Amazon_Evolution

Amazon Evolution Amazon seems to have felt the pressure of other online shopping sources and moved its focus to the world of storage, computing, and other system services for other web businesses. These services include Simple Storage System (S3) which charges companies per gigabyte to store their data and applications on Amazon’s disk drives. Companies use this service to store such things as malicious software that was removed from their clients email service and search engine processing information. Another service Amazon provides is called Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Through this service, processing power is rented out per hour for the equivalent of a basic server. “The Mechanical Turk service combines processing power with networks of real people who are paid to do the kind of work that machines can not do well” (Axia College, 2010, p. 26). This work would consist of recognizing inappropriate content in images and transcribing audio. Companies post information onto the mechanical Turk which is viewed by people who are paid online, of which Amazon gets a percentage. Companies use this service to analyze keyword searches or to assemble podcast segments. This service has allowed thousands of people to work for dozens of companies online. The data management issues that Amazon may encounter would be running out of space, or cost. Seeing as how Amazon has had a decline in profit through their online retailing, is it possible to make up the difference through service databases' I wonder how these database profits are doing compared to the retail side. Is the reason Amazon’s online retail slipping because they are focusing on the service databases' It seems that Amazon needs to remain focused on one aspect of their company, otherwise they will both fall. If becoming the leading online retailer is important and the main focus of Amazon, they need to reorganize and address any issues they are having within their system. Finding ways to reach customers and become more appealing will be greatly benefited. Perhaps Amazon can use some of their own services to find out what it is customers are looking for and what they prefer so they can adjust to their needs. The relationship between data, information, and knowledge is very close. Data provides the numbers, letters, sounds, or figures, that when organized become information. Information that has been “organized and processed to convey understanding, experience, accumulated learning, and expertise” (Axia College, 2010, p.6) is considered knowledge. Amazon uses the S3 service for data, MC2 for information, and the Mechanical Turk for knowledge. Reference Axia College. (2010). Week 1 Supplement: Chapter 1. Retrieved April 8, 2010 from the Axia College, Week 1, XBIS/219 – Business Information Systems Course Web site.