Stefan Mileschin

Rivals worry about Amazon support

Software King of the World Microsoft is doing rather well in the cloud wars because some of the bigger retailers are worried about handing over their cash to rival Amazon.

Microsoft has been scoring big business from retailers, largely because companies like Walmart, Kroger, Gap and Target are opting not to write big cheques to their rival Amazon.

Recently this concern has been highlighted by Microsoft getting a big customer - VW = because there are rumours that Amazon is working its way to the automotive industry.

Volkswagen's Heiko Hüttel, who runs the company's connected car division, said that while he has no fear that Amazon is going to build competitive cars there are other things the company is doing in connectivity that could seep into Volkswagen's market. Amazon was recently seen hauling cargo with self-driving truck technology from start-up Embark.

"If I take a look at all the competitors out there, you see they have capabilities in disrupting you at the customer interface", Hüttel said. "Then you have to carefully choose who is really getting down into the car, where you open up a lot of data to these people, and then you have to carefully choose with whom you are doing business."

Julia White, corporate vice president at Microsoft told a Goldman Sachs tech conference in San Francisco last month that Vole had the advantage that it was not going to turn around and compete with its customers.

Volkwagen has been using AWS for some of its applications, including the We Park app for digitally handling parking meter payments. Hüttel said applications on AWS will be ported over to Azure, and Volkswagen plans to build new services on Microsoft's cloud in areas like predictive maintenance, charging and personalisation.

Hüttel said Microsoft's track record in software was a big reason why it was able to win over Volkswagen, which is increasingly a software based company.

While Volkswagen is pushing workloads to Microsoft, AWS has a sizable auto business, with BMW, Audi and the Toyota Research Institute all listed as customers.

https://fudzilla.com/news/memory-and...o-amazon-fears