I Tried to Live Without the Tech Giants. It Was Impossible
Disclaimer: I worked at AWS from 2012-2020. I am not a current employee.<p>&gt; I came to think of Amazon and Google as the providers of the very infrastructure of the internet, so embedded in the architecture of the digital world that even their competitors had to rely on their services.<p>This is the right take. I disagree with the disappointment around this article.<p>It’s about the fact that tech giants are running the infrastructure of the internet. Its the federal highway program of the 21st century. It’s a critical piece of public infrastructure. I can’t even begin to wrap my head around the death and mayhem that would ensue if AWS and Google simply packed up and turned off the data centers.<p>When we consider the future and safety of our country we should keep these things in mind.<p>Imagine an unusually well-attended AWS all-hands was hit by a freak meteor. What do you even do? Take enough engineers off the oncall rotation and things will eventually fall over. I think the government would actually need to take emergency action at a level we don’t understand to prevent the collapse of our financial system beyond god knows what else. It would be utter mayhem. Globally.<p>That said, no one takes this more seriously than AWS. I really believe this. I sat in meetings regarding how to recover if we lost entire states, like literally what if we lose the Virginia to a catastrophe. (I worked on the Key Management Service or KMS which underlies much of the rest of the infrastructure.) But it is good and correct that our representatives are questioning our tech giants about their role in the future of our civilization. They’re playing perhaps the most critical role, and that should scare you.<p>I actually believe in the benevolence of AWS; I spent nearly a decade there. Do you?