{"id":14109274,"url":"https://github.com/timbray/a-cloud-prfaq","last_synced_at":"2025-03-23T11:17:18.159Z","repository":{"id":136888585,"uuid":"273595979","full_name":"timbray/a-cloud-prfaq","owner":"timbray","description":"A PR/FAQ document to support Amazon's decision on whether to spin out AWS as a separate company","archived":false,"fork":false,"pushed_at":"2020-06-24T21:27:57.000Z","size":33,"stargazers_count":117,"open_issues_count":8,"forks_count":10,"subscribers_count":27,"default_branch":"master","last_synced_at":"2025-01-28T17:45:09.170Z","etag":null,"topics":[],"latest_commit_sha":null,"homepage":null,"language":null,"has_issues":true,"has_wiki":null,"has_pages":null,"mirror_url":null,"source_name":null,"license":"mit","status":null,"scm":"git","pull_requests_enabled":true,"icon_url":"https://github.com/timbray.png","metadata":{"files":{"readme":"README.md","changelog":null,"contributing":null,"funding":null,"license":"LICENSE","code_of_conduct":null,"threat_model":null,"audit":null,"citation":null,"codeowners":null,"security":null,"support":null,"governance":null,"roadmap":null,"authors":null}},"created_at":"2020-06-19T22:15:26.000Z","updated_at":"2024-07-03T05:53:36.000Z","dependencies_parsed_at":"2024-01-08T07:59:58.525Z","dependency_job_id":null,"html_url":"https://github.com/timbray/a-cloud-prfaq","commit_stats":null,"previous_names":[],"tags_count":0,"template":false,"template_full_name":null,"repository_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/timbray%2Fa-cloud-prfaq","tags_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/timbray%2Fa-cloud-prfaq/tags","releases_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/timbray%2Fa-cloud-prfaq/releases","manifests_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/timbray%2Fa-cloud-prfaq/manifests","owner_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners/timbray","download_url":"https://codeload.github.com/timbray/a-cloud-prfaq/tar.gz/refs/heads/master","host":{"name":"GitHub","url":"https://github.com","kind":"github","repositories_count":245090876,"owners_count":20559298,"icon_url":"https://github.com/github.png","version":null,"created_at":"2022-05-30T11:31:42.601Z","updated_at":"2022-07-04T15:15:14.044Z","host_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub","repositories_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories","repository_names_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repository_names","owners_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners"}},"keywords":[],"created_at":"2024-08-14T10:02:11.849Z","updated_at":"2025-03-23T11:17:18.136Z","avatar_url":"https://github.com/timbray.png","language":null,"funding_links":[],"categories":["Others"],"sub_categories":[],"readme":"# AWS Becomes \"A-Cloud\", an Independent Entity\n\n### A-Cloud is positioned to address the whole multi-trillion dollar IT marketplace\n\n### Goldman Sachs to lead A-Cloud IPO - launch customers include Walmart and Apple\n\n**[Important: This document is not an Amazon production. It describes a hypothetical\nprocess that could take place, but the author is not an Amazon employee and has no information to suggest that any such process is\nin fact taking place.]**\n\nSEATTLE--(Business Wire)--December 1, 2020-- Today, at AWS re:Invent, \nJeff Bezos and Andy Jassy jointly announced A-Cloud, a new Delaware \ncorporation which will assume ownership of Amazon Web Services'\nassets and become the employer of existing AWS employees.  This \nwill make A-Cloud's services more attractive to customers who\ncompete with Amazon in one or more market segments, and free\nAmazon.com to build custom IT infrastructure where A-Cloud\nservices don't fully meet its needs. To get started with A-Cloud,\nvisit [A.Cloud](https://a.cloud).\n\nAWS has become the leading public-cloud provider, offering the widest \nrange of services backed by the strongest security, availability,\nand data-protection infrastructure.  Now, organizations who compete\nwith Amazon want to take advantage of AWS's industry-leading \nofferings without having to worry that they are strengthening \na competitor. \n\nFrom the AWS-customer point of view, the experience will be seamless.\nAll existing AWS services will continue to operate exactly as before wth no \nchanges of any kind required in any customer application.