Cloudflare is really fast putting the pieces together to become a modern simpler AWS. By focusing on edge networks and programmability from the start they've been able to outmaneuver AWS in product development and pricing.
AWS today is stable, reliable but expensive and rigid. A lot of their products feel like they've been taken out of the oven 15 minutes too early. AppSync, API Gateway, CloudFormation and others all feel lethargic, stagnant or not fit for purpose in the current world.
I don't think AWS is in a position to compete with Cloudflare's strategy without massively slashing bandwidth prices and improving their product development. They also aren't really a credible edge platform. Lambda@Edge is really bad, CloudFront is slow and terrible compared to Akamai, Fastly and Cloudflare (and Amazon's retail business doesn't even use it -- because it sucks).
I guess from my perspective that's also why I want it in my cloud. I'm willing to pay for managed services, but don't want to be using services I can't easily migrate away from.
If Akamai were smart they'd buy Fastly yesterday, because they're rapidly falling behind. Cloudflare is harder to see because of antitrust concerns. With Fastly's current position, they should sell, and someone should buy them for the network and progress on edge compute alone.
AWS today is stable, reliable but expensive and rigid. A lot of their products feel like they've been taken out of the oven 15 minutes too early. AppSync, API Gateway, CloudFormation and others all feel lethargic, stagnant or not fit for purpose in the current world.
I don't think AWS is in a position to compete with Cloudflare's strategy without massively slashing bandwidth prices and improving their product development. They also aren't really a credible edge platform. Lambda@Edge is really bad, CloudFront is slow and terrible compared to Akamai, Fastly and Cloudflare (and Amazon's retail business doesn't even use it -- because it sucks).
Super interesting to watch. ($NET shareholder)