Amazon’s SimpleDB another brick in the Super Platform
As I wrote about previously (here and here), the move to the Super Platform in the cloud continues in grand style.
In the same way that no business has its own electric generator any longer, so it will come to pass that no business will have its own servers. They will plug into a super platform in the cloud, just like they plug into the electric grid and pay by the sip.
Amazon’s SimpleDB is the latest addition to the Super Platform stack, adding incredibly powerful database capability.
So the components of a Super Platform are starting to become clear. To be complete, it appears that a Super Platform needs to include the following:
- A database, like SimpleDB or Google’s BigTable.
- Storage, like Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).
- A processing environment, like Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2).
- A simple, standard protocol for accessing the Super Platforms technology, like the Google Data APIs and Amazon’s Web Services.
- A built-in, flexible payment system so users can pay for the applications they are using on the Super Platform, like Amazon Payment Services and Google Checkout.
- A built-in ad capability to facilitate an ad-supported application monetization model.
- Fully integrated generic services, including email, docs and spreadsheets, wikis, social networking, etc. Only Google provides this currently.
UPDATE: Just got my new Businessweek in the mail. Timely!
Google and the wisdom of clouds
