As Amazon's global imprint continues to expand, the e-commerce giant is celebrating the 15th anniversary of Simple Storage Service, Amazon S3, the first of its cloud service offerings. Launched back in March 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has since become a model for not only other e-commerce entities but a wide range of industries that incorporate cloud services.
"We've been the pioneers in this space. The concept of cloud computing didn't exist before this, and we got a real head start in building these services. Also, the close relationship with our customers — being able to get continuous feedback from our customers — have resulted in the fact that now we have more than 200 services," Werner Vogels, Amazon's chief technical officer, told Cheddar.
Vogels said Amazon's maturation into cloud services was a natural progression for the company because it has been "a tech company since day one." For client businesses, Amazon's low-cost cloud services with no long-term commitments were an immediate draw. And, while the pandemic has slowed the production of semiconductors for cloud computing chips, Vogels said Amazon has prepared for the exact scenario, building their own chips and redundancies in their systems.
"Remember, of course, that we learned a lot from building the supply chain for AWS from the tremendous effective supply chain that Amazon.com has, and as such we're building supply chains to 25 regions around the world that are all replicated and actually can sustain shortages in any of those supply chains," he noted.
Also, the tech industry isn't the only one benefitting from the cloud, according to Vogels. Many industries have been able to utilize the technology. Farmers have even found ways to use the services to manage data related to land cultivation and to create effective labor plans.
"If you travel outside of the U.S., what you meet a lot is these companies that are solving truly hard human problems," he said. "For example, in Indonesia, there's a company called HARA Token where smallholder rice farmers, they don't have an identity and as such cannot get loans, and so what this small company does is give them an identity, measure their piece of land, measure their yield, and make the data available to banks."
In order to be able to share more stories about how AWS impacts the world beyond business, Vogel traveled the globe for the Now Go Build video series highlighting startups tackling the aforementioned "hard human problems."
Updated March 19, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. ET to clarify that the name of the service launched 15 years ago was the Simple Storage Service, Amazon S3.
A Senate bill unveiled on Wednesday looks to tackleonline safety for children by regulating Big Tech and social media platforms to deter users from content that can harm their mental health. Irene Ly, a policy counsel for the age-based ratings and review organization Common Sense Media, joined Cheddar News to break down the potential of the Kids Online Safety Act. "We can't be imposing such a big burden on parents to be doing it all on theirselves," Ly said. "I think you also have to keep in mind that parents often didn't grow up with social media, so they don't understand what it's like to be addicted to social media or really understand how they work."
While many still remain skeptical about the metaverse, big tech firms and even one big bank are ready to expand their virtual worlds. Facebook parent company has pivoted so hard it will now call its employees 'Metamates,' and even JPMorgan Chase has created its own digital lounge on one virtual platform. While the sector remains young, there seems to be significant investment opportunity, especially with companies like Nvidia. Adam Johnson, a portfolio strategist at Adviser Investments, joins Closing Bell to discuss which companies could win in this space, consumer appetite, and more.
Marc Blinder, Co-Founder and CEO of Aikon, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses how his company is helping businesses use blockchain applications without needing to learn the intricacies of the new technology.
The Federal Reserve minutes from its January meeting are indicating it's sticking to an interest rate hike in March, but what does the report coupled with ongoing inflation mean for investors going forward? Scott Brown, a market strategist at LPL Financial, joined Cheddar News to break down the minutes and talk about how investors might navigate the rest of the year. "it seems like the market is kind of inclined to trade off these headlines, really, through the first half of the year," he said. "And then, oh, don't forget, we've got midterm elections, which always tend to add a little bit of volatility in the second half of the year." Brown noted that the path forward for stock investors in 2022 would be "rockier" than last year.
Season 13 "Shark Tank" contestant Tania Speaks secured a $400,000 deal for her Speaks Organic Skincare brand with "Shark" Mark Cuban while also being named one of the best pitches in the history of the show — all at 19 years old. Now 20, Speaks joined Cheddar News to talk about the skincare line, the clean beauty industry, and the moment that host Cuban was moved by her pitch. "I couldn't believe that he got emotional. I'm surprised I held back my tears that long," the young entrepreneur revealed. "It's just amazing for someone else to be inspired by your story, especially Mark Cuban himself."
The media giant formerly known as ViacomCBS has officially rebranded itself as Paramount Global with a focus on its streaming service, Paramount Plus. Naveen Chopra, chief financial officer at Paramount, joined Cheddar to discuss the company’s name change and streaming wars. "There are components of content licensing that we continue to do, either historical arrangements or opportunities to license content that don't really impinge on what we're trying to do with our owned and operated services and that continues to be an important ingredient in our broader financial model," he said. "But our number one priority is putting our best assets on Paramount Plus." Chopra also discussed theatrical release windows before feature films hit its service and the platform's subscription goals.
The recent 7.5% year-over-year increase in consumer prices is the highest since 1982, and drew some strong reactions from investors, with speculations that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates by 50 points instead of 25. But other analysts believe that the Fed will stick with its original plan of 25 points next month. Chris Vecchio, Senior Analyst, at DailyFX broke down how the Fed could potentially react to the historically high inflation data.