\n\n\"AWS is one of the Amazon.com creations of which I'm most\nproud\", said Jeff Bezos. \"Its success at improving IT cost,\nsecurity, and performance of large and small organizations across\nthe business, government, education, and nonprofit sectors \nconstitutes a major contribution to the way everyone uses technology.\nNow it's time for it to spread its wings and address the whole\nIT market, end to end and top to bottom.\"\n\nAndy Jassy, CEO of A-Cloud, said \"We owe everything to Jeff's\nleadership team, and everyone at A-Cloud joins me in a hearty \nthank-you. Now it's time for our team to work even \nharder at understanding and meeting customer needs across \nthe IT horizon.\"\n\nFollowing on A-Cloud's IPO, to be managed by Goldman Sachs, A-Cloud \nwill acquire all current AWS assets from Amazon.com\nfor a one-time payment of $100 billion. Also, Amazon.com will receive a \n20% equity stake in A-Cloud. Jeff Bezos has agreed to join the \nA-Cloud Board of Directors, but will not seek nor accept the Chairmanship.\n\nA-Cloud will continue the rapid pace of innovation for which AWS\nhas been acclaimed, without ever losing focus on delivering\nthe best security and uptime available from any vendor. A-Cloud\nlooks forward to serving Amazon.com as a customer, but understands\nthat Amazon may choose to operate some of its own data \ninfrastructure to meet specific needs or location requirements\nthat would not be well-served by A-Cloud.\n\n\"Walmart.com is the world's largest retailer\nand has developed an outstanding online-shopping experience\" said Doug McMillon, Walmart CEO. \"We don't\nsee online infrastructure as a core competence, and have \nagreed in principle to transfer our applications to run on \nA-Cloud infrastructure. We expect the cost savings to be massive,\nwithout any loss of responsiveness or security.\"\n\n\"Apple iCloud has become an essential part of the customer experience\non iPhone, iPad, and Mac\" said Tim Cook, Apple CEO. \"We look forward\nto relying on A-Cloud services to strengthen iCloud without\nany concerns about it competing with Apple in any of our\nbusiness segments.\"\n\n\"AWS has served Amazon.com retail superbly for fifteen \nyears now\" said Jeff Wilke, CEO:Worldwide Consumer at \nAmazon.com. \"We're confident that A-Cloud will continue \nto support our retail operations with the reliability,\nsecurity, and attention to detail that we've come to \nrely on.  There are a few select areas and geographies\nwhere we plan to build some very Amazon-retail-specific\ninfrastructure, but for general-pupose public-cloud \nservices, we're all-in on A-Cloud\".\n\n## External Frequently Asked Questions\n\n**1. What are you launching?**\n\nWe are launching A-Cloud, a new corporate entity of which\nAmazon.com will be a shareholder but over which it will not exercise \nequity or management control. A-Cloud will assume all the \nassets, operations, and employees of Amazon Web Services.\n\n**2. Why is this good for AWS customers?**\n\nAWS has been scrupulous in declaring and ensuring that\ncustomers own their own data and that it is not accessed\nby anyone unauthorized, including any AWS employees.  However, \nsome organizations are strategically reluctant to\ncommit business-critical software and data to infrastructure\nowned and operated by an organization whose parent\ncorporation may be one of their competitors. \n\nWith the arrival of A-Cloud, this strategic concern \nvanishes.  Customers can choose between A-Cloud and one\nof its public-cloud competitors strictly on the basis \nof the range, quality, and pricing of the services on\noffer. \n\n**3. Why is this good for Amazon.com?**\n\nAs a matter of policy, Amazon.com services are strongly\nencouraged to use AWS services, as opposed to \npurpose-built Amazon retail technologies. The cost \nattributed to Amazon.com groups for use of AWS is an \ninternal transfer price, and there is room for debate as \nto its fairness both to Amazon.com and to AWS.\n\nObviously, since Amazon.com will be a large customer\nof A-Cloud, it will not be paying list prices. But\nthe prices will be denominated in real money and\nthere will be no suspicion that either party is \naccepting an unreasonable deal.\n\nAdditionally, there may be certain Amazon.com services\nthat, for locational or technical reasons, are \ndifficult to port to AWS. With the launch of A-Cloud,\nAmazon.com gains the option of building and running\nits own infrastructure where appropriate, or even \nchoosing in some cases to use a competitive public \ncloud provider.