Amazon Cloud, IBM $3B, Microsoft Layoffs

Amazon’s Cloud is One of the Fastest-Growing Software Business in History.

This is the title of a post from Businessweek Technology. I’m an AWS user 3 years ago. It’s so convenient for developers and startups. And it’s architecture and rules make the developer more skillful than before. In the post, the author provide an image for revenue ramp from 1 billion and above (include Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce and Amazon Cloud), and the conclusion is Amazon Cloud is the fastest-growing software business in history after 1 billion income.

But on HN, some people think Amazon Cloud is not a company, it’s just a department. And it’s has more advantage from it. Like, everybody willing to bind their credit card to Amazon, and it’s a big company, so it’s already accumulate much experience on cloud computing.

Another vision is that some people think Amazon Cloud is not a software business. It doesn’t have the same margins revenue index compare to others. When the business is growing, they need bug more hardware and build more data center. And more competitor join, like Google, Microsoft, IBM, the have to cut the price as growing to keep the competitive. But this is the good thing for every developer and startup;)

IBM announces $3B research initiative

IBM announced it is investing $3 billion over the next 5 years in two broad research and early stage development programs to push the limits of chip technology needed to meet the emerging demands of cloud computing and Big Data systems.

Cloud computing and Big Data systems is the hot and main topic in this decade. In the previews era, it’s the opensource decade. IBM also act a main role in the procedure. The most popular IDE — Eclipse, it’s donated by IBM to the community. And 14 years ago, IBM also invested $1B on Linux, the effect is make linux the most popular system in the world and beats Solaris and kill Sun. And today, 99% super computer in TOP 500 use Linux. And linux is also the base of Cloud computing. So I have much expectation for this action in the future.

Large Round of Layoffs Expected at Microsoft

SEATILE — Last week, Microsoft’s chief executive hinted in a long company memo that big organizational changes were coming soon. That time has arrived.

Compare to the preview news title about the big company, this one is more shocking. Microsoft is so big, its has more than 120000 employees. It’s also have all line product in the information area, include Windows, Office, Xbox, Exchange, Server, Database, Mobile OS, Search Engine, Skype, Phone(Nokia)… everything you can imaging.

From the HN discussion, this most problem in Microsoft is like the same problem in big company. There are so many people did not deliver tangible value things.