INTERNT, NETWORKING

Articles : In a world of digital clouds, who's moving them ? (Part 1)

Introduction

As stated in Global Survey on Internet Privacy and Freedom of Expression, UNESCO (2012), The internet-based communications rely more on the intermediates for processing data like Cloud computing providers who runs the Internet infrastructure right now. Amazon servers make up so much of the internet that is can be merely impossible to separate the two. According to the Stamford, Amazon owns nearly half of the world’s public-cloud infrastructure market (47.8%) leading by a wide margin Microsoft (15.5%), Alibaba (7.7%), Google (4%), and IBM (1.8%).

Basically, that means that the half of the current web is running and controlled by Amazon Web Services aka AWS. GOOSEBUMPS

AWS’s down means Web’s down

If you use Netflix, Pinterest, Airbnb, Slack, or any of Adobe’s web services, you’re indirectly using AWS. And, of course, you use AWS anytime you use any Amazon product, whether that’s Alexa or Amazon Video. New York (and many, many other media publishers) use AWS. In general, cloud computing, as pioneered by AWS, has allowed for the tremendous shift in how the internet behaves and feels — why everything feels like a piece of software, even if very little of it is actually stored on the physical device you’re using.

But that also means that when AWS suffers downtimes, suddenly a big chunk of the web you either rely on for work or rely on for distraction are also affected. In 2017, its S3 (Simple Storage Service) servers went down in February and again in September, resulting in many, many websites just outright breaking.

Holy Terms vs Censorship-evading

AWS vs Signal

On June 2018, Parts of Amazon Web Services’ US-East-1 region have experienced about half an hour of downtime, but some customers’ instances and data can’t be restored because the hardware running them appears to have experienced complete failure.

Plenty of AWS users took to Twitter to apologise for the outage’s effect on their services. One such complainant was Open Whisper Systems, maker of the Signal secure messaging service. Signal and AWS recently clashed over “domain fronting” , a technique Signal uses to enhance privacy but which AWS doesn’t like because it exposes it to risk.

AWS vs Parler

The social media platform Parler, which gained immense popularity among conservatives, was banned by AWS after Trump’s banning from nearly all other social media platforms.

“Recently, we’ve seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms,” wrote the faceless AWS Trust & Safety Team. Of course violent content is bad but we understand Parler already makes that clear in its terms of service. Of course we can’t confirm today that because Parler was apparently naïve enough to host those on AWS servers too.

AWS net worth

According to forbes, AWS could be worth nearly $400 billion on a standalone basis. Given Amazon’s leadership position in the public cloud market and the favorable market dynamics, we expect the company to sustain and build upon its current strong position despite increased competition from the likes of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Web without AWS: 404

I think it’s obviously clear now who’s actually running, controlling, censoring and owning the Internet. and if you still have any doubts, I suggest you this blog post by Kashmir Hill where she tries to try the Amazon-free Internet. https://gizmodo.com/i-tried-to-block-amazon-from-my-life-it-was-impossible-1830565336

To be continued.

Resources

https://telecoms.com/508138/aws-banning-of-parler-exposes-the-precariousness-of-the-public-cloud/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/02/28/how-much-is-amazon-web-services-worth-on-a-standalone-basis/?sh=5cab8c25bbb7 https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/02/28/how-much-is-amazon-web-services-worth-on-a-standalone-basis/?sh=114fa1f7bbb7