On the whole, the author of the article states that three giants dominate the world of cloud computing – Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. However, new technologies are developed every day. These technologies can either preserve the oligopoly or destroy it.
It is stressed that cloud computing is a popular target for investments nowadays. The three major companies that were mentioned apparently gain a large percentage of their profits because they provide cloud services. The new method of software creation, which is called serverless, and which has emerged recently, can therefore be very useful for these companies. On the other hand, it can also reduce the loyalty of their customers.
Generally speaking, it is observed the method of serverless software writing can help IT specialists to use the cloud more easily. There was a problem related to the original use of clouds. Briefly put, companies that wanted to use the cloud (instead of purchasing storage servers) had to pay large bills for these services. Therefore, Amazon introduced a serverless technology called AWS Lambda. In contrast to the rest of the services, the utilization of the cloud with the use of AWS Lambda should be rather cheap for companies. This is because the users pay for the number of times that a program was run, and each time costs very little.
It is pointed out that the AWS Lambda technology has already resulted in several new companies and startups that offer similar services. The companies providing these alternatives attract major investments. Therefore, it is possible that Amazon will lose its leading position in the market for cloud computing. Nevertheless, this is not known for certain. So it is stated that Amazon, Microsoft and Google may still remain the three important players in the sphere of cloud computing.
The author of the article explains that the market of cloud computing is dominated by three gigantic companies. They are Amazon, Aplhabet’s Google, and Microsoft. However, the focus of the article is that this domination may be at an end because of a new technology – serverless software writing. It lets programmers invest less work and effort and gain better results. This new technology has produced some competitors for Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, and these competitors may undermine the “rule” of these three companies.
The author states that the technology of cloud computing has lately turned into an obsession for many investors, so it is profitable to develop it. For example, Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides nearly 25.5% of the operating profit margin, and is responsible for approximately 10% of the sales of the company.
However, there is a problem with cloud services when it comes to the cost for clients. Initially, when Amazon introduced cloud computing, there were no such issues. However, later Google and Microsoft started offering similar services. At this point, a requirement for customers appeared that they should specify some parameters of the cloud they wanted to use. This meant additional work for programmers, and the prices of cloud services went up dramatically.
The new technology, serverless computing, was introduced by Amazon, and gained the name of AWS Lambda. It allows for much cheaper use of cloud services because it works more automatically, without the need of its provider’s IT specialists to calculate many parameters manually. However, this led to the emergence of multiple new competitors for Amazon. These new companies offer cloud services using technologies similar to AWS Lambda. For example, Serverless, a San Francisco company, received a $3 million investment in ventures to develop and sell such services.
Therefore, because of these new companies, it is not completely clear whether Amazon, Google, and Microsoft will still dominate cloud computing in the future. However, the author writes that it is generally expected that they will.