├── .gitignore ├── LICENSE └── README.md /.gitignore: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | .idea 2 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /LICENSE: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | MIT License 2 | 3 | Copyright (c) 2020 Tim Bray 4 | 5 | Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy 6 | of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal 7 | in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights 8 | to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell 9 | copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is 10 | furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: 11 | 12 | The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all 13 | copies or substantial portions of the Software. 14 | 15 | THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR 16 | IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, 17 | FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE 18 | AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER 19 | LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, 20 | OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE 21 | SOFTWARE. 22 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # AWS Becomes "A-Cloud", an Independent Entity 2 | 3 | ### A-Cloud is positioned to address the whole multi-trillion dollar IT marketplace 4 | 5 | ### Goldman Sachs to lead A-Cloud IPO - launch customers include Walmart and Apple 6 | 7 | **[Important: This document is not an Amazon production. It describes a hypothetical 8 | process that could take place, but the author is not an Amazon employee and has no information to suggest that any such process is 9 | in fact taking place.]** 10 | 11 | SEATTLE--(Business Wire)--December 1, 2020-- Today, at AWS re:Invent, 12 | Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy jointly announced A-Cloud, a new Delaware 13 | corporation which will assume ownership of Amazon Web Services' 14 | assets and become the employer of existing AWS employees. This 15 | will make A-Cloud's services more attractive to customers who 16 | compete with Amazon in one or more market segments, and free 17 | Amazon.com to build custom IT infrastructure where A-Cloud 18 | services don't fully meet its needs. To get started with A-Cloud, 19 | visit [A.Cloud](https://a.cloud). 20 | 21 | AWS has become the leading public-cloud provider, offering the widest 22 | range of services backed by the strongest security, availability, 23 | and data-protection infrastructure. Now, organizations who compete 24 | with Amazon want to take advantage of AWS's industry-leading 25 | offerings without having to worry that they are strengthening 26 | a competitor. 27 | 28 | From the AWS-customer point of view, the experience will be seamless. 29 | All existing AWS services will continue to operate exactly as before wth no 30 | changes of any kind required in any customer application. 31 | 32 | "AWS is one of the Amazon.com creations of which I'm most 33 | proud", said Jeff Bezos. "Its success at improving IT cost, 34 | security, and performance of large and small organizations across 35 | the business, government, education, and nonprofit sectors 36 | constitutes a major contribution to the way everyone uses technology. 37 | Now it's time for it to spread its wings and address the whole 38 | IT market, end to end and top to bottom." 39 | 40 | Andy Jassy, CEO of A-Cloud, said "We owe everything to Jeff's 41 | leadership team, and everyone at A-Cloud joins me in a hearty 42 | thank-you. Now it's time for our team to work even 43 | harder at understanding and meeting customer needs across 44 | the IT horizon." 45 | 46 | Following on A-Cloud's IPO, to be managed by Goldman Sachs, A-Cloud 47 | will acquire all current AWS assets from Amazon.com 48 | for a one-time payment of $100 billion. Also, Amazon.com will receive a 49 | 20% equity stake in A-Cloud. Jeff Bezos has agreed to join the 50 | A-Cloud Board of Directors, but will not seek nor accept the Chairmanship. 51 | 52 | A-Cloud will continue the rapid pace of innovation for which AWS 53 | has been acclaimed, without ever losing focus on delivering 54 | the best security and uptime available from any vendor. A-Cloud 55 | looks forward to serving Amazon.com as a customer, but understands 56 | that Amazon may choose to operate some of its own data 57 | infrastructure to meet specific needs or location requirements 58 | that would not be well-served by A-Cloud. 59 | 60 | "Walmart.com is the world's largest retailer 61 | and has developed an outstanding online-shopping experience" said Doug McMillon, Walmart CEO. "We don't 62 | see online infrastructure as a core competence, and have 63 | agreed in principle to transfer our applications to run on 64 | A-Cloud infrastructure. We expect the cost savings to be massive, 65 | without any loss of responsiveness or security." 66 | 67 | "Apple iCloud has become an essential part of the customer experience 68 | on iPhone, iPad, and Mac" said Tim Cook, Apple CEO. "We look forward 69 | to relying on A-Cloud services to strengthen iCloud without 70 | any concerns about it competing with Apple in any of our 71 | business segments." 72 | 73 | "AWS has served Amazon.com retail superbly for fifteen 74 | years now" said Jeff Wilke, CEO:Worldwide Consumer at 75 | Amazon.com. "We're confident that A-Cloud will continue 76 | to support our retail operations with the reliability, 77 | security, and attention to detail that we've come to 78 | rely on. There are a few select areas and geographies 79 | where we plan to build some very Amazon-retail-specific 80 | infrastructure, but for general-pupose public-cloud 81 | services, we're all-in on A-Cloud". 82 | 83 | ## External Frequently Asked Questions 84 | 85 | **1. What are you launching?** 86 | 87 | We are launching A-Cloud, a new corporate entity of which 88 | Amazon.com will be a shareholder but over which it will not exercise 89 | equity or management control. A-Cloud will assume all the 90 | assets, operations, and employees of Amazon Web Services. 91 | 92 | **2. Why is this good for AWS customers?