Old Content:
Amazon’s “PonyExpress” – Stop Laughing, Idiots
May 21, 2009 by Kyle BradyTags: Amazon, AWS, Broadband, Criticism
As required by the FTC, a Full Disclosure is available - this piece adheres to the Code of Ethics
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This really isn't that ludicrous. If you've ever unzipped a base install of Wordpress, and uploaded the files uncompressed to the server... you've seen that typically takes a few minutes.
And that's just Wordpress.
Now try uploading a DVD's worth of family holiday pictures - if the connection doesn't timeout, it will take hours. Maybe you try compressing the files into 6 or so segments, but it will still take hours... just a few less than before.
Let's expand that out to corporate scale. As much as I hate Twitter, imagine the data it stores on a single user: all the profile information, login information, access information (login dates, IPs, etc.), not to mention the endless stream of Socrates-like insights posted to the web.
If a user downloaded all of their data after using Twitter the way most people seem to for a few months, and wanted to upload to AWS to implement their own service... you'd get your own personal Failwhale.
I personally wouldn't mind shipping an HDD to Amazon for processing, especially if you're a small company. Using 80% of the network's bandwidth for two days is going to pull almost all other activity to a screeching halt, which is going to result in time/work/money lost for the company.
Maybe the assorted internet commentators should do a little more data-processing before publicly stating opinions... even GigaOm approached this condescendingly, when Amazon should be praised for trying to help their customers achieve the highest possible rate of efficiency.
Even if that means circumventing the black-market highseas robbery that are American ISPs.
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Update (5/21/2009 10:00pm PST): Finally. TechDirt gets it right.
Kyle can be found on Twitter and MySpace, or reached via email.