\n\n**4. Will AWS pricing change?**\n\nAWS has a track record of regular price cuts. There is\nno reason to expect that this will change.\n\n**5. How do I switch from AWS to A-Cloud technology?**\n\nYou don't have to do anything.  All the existing \nAPIs and endpoints and services will work exactly\nas before.\nAll AWS accounts and billing will work as before.\n\n**6. Why the corporate transaction structure, with the large payment and 20% equity stake?**\n\nAmazon.com has invested hugely in the creation and\ngrowth of AWS.  It is now enjoying a substantial profit\nstream which it has fairly earned, and the subtraction\nof which might cause financial stress as Amazon.com\ncontinues its focus on customer-obsessed growth.\n\nThis transaction gives Amazon.com a large financial\nreward, equivalent to several years of AWS profit,\nplus a potential long-term reward from\nits equity stake in A-Cloud.\n\nSimultaneously, the IPO gives the investing community\na chance to partipate in A-Cloud's demonstrated ability\nto grow quickly while operating at a substantial \npositive margin.  \n\n## Internal Frequently Asked Questions\n\n**7. Why are we doing this?**\n\nThe connection with Amazon is an increasingly important factor limiting the \ngrowth of AWS. As a matter of strategy, Amazon continues expanding into multiple markets \nand, whether or not customers *should* worry about their cloud provider being associated\nwith a competitor, they *do*.  We estimate (see Appendix C) that spinning \nout A-Cloud will increase its projected 2025 revenue from $75B to $110B.\n\nSecond, the requirement to use AWS for every purpose in every geography may not always\nserve Amazon retail optimally.\n\nThird, all of the large US technology companies are coming under increasing antitrust\nscrutiny, and Amazon is no exception.  The use of AWS profits to subsidize Amazon's\ndrive for growth in many loosely-related sectors of the economy can only aggravate\nthose concerns.  The independence of A-Cloud will remove one of the key irritants \nin this space.\n\n**8. What will most please customers about the launch of A-Cloud?**\n\nThe vast majority of IT people have come to understand the advantages of moving their\napp deployments from their own infrastructure to the public cloud, including \nincreased agility, world-class security, and reduced costs. Now, when they approach\nleadership with the idea of moving to the cloud, they will no longer have to deal with \nfear that they might be empowering a competitor.\n\n**9. What do we want customers to say about A-Cloud?**\n\n\"I may not love everything about my AWS bill, but now I'm not worrying about some of\nit going to help Amazon compete against me in my own market.\"\n\n**10. What will customers most dislike about the launch of A-Cloud?**\n\nIT leaders who have serious concern about losing control of their own infrastructure \nwill no longer be able to resist moving to the cloud by arguing that this will \nlead to them depending on a competitor.\n\n**11. How do we know that this is what customers want?**\n\nCustomers, in executive-to-executive conversations, have been clear that they have\nstrong concerns about making strategic commitments to a service provided by a competitor.\nWalmart has been particularly vocal and has pressured its business partners to avoid\nusing AWS.\n\n**12. Might Amazon.com use services on Azure or Google Cloud?**\n\nAfter the launch of A-Cloud, Amazon.com will be perfectly free to make whatever technology\narrangements suits it best. This would be a little bit surprising since Amazon has \ndeveloped a large amount of expertise in using AWS effectively, and retains an \nequity stake in A-Cloud.\n\nHowever, one can imagine applications which don't need much more than a virtual \nLinux instance, in cases where Azure or Google Cloud has a region in closer geographic proximity \nto a large retail site than any A-Cloud region; in this case, using an alternative service might be a great\nchoice. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n","project_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Ftimbray%2Fa-cloud-prfaq","html_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/projects/github.com%2Ftimbray%2Fa-cloud-prfaq","lists_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Ftimbray%2Fa-cloud-prfaq/lists"}