cloud computing and eBay
EBay Inc. is a California-based Internet Company that runs some of the world’s most popular websites like the eBay auction site, the PayPal money transfer site and the Skype communications site.
Started in 1995, eBay is one of the many companies that have really benefited from the Internet revolution, with its revenues running into more than $8 Billion in 2008, and with the company earning a net income of more than $300 Million.
What started as ‘just another personal site’ by Pierre Omidyar is today an employer of more than 15,000 people, spread out in various parts of the globe to facilitate its operations.
EBay’s Products
EBay’s best known service is the auction site it runs by the same name, and on which millions of items are sold on a daily basis. The beauty of ebay, which probably explains its popularity, is the freedom it gives bidders and sellers—where anything can be listed as long as it is legal and does not violate eBay’s terms and conditions (which are generally quite relaxed.)
In response to demand, ebay has developed localized websites for sellers and bidders in countries where the marketplace is popular.
Apart from the auction site, ebay also owns the PayPal money transfer service, which it acquired in 2002.
Additionally, it is also the company behind Skype, which has found widespread application with VOIP (Voice over the Internet,) instant messaging and file transfer.
Cloud Computing at EBay
As one of the biggest forces behind the Internet, ebay is taking steps to ensure that it does not get left behind when the cloud computing revolution really takes off.
It seems that the future of corporate computing (and possibly even personal computing) lies in the clouds and any major company (especially one that operates solely from the Internet or is in the technology sector) who is caught unprepared could find themselves in a precarious position.
It is said that in the maturity of cloud computing, people will move from running most of their applications on their PCs to doing almost everything on the cloud’s server in real time—turning their personal machines into nothing more than conduits.
Obviously this is bound to change people’s interactions with their PCs and create a bigger scope for things that can be done on the Internet. This kind of shift represents both an opportunity and a threat for an Internet firm like eBay, so it is understandable that they would want to be part of this future frontier.
For instance, if the cloud proves to be successful (to a level where even web giants like eBay can completely trust it with their operations) it would offer the company a huge savings opportunity on the considerable cost that is currently spent on maintaining in-house application servers.
The company could move their applications into the cloud and gain the ability to concentrate on their core business lines.
There has been a feeling, however, that eBay is actually one the few companies whose operations helped spur the idea of cloud computing, giving the pioneer developers the idea that it is possible to run applications from remote servers.
Depending on your definition of cloud computing, and if you choose to include grid computing as part of cloud computing, then you could argue that eBay was indeed an inspiration for the pioneers of cloud computing.
This is because the company has been running its own grid computing system for years, which (again, depending on your definition of a cloud) can be seen as eBay’s early ‘internal cloud’.
The Future of Cloud Computing at Ebay
EBay seems to be taking the whole cloud computing idea very seriously, even going as far as creating a Director of Cloud Computing engineering position and advertising for applicants.
It is not inconceivable, then, that the company could be planning to offer cloud computing services to smaller organizations—just as Amazon (which is seen by many people as eBay’s main competitor) does through its Web Services subsidiary, AWS.
Category: Ebay
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