The enterprise technology universe is awash in the hype of hybrid cloud enterprise software and tools. ‘Not all workloads will go to the cloud’ has gone from footnote to rally cry. Cloud have-nots in enterprise Tech have used this theme to fight back against a giant vacuum hoovering up their TAM. Press releases of real hybrid product and vaporware alike have been let fly like the arrows of Xerxes armies.
We juxtapose this period of legacy enterprise tech renewal with comments from forward leaning enterprises in 2017 who tell us they are maxed out on current AWS budgets and managing more workloads on premise as a result. AWS has been built on a combination of regular price reductions and regular additions to software capabilities. The twin drivers have led to a strong period of growth for AWS. But the comments from our contacts leave us wondering if the resurgence of hybrid popularity has more to do with the current elasticity curve at AWS.
When we look forward into the future, do we believe in a renaissance of legacy tech or do we believe in the scale of cloud computing? Maybe it depends on AWS. It will be hard for on-premise IT to justify investing in a market with less scale if AWS pushes forward on the elasticity curve. The new IAAS shift from charging per minute to charging per second could be the catalyst that continues the AWS elasticity curve. We think being long hybrid enterprise tech is contingent on the AWS elasticity curve.
Which is why we wonder: which way AWS?
