Amazon Web Services, the e-tailer's cloud business, has been holding tight to a leadership position but all that could change as the Internet of Things, with all its data, arrives like a gale force into the consumer and enterprise environments.
One industry watcher is questioning whether Amazon will survive as a cloud services provider given the e-tailer has a short window to re-strategize its cloud business model due to the Internet of Things (IoT), which is the interconnection of uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices collecting data from every point possible.
According to a recent study from the Internet of Things Consortium (IoTC), almost 65 percent of U.S. consumers are moderately or extremely open to the idea of adopting smart home technology, which is a big focus of current IoT innovation.
"As IoT continues to grow, Amazon is playing a larger role in cloud storage. We'll be up to 25 billion devices connected this year, and each of these devices is producing massive amounts of data," Curtis Peterson, of RingCentral, tells Tech Times.
"I'd argue that Amazon's cloud storage is not sustainable because the amount of data consumers will need to store will require more of a business-to-business storage model that includes data security, safety and real-time access. I'd argue that 2015 will be the year of business-to-consumer cloud," says Peterson.
While other industry watchers agree Amazon is facing challenges this year in cloud services, they say it's not as much about IoT but the fact Amazon's Web Services (AWS) remains a complex services strategy tied to rates and usage that users can often find frustrating.
In comparison, competitors have been simplfying and streamlining services for consumers and businesses, and consistently lowering prices in favor of paid services offerings for users and developers. Microsoft continues concocting ways to draw organizations to Azure, its cloud platform offering, and IBM now loans out Watson's machine-learning abilities. In response, Amazon in November unveiled a compute service that will enable developers to create apps that respond to users with insights from the cloud.
Known as AWS Lambda, the compute service will change how developers create and scale cloud-connected apps.
At some point soon, say analysts, data storage will be a free commodity with customers replacing today's cloud storage bill with the cost of professional tools and features associated with data storage needs.
Marty Puranik, president and CEO of Atlantic.Net, a hosting services provider, says as customers begin to be more aware of alternatives to AWS, they will start to "graduate" to easier and more flexible options.
Possibly seeing such a trend, and eyeing the tsunami of data coming fast with IoT technology adoption, Amazon has been boosting new features in its AWS platform. Last April it debuted new tools to help users track cloud usage and spend. The Cost Explorer feature provides users a clear view into what they're paying, so users can adjust services if needed.
But such features could very well be a scenario of too little too late, says Peterson.
"I think we're at the crux of cloud storage innovation, and Amazon could be dethroned, when it comes to cloud storage, if the amount of data we have from IoT surpasses the capability of its systems," he says. "Everyone knows Amazon is king when it comes to consumer cloud storage, but change is in the air thanks to IoT and connected devices that are producing more data."
