(2006-05-18) Vogels Amazon Interview

Interview with Werner Vogels about Amazon's technology Platform/Infrastructure. For us service orientation (SOA) means encapsulating the data with the business logic that operates on the data, with the only access through a published service interface. No direct database access is allowed from outside the service, and there's no data sharing among the services... It's not only the technology side that was improved by using services. The development and operational process has greatly benefited from it as well. The services model has been a key enabler in creating teams that can innovate quickly with a strong customer focus. Each service has a team associated with it, and that team is completely responsible for the service - from scoping out the functionality, to architecting it, to building it, and operating it... Giving developers operational responsibilities has greatly enhanced the quality of the services, both from a customer and a technology point of view. The traditional model is that you take your software to the wall that separates development and operations, and throw it over and then forget about it. Not at Amazon. You build it, you run it. This brings developers into contact with the day-to-day operation of their software. It also brings them into day-to-day contact with the customer. This customer FeedBack loop is essential for improving the quality of the service. (Hmm, I wonder what their Product Management staff looks like?)