Target Moving Away From Amazon Web Services
As retailers struggle to compete with Amazon.com as the company continues to grow (it's acquisition of Whole Foods Market the latest example of that), Target has found a way to fight back. CNBC reports the big-box retailer is scaling back its use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) as Target aims to take greater control over its infrastructure and stop financing its chief rival. It's rumored that Microsoft Azure is among the rival cloud vendors trying to earn Target's business. In addition to Microsoft, sources close to the matter say Google and Oracle are also in the running.
Total Retail's Take: Target is seeking to amp up its e-commerce business (including mobile), and move away from AWS through the end of the year and into 2018. While there seems to be little that retailers can do to slow down the growth of Amazon, choosing a different cloud service provider would allow Target to spend its computing dollars elsewhere. The impact could be significant to Amazon if other retailers, such as Wal-Mart, followed suit. However, AWS still has the dominant share of the market. In addition, with Amazon's finalized deal to acquire Whole Foods, further expanding its inventory and physical store presence, it seems Target leaving the AWS platform is only a small hit to Amazon right now.
