Use this repo to
- submit and discuss issues concerning Amazon Web Services.
- submit BCP proposals for working with Amazon Web Services.
This Repo is NOT affiliated with AWS or Amazon.
But It Sounds FatinstatingMay 2016 I've changed jobs, and I ended up working with AWS. Exciting, yes. Greenfield, yes. Powerful, yes. Smooