Amazon FireTV launches, competes with Apple and Google

Amazon launches in FireTV to connect to its cloud of content.

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What is a bit ironic is looking at this list.  Where is Sony and Microsoft who are in game console wars.  FireTv has games.

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20 years ago I was working on Microsoft’s set top box effort targeting cable providers and that is where i worked with Satya Nadella.  The idea was right just a bit too early and the wrong device paradigm.  Microsoft bought WebTV and wasn’t able to build on it.

Now Amazon, Apple, and Google are in a battle for the device connected to your TV.

I use Amazon Prime all the time and placed my order for a FireTV to give it a try.  It is so small I may take it on a trip with me next week.

 

When will Amazon Expand to other Countries? Hints of Germany

One of the possibilities hinted from Andy Jassy’s talk at AWS Summit is AWS adding a data center in Germany.  The WSJ has a blog post on this.

Amazon Hints at New German-Based Data Center

 

By Rachael King and Michael Hickins

Andy Jassy, senior vice president of Amazon.com Inc.AMZN -0.05%’s Amazon Web Services unit, says the company is prioritizing where it locates data centers, and Germany is “one of the few countries” where customers are asking for a data center “on their own soil.” He said that the company has “significant business in Germany,” and that Amazon is likely to build data centers “in multiple major countries over time.”

Google's Cloud Event favored over AWS Summits Mar 25-26, 2014

I was in SF this week for three days of conference and meetings.   I didn’t make it to the Google Cloud Event.  I did go to the AWS Summit.  My friends who went to the Google Cloud event said great things about the event and how good the party was.  The same friends and I agreed the AWS Summit Keynote was so boring.  There were hundreds of people who walked out of the keynote.  Why?  The AWS event spent time explaining the AWS stack, going over every component.

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There were friends online were making fun of the presentation being so boring.  This presentation could have been made at a Gartner conference, and even included Gartner quotes

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This messaging made sense given the big push was for Amazon Workspaces.

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If you want to see how boring the AWS Summit Keynote was you can watch the video along with the other 763 views.

Or you can watch the Google Cloud video with the other 6,266 views.

I am taking the time to watch Urs.  Good stuff if you want to develop some Cloud apps.  If I watched the AWS I would probably fall asleep listening to how AWS is right for the Enterprise.

 

 

Project Alluvion is??? Amazon or someone else?

I have friends asking me if I know who is behind Project Alluvion.  My guess to throw out there is Amazon. Why?  Let me go over a few things.

What is Alluvion?

al·lu·vi·on
əˈlo͞ovēən/
noun
LAW
noun: alluvion
  1. 1.
    the action of the sea or a river in forming new land by deposition.
Origin
 

Alluvion could be a code name that applies to Amazon project given the connection applies to a river.

Could it be Facebook, Google, or Microsoft?  No, they have presences in the area already.

Could it be Apple?  Not likely, Apple has land in Prineville, Reno, and Maiden with no data centers in Europe or APAC.  It would seem Apple would expand on its existing properties or buy land outside of the US before buying land in Des Moines.

Amazon has a west coast presence and east coast, but creating a high availability fail over from the coasts doesn’t work well for many scenarios.  For the same reason that Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have gone to each coast and the midwest, for Amazon to follow to compete seems reasonable.

After guessing Amazon, the potential customers don’t pan out on who would need a big data center with tax incentives. 

My Friends build Data Centers, AWS's friends don't?

My friends like to build data centers.  Some are building a lot.  Thanks to Amazon, there is a view that “Friends don’t let Friends build Data Centers."

 “Friends don’t let friends build data centers,” Infor CEO Charles Phillips said in his presentation during the keynote.

My friends like building data centers.  And many of the partners of AWS’s Direct Connect build data centers.  Building data centers is not bad if you know what you are doing.   I thinkI would say “Friends don’t let the clueless build data centers.”  Some people shouldn’t build data centers.  Leave data centers to the pros.

US East (Virginia)US West (N. California)US West (Oregon)EU West (Ireland)South America (Sao Paulo)Asia Pacific (Singapore)Asia Pacific (Tokyo)Asia Pacific (Sydney)
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Amcom               ✔  
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Fiber Internet Center   ✔            
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Global Telecom & Technology, Inc. (GTT) ✔ ✔ ✔          
Hibernia Atlantic ✔     ✔   ✔    
InterCloud ✔     ✔        
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Lightower ✔              
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