IT organizations like standardization, but not lock-in. Thus, the theme of the last few weeks -- that Amazon Web Services will dominate enterprise cloud computing -- has made many in IT nervous, based on the rash of emails I've received.
The cloud industry is nervous too, as a recent Seattle Times article, "Amazon's growing clout in cloud computing stirs questions," captured well.
I understand the concern, but I'm not sure it's well placed. Although AWS is definitely a huge success, cloud computing is still in its infancy. Enterprise applications and data that exist in the cloud account for 1 to 3 percent of the total enterprise software and data, depending on which analyst firm you track. The rest remains in the traditional data center.
You really can't tell who will dominate the market at this point. In fact, I still say it's anybody's game.
AWS has earned its current place in the cloud computing market not by delivering tricks but by delivering sound cloud services. If it did not work well, AWS would not be successful.
Moreover, most enterprises are working with many public cloud providers (a multicloud strategy, which I've long recommended). We're quickly heading to a world where cloud services will be a commodity, brokered out based on price and service levels. AWS will be in the pools of services that battle it out like everyone else for usage dollars.
The lock-in question is interesting, but is that a logical concern when AWS is pushing portability standards such as containers? The data and storage systems may be a pain to migrate from, but it's certainly economical. The same is true for the compute platform.
It's not yet time to get nervous about AWS. The public cloud migration has only begun. AWS has a lead, but it's still anyone's race. Get running.