Target Pulls Away From AWS

It has begun. Mere hours after Amazon confirmed the closing of the Whole Foods deal, Target has signaled that it is moving away from AWS, the cloud arm of the online giant.

Target may be struggling to compete with Amazon in retail, but it certainly has a strategy in place to fight back in other places. To be honest, this was always on the cards, ever since Walmart started forcing its tech vendors not to run applications in the AWS cloud.

Still, Amazon is yet to see any mass exodus.

But every little setback counts.

This latest one has the discount retailer scaling back its use of Amazon Web Services in order to take greater control over its infrastructure and stop financing its main rival.

Sources close to the matter have revealed that Target is aggressively moving both ecommerce operations and mobile development away from AWS. With plans underway to make the switch this year, and into 2018.

In fact, of the 95 technology positions listed on the official Target website, about 80% were listed since the beginning of July. Most call for expertise in combination of AWS, Azure, Google and other cloud platforms.

Speaking of which, Microsoft Azure is said to be the main cloud rival vying to nab the company’s cloud business, though Target is also looking at what Google and Oracle have to offer.

Second quarter figures had AWS controlling 34% of the cloud infrastructure market, topping IBM and Google combined. But with retailers and brands like Brooks Brothers, Nike and Nordstrom, all considering other cloud providers, the stage is set for some radical changes in the near future.

Never a dull moment in cloud, as the say.