UPDATED 15:15 EDT / DECEMBER 16 2013

AWS builds business on hyper-specialization @re:Invent

The use of standardized commodity hardware, with software adding all the value, is generally seen as one of the key components of the hyperscale architectures used by the very large cloud service providers such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo! AWS, however, uses a different strategy, hyper-specialized hardware, writes Wikibon Principal Research Contributor Stu Miniman in “Hyper-specialization is the secret sauce to Amazon Web Services”.

Speaking at Amazons AWS re:Invent user conference recently, AWS VP & Distinguished Engineer James Hamilton (above right) revealed that hyper-specialization, powered by the huge volume of purchases AWS makes to support its massive growth, is the key to delivering innovation to keep ahead of the competition in the cloud market. Commenting on Facebook’s approach of standardizing on five compute configurations, Hamilton said, “I have many more configurations than that now and will have even more next year.”

AWS can support multiple configurations because of the huge scale at which it operates. Every day AWS adds enough new server capacity to support all of Amazon’s global infrastructure when it had $7B annual revenue. Hamilton said AWS has two engineers working full time on server power supplies alone, where redesigns that save pennies per unit or are a faction more efficient translate into huge savings for AWS.

Hamilton specifically said that AWS uses custom routers and protocol stacks. Amazon builds its own devices and stack, allowing it to make fixes in a day that would take months if it had to wait for a vendor.

CIOs, Miniman concludes, should pay attention to the hyperscale players, because they lead the direction of technology. Amazon is a key disruptor in infrastructure designs and operational models, which are seeing seismic shifts.

As with all Wikibon research, the full Alert is publicly available without charge on the Wikibon Web site. IT professionals are invited to register for free membership in the Wikibon community, which allows them post comments, questions and their own research and participate in Wikibon research.


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