord with you, I hope you’ll follow, share and sign your company up for Cloud Matters.
Thank you for reading,
William Robert Stanek
williamstanek at aol.com
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PS
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