Cloud Industry - Interconnected

When the Houthis Found “the Cloud"

One topic this newsletter has been obsessed with over the last four years is cloud data centers. Partially because of my previous industry experience, working deeply on cloud-based tech products, partially because these data centers are just fascinating and so crucial to the global

Topics: Cloud Industry• AWS• AI•

($) re:Inventing AWS: Keynote Digs and Narratives

Topics: Cloud Industry• Google Cloud Platform• AI•

How to Understand Google's Gemini Delay

The top three major cloud providers – AWS, Azure, Google Cloud – all reported their quarterly results last week. The market’s reaction was a striking divergence between rewarding Azure and AWS either their re-accelerating (Azure’s 28% year-on-year rate) or stabilizing growth (AWS’s 12%

Topics: AI• Cloud Industry•

($) Second Order Effects of the Expanded US AI Chips Ban

Topics: Cloud Industry• Regulation• AI•

🏦AI Is Turning Clouds Into Banks

Louise Matsakis of Semafor reported an important scoop this week: the White House’s upcoming executive order on AI may require cloud computing platforms to share customer information with regulators. If this scoop turns out to be true, this EO will basically implement a

Topics: Meta• Alibaba• Baidu•

☁️Llama 2 is China Cloud's Best Friend

When Meta’s large language model, Llama 2, was released a couple of weeks ago, it chose Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure, as its preferred partner. Since the model is open source (though people dispute how open source it really is given its licensing

Topics: Cloud Industry• Geopolitics•

US vs China: A Cloud Proxy War

The US-China tech “cold war” appears to have a new front: the cloud. According to the New York Times, both the Departments of State and Commerce are looking into new ways to restrict Chinese cloud hyperscalers, e.g. AliCloud, Huawei Cloud, Tencent Cloud, etc.

Topics: Alibaba• Cloud Industry•

Is the Next Alibaba...AliCloud?

During Alibaba’s Q4 2023 earnings call, Daniel Zhang, Alibaba Group’s CEO, expressed a rather romantic optimism that “we would love…to see one of these little Alibaba's spinning off from Alibaba becoming another big Alibaba.” Among the six “little Alibaba’

Topics: Cloud Industry• JD• National Champion•

Is JD Cloud the New “National Champion”?

JD Cloud is quietly, but effectively, positioning itself as the new “national champion” in China’s cloud computing market. This move became apparent when, during the weeklong “Two Meetings” deliberation that anointed China’s leaders of the next five years, JD Cloud’s top

Topics: AI• Baidu• Cloud Industry•

Will ChatGPT Make Baidu Relevant Again?

ChatGPT has set off an AI arms race – and this arms race is global. Even though the seemingly ubiquitous chatbot is blocked in China, Baidu is set to release its own ChatGPT-like bot in March. Most of the reporting so far, in both English

Topics: Cloud Industry•

How to Invest in China's Cloud

A couple of weeks ago, we published a detailed breakdown of China’s cloud industry’s current state of development [https://interconnected.blog/how-is-chinas-cloud-industry-doing/], which resonated with many industry analysts and technologists. We combed through the official whitepaper published by the government-affiliated think tank,

Topics: Cloud Industry•

How is China’s Cloud Industry Doing?

The Chinese economy may well be heading into a recession. But one sector that has continued to grow, seemingly unabated, is its cloud computing industry. According to Canalys, China’s total cloud spending in 2021 increased by 45%, bringing high expectations for more in

Topics: Cloud Industry• Google Cloud Platform• Data Regulation•

Where Data Centers and Abortion Rights Intersect

On the surface, cloud data center locations and women’s right to abortion in America are two topics that could not be further apart. Yet, they have become intimately intertwined when Proov [https://proovtest.com/], a healthcare tech company focused on fertility, decided to

Topics: Southeast Asia• Cloud Industry• Geopolitics•

US and Southeast Asia: A Dysfunctional Romance

Last week, Southeast Asia scored a long overdue diplomatic victory. The US-ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Nations) Summit was finally held in Washington, DC and hosted by the White House – the first time in ASEAN’s 55-year history. Symbolic victory aside, what the Southeast

Topics: Hashicorp• Cloud Industry• Open Source•

HashiCorp: Past, Present, Future

Today’s post is a guest contribution from Shawn Xu [https://www.linkedin.com/in/shengyangxu/] (no relations). Shawn is one of the early engineers at Ascend.io, got his Masters in Human Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon, and writes an informative WeChat public

Topics: Big Data• Databricks• Cloud Industry•

What Does Databricks Do?

Today’s post is a guest contribution from Shawn Xu [https://www.linkedin.com/in/shengyangxu/] (no relations). Shawn is one of the early engineers at Ascend.io, got his Masters in Human Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon, and writes an informative WeChat public

Topics: Cloud Industry• ByteDance•

Is “ByteDance Cloud” A Good Idea?

When I first started writing Interconnected a little over a year ago, two of my favorite analyses that I wrote were why Facebook [https://interconnected.blog/why-is-facebook-not-in-the-cloud-business/] and Dropbox [https://interconnected.blog/should-dropbox-enter-cloud-business-part-1/] don’t offer their own cloud platforms. Given their scale and

Topics: Alibaba• Cloud Industry• Open Source•

May 16, 2021: AliCloud, JEDI, HarmonyOS, Hillhouse Capital, Tencent Cloud

Hello Interconnected Readers: I have not written a bilingual news source summary and commentary in a while -- my apologies. Interconnected, as a newsletter and product, will be going through some changes, which we will announce later this week. I’m also going through

Topics: AWS• Cloud Industry•

No New Deep-Dive Due to Sickness; AWS Archive

Dear Interconnected Subscribers, I've been really sick the last few days, so I've decided to not publish a new Thursday deep-dive post this week. I don't want to publish something sub-par while I feel sub-par. (I thought I

Topics: Jack Ma• Cloud Industry• Semiconductor•

November 8, 2020: Due Process and Procedural Justice

Hello Interconnected Readers: I want to start off by citing a phrase from Matthew Prince, the CEO of Cloudflare: > I, personally, believe in strong Freedom of Speech protections, but I also acknowledge that it is a very American idea that is not shared

Topics: Cloud Industry• Data Center• Facebook•

October 25, 2020: Be Good at Destroying Your Best Ideas

Hello Interconnected Readers: I’m trying something new starting this week. In addition to the six stories summary that you’ve been getting, I will open this weekly issue with a more raw, personal, and reflective letter to you about something I thought about

Topics: Cloud Industry• Alibaba• Tencent•

China's Cloud Ceiling

Cloud computing is hot. All cloud stocks are hot. Cloud was already growing everywhere and now accelerated by COVID, with massive adoption trends like remote work, e-commerce, digital health, and who knows what else. What used to be an outlandish approach to enterprise IT

Topics: Cloud Industry• Alibaba• Tencent•

Where Can the Chinese Internet Go?

With all the executive orders, CFIUS edicts, and additional sanctions placed on Chinese tech companies by the US, it’s hard to see where these companies - and by extension the Chinese Internet - can expand to. Certainly, China’s own economy will continue

Topics: Cloud Industry• Southeast Asia•

Southeast Asia and the Pacific Light Cable Network

Long-time readers of Interconnected know I write a lot about the cloud computing industry [https://interconnected.blog/tag/cloud-industry/]. I like to dig deep into the cloud, not just because of my own existing expertise and experience in the industry, but also of its

Topics: Zoom• Slack• Cloud Industry•

Zoom vs Slack: Wall Street’s Misguided Comparison

Last week, both Zoom and Slack reported their quarterly earnings, the first real quarter with full COVID-19 impact. Zoom, by any standard, hit a home run. Slack also delivered a great quarter (at least a double or triple to extend the baseball analogy), but