1\ I was going to do a blog post with my key questions going into re:Invent 2019, but realize last year’s tweet still works for this year
2\ After “reinventing” their view on hybrid and on-premises computing (previously described as both “whacky” and “ill-advised”), AWS made some big promises last year for Outposts.
3\ Of the 150+ AWS services, how many can they make run on those wee little Outpost racks? Can they deliver the higher level services or does it end up being more basic computer and storage?
4\ In lieu of a broad set of higher level services, will AWS have to embrace Kubernetes (the Soylent Green of software) on Outposts as their default hybrid model? They can’t be excited about that…
5\ Is the airtime given to Outpost’s casters inversely correlated with how on track the higher level AWS services for Outposts are?
6\ What about VMware’s stack for Outposts? Would it be awkward if VMware is ready to go and AWS is incomplete? How do customers decide which stack to run on Outposts when?
7\ Will we see a response to Google Anthos and Azure Arc? Or is AWS, like Apple, committed to only delivering their software in a hardware wrapper? (Apple no doubt would make cooler “aluminium” racks)
8\ Will the term “multi-cloud” ever be uttered or has AWS done a partnership with the Chinese Communist Party for help suppressing it? Will the @NBA stand up for multi-cloud optionality?
nypost.com/2019/11/21/ama…
nypost.com/2019/11/21/ama…
9\ On the OSS question, things remain turbulent with the likes of Elastic, MongoDB and Redis Labs. Furious OSS license engineering continues, and probably for good reason.
platformonomics.com/2019/11/dining…
platformonomics.com/2019/11/dining…
10\ Will AWS make peace with any of that currently contentious cohort of companies? Or maybe find a new OSS friend who will stand up on stage and boldly say “AWS is not, in fact, the OSS Antichrist”?
11\ Will gestures of OSS peacemaking be awkwardly juxtaposed with the boa constrictor-like embrace of new projects like last year’s “Hello Kafka”?
12\ On a rhetorical level, will also be paying attention to the marketing emphasis and amount of competitive smack talk.
13\ The best way to understand where AWS feels they are behind is what they’re talking the most about (e.g. AI in previous years). Hybrid, hybrid, hybrid? Similarly, what is the mix of preannouncements vs. “available today”?
14\ Competitive smack talk has increased in recent years, at odds with previous self-congratulatory claims that they were above that. Of course, they get a free pass for Oracle zings, who begged for everything they get.
15\ But how they talk about Microsoft will be interesting, particularly post JEDI. AWS may not have gotten the deal, but DoD ironically did take their advice to go “all-in” on one cloud. Meanwhile, IBM wishes they were worthy of being slammed.
16\ And thankfully I can watch from home and not have to go to Las Vegas.
17\ But if you’re in Vegas and want to keep your wits about you, there is a drinking game you can play: you only drink when you hear the word “multi-cloud”. A path to almost certain sobriety.