** 93 | 94 | AWS has been scrupulous in declaring and ensuring that 95 | customers own their own data and that it is not accessed 96 | by anyone unauthorized, including any AWS employees. However, 97 | some organizations are strategically reluctant to 98 | commit business-critical software and data to infrastructure 99 | owned and operated by an organization whose parent 100 | corporation may be one of their competitors. 101 | 102 | With the arrival of A-Cloud, this strategic concern 103 | vanishes. Customers can choose between A-Cloud and one 104 | of its public-cloud competitors strictly on the basis 105 | of the range, quality, and pricing of the services on 106 | offer. 107 | 108 | **3. Why is this good for Amazon.com?** 109 | 110 | As a matter of policy, Amazon.com services are strongly 111 | encouraged to use AWS services, as opposed to 112 | purpose-built Amazon retail technologies. The cost 113 | attributed to Amazon.com groups for use of AWS is an 114 | internal transfer price, and there is room for debate as 115 | to its fairness both to Amazon.com and to AWS. 116 | 117 | Obviously, since Amazon.com will be a large customer 118 | of A-Cloud, it will not be paying list prices. But 119 | the prices will be denominated in real money and 120 | there will be no suspicion that either party is 121 | accepting an unreasonable deal. 122 | 123 | Additionally, there may be certain Amazon.com services 124 | that, for locational or technical reasons, are 125 | difficult to port to AWS. With the launch of A-Cloud, 126 | Amazon.com gains the option of building and running 127 | its own infrastructure where appropriate, or even 128 | choosing in some cases to use a competitive public 129 | cloud provider. 130 | 131 | **4. Will AWS pricing change?** 132 | 133 | AWS has a track record of regular price cuts. There is 134 | no reason to expect that this will change. 135 | 136 | **5. How do I switch from AWS to A-Cloud technology?** 137 | 138 | You don't have to do anything. All the existing 139 | APIs and endpoints and services will work exactly 140 | as before. 141 | All AWS accounts and billing will work as before. 142 | 143 | **6. Why the corporate transaction structure, with the large payment and 20% equity stake?** 144 | 145 | Amazon.com has invested hugely in the creation and 146 | growth of AWS. It is now enjoying a substantial profit 147 | stream which it has fairly earned, and the subtraction 148 | of which might cause financial stress as Amazon.com 149 | continues its focus on customer-obsessed growth. 150 | 151 | This transaction gives Amazon.com a large financial 152 | reward, equivalent to several years of AWS profit, 153 | plus a potential long-term reward from 154 | its equity stake in A-Cloud. 155 | 156 | Simultaneously, the IPO gives the investing community 157 | a chance to partipate in A-Cloud's demonstrated ability 158 | to grow quickly while operating at a substantial 159 | positive margin. 160 | 161 | ## Internal Frequently Asked Questions 162 | 163 | **7. Why are we doing this?** 164 | 165 | The connection with Amazon is an increasingly important factor limiting the 166 | growth of AWS. As a matter of strategy, Amazon continues expanding into multiple markets 167 | and, whether or not customers *should* worry about their cloud provider being associated 168 | with a competitor, they *do*. We estimate (see Appendix C) that spinning 169 | out A-Cloud will increase its projected 2025 revenue from $75B to $110B. 170 | 171 | Second, the requirement to use AWS for every purpose in every geography may not always 172 | serve Amazon retail optimally. 173 | 174 | Third, all of the large US technology companies are coming under increasing antitrust 175 | scrutiny, and Amazon is no exception. The use of AWS profits to subsidize Amazon's 176 | drive for growth in many loosely-related sectors of the economy can only aggravate 177 | those concerns. The independence of A-Cloud will remove one of the key irritants 178 | in this space. 179 | 180 | **8. What will most please customers about the launch of A-Cloud?** 181 | 182 | The vast majority of IT people have come to understand the advantages of moving their 183 | app deployments from their own infrastructure to the public cloud, including 184 | increased agility, world-class security, and reduced costs. Now, when they approach 185 | leadership with the idea of moving to the cloud, they will no longer have to deal with 186 | fear that they might be empowering a competitor. 187 | 188 | **9. What do we want customers to say about A-Cloud?** 189 | 190 | "I may not love everything about my AWS bill, but now I'm not worrying about some of 191 | it going to help Amazon compete against me in my own market." 192 | 193 | **10. What will customers most dislike about the launch of A-Cloud?** 194 | 195 | IT leaders who have serious concern about losing control of their own infrastructure 196 | will no longer be able to resist moving to the cloud by arguing that this will 197 | lead to them depending on a competitor. 198 | 199 | **11. How do we know that this is what customers want?** 200 | 201 | Customers, in executive-to-executive conversations, have been clear that they have 202 | strong concerns about making strategic commitments to a service provided by a competitor. 203 | Walmart has been particularly vocal and has pressured its business partners to avoid 204 | using AWS. 205 | 206 | **12. Might Amazon.com use services on Azure or Google Cloud?** 207 | 208 | After the launch of A-Cloud, Amazon.com will be perfectly free to make whatever technology 209 | arrangements suits it best. This would be a little bit surprising since Amazon has 210 | developed a large amount of expertise in using AWS effectively, and retains an 211 | equity stake in A-Cloud. 212 | 213 | However, one can imagine applications which don't need much more than a virtual 214 | Linux instance, in cases where Azure or Google Cloud has a region in closer geographic proximity 215 | to a large retail site than any A-Cloud region; in this case, using an alternative service might be a great 216 | choice. 217 | 218 | 219 | 220 | 221 | 222 | 223 | 224 | 225 | 226 | 227 | 228 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------