I remember reading an article sometime ago about an experiment. It was nothing formal or all that serious; the author wanted to see how feasible it was to boycott various companies while going about her Internet life. She used firewalls to block any sites that were serviced by the target company of the day and then tried to go about her business to see what would happen. One of the more interesting results, to me, was her attempt to boycott Amazon which resulted in the web becoming near unusable for her.
So, how is it that Amazon is so crucial to our browsing? With this entry, I thought I would do a little reading to log the answer to that question for my own curiosity (and totally not because I’m doing research for an interview).
But before I talk about Amazon’s role in this, I need to talk about cloud computing. Classically, a computer’s data is stored on its hard drive which can only be accessed through a physical connection. But if that hard drive can be rigged up so that it can be connected to a network, then all the data on that hard drive can be accessed by any device on that network. That is the essence of cloud computing, as well as the internet, incidentally.
As it turns out, maintaining an internet presence can be both expensive and complex for a business and wind up requiring its own personnel to maintain. But just as a business might outsource its cleaning needs, for example, to a cleaning company rather than have its own custodians on staff, a company can also choose to outsource its database needs.
And that’s where Amazon comes in. Amazon Web Services isn’t the only provider of cloud computing services, but it’s definitely the big dog on the block. AWS serves 4.7% of all websites which is a plurality, but obviously far from a majority. But that’s not the right way to look at it. That random blog comparing the scenery of different interstates isn’t relevant to most people’s internet activities. But Netflix, which comprises 58% of downstream internet traffic, certainly is and guess what? Netflix is served up on AWS servers.
It’s just just Netflix. AWS is an incredibly robust service with reliable uptime, steadfast security, and datacenters located across the world. As such, it’s an attractive option for businesses looking for solutions to their internet presence which results in its deep penetration as a provider of cloud computing.
So, if someone were to try and block all traffic coming from Amazon servers, they’d have so much more to worry about than not being able to buy a half ton vat of vaseline with two day shipping. Blocking traffic from Amazon means blocking all those services that use AWS. In effect, Amazon has made itself essential to the existence of the Internet as we know it.
