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Comment by icelancer | Hacker News Reader

Sure they are. Propose an EU or non-Chinese Asian alternative to AWS that is, say, 80% as efficient/effective. If that's not possible, then choosing AWS for your startup/scaling business is not the stupidest move you can make, assuming AWS fits your use case.

"MS Windows having a marketshare of 96% should not necessarily stop you from designing your business around linux"

But Windows doesn't have this kind of marketshare in most areas going forward? The #1 OS used worldwide is AndroidOS and no one is clamoring to write for it as far as I can tell.

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I think you're missing the point. It's less a question of "can you find an alternative that is at least 80% as efficient", and more a question of "is this 20% bump in efficiency worth the liability risk".

Your opinion is 'yes'. OP's opinion is 'no'.

Both are valid opinions and highly depend on the nature of your business.

But, OP's somewhat un-american sentiment aside (which I believe is mostly what you're reacting to, rather than the general nature of their argument), I agree that erring on the side of caution and minimizing external liabilities should be on the top of the agenda for any company.

And this is aside from the whole "support local infrastructure and don't empower monopolies further" argument.

Maximizing the risk-adjusted returns on the business is the top of the agenda. Sometimes this means shedding risk, particularly at well established companies; sometimes this means embracing it, particularly at younger ones. If you don’t have revenue yet there’s little need to protect it.

I am not anti-american or anything like that.I even acknowledge american dominance in Tech and better conditions for skilled workers (read much higher salaries).

That said as a european I have to consider my interests and interests of my business.

At this point it is kinda an open question whether using AWS/Azure/GCP for anything involving PII is even fully legal under EU/EFTA law. I know at least my employer is working towards having more options to jump ship at a moments notice these days.

I think EU/EFTA is large enough to enable the growth of at least one 80% offering given enough time. Or otherwise large enough as an economic bloc to force America to stricter legalisation so that they can use and depend on the American offerings.

Microsoft can't ban you from using Windows or developing software that runs under it.

Amazon can sure kick your company off its services.

For many startups AWS is a no-brainer, which makes life somewhat harder for anyone who wants to deal with Iran from EU (as long as EU allows it) and not be shut down on a US three-letter agency's request.

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