As Amazon has expanded its empire into nearly every aspect of commerce on the planet, retailers have been thinking twice about working with its cloud division. Zulily isn’t concerned, however, announcing a deal Tuesday to move “the vast majority” of its cloud computing infrastructure into Amazon Web Services.
The Seattle-based online retailer plans to run its store, mobile app, and supply-chain workloads on AWS, the two companies are expected to announce Tuesday. It is using AWS Lambda for event-driven processing as well as Amazon Aurora as its core production database, according to AWS.
Large brick-and-mortar retailers have been more than a little wary about feeding the mouth that bites them, given how much operating profit AWS contributes to the larger Amazon bottom line. Walmart has even been insisting that its vendors avoid using AWS, while Target and Kroger have decided to go with other cloud vendors for their needs, especially after Amazon’s $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods last year.
But zulily, which already runs several data-oriented workloads on Google Cloud, does not appear worried about working with Amazon. Luke Friang, the retailer’s chief information officer, cited “cost savings” among the other reasons it was making a big bet on AWS infrastructure, as compared to its current homegrown infrastructure, in a press release touting its deal with AWS.
It’s not clear exactly how many retailers have balked at working with AWS thanks to Amazon’s relentless push into new markets, but zulily gives the cloud leader a way to rebut arguments that its relationship with its parent company might be holding it back in certain industries. In a recent interview, Microsoft Azure leader Jason Zander made it clear that his company’s cloud service plans to market itself to retailers as a friendly face in the cloud.
And it’s another sign that multicloud infrastructure strategies are gaining ground, weeks after Sabre revealed plans to run a multicloud infrastructure split between AWS and Microsoft.
