When I was a kid, my dad worked for legendary Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which back in the day was #2 to IBM. In the 80’s the computer business was about selling machines, and no one could outsell IBM.
Then in the 90’s, in one of the most important business plays in hi-tech industry history, IBM reinvented itself and became a services company. This was not an obvious move, but one that proved cynics and critics wrong alike.
This preface brings me to Amazon. Slowly but surely the Internet retailer has been rolling out Web Services. These are services that capitalize on Amazon’s advanced infrastructure–and it is advanced. It began with the Simple Storage Solution (S3), continued to Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), and has now reached Flexible Payment Service (FPS).
In the two days since the service was announced a question has been recurring in my mind… Is Amazon the next IBM? Your thoughts are welcome…
Interesting coverage:
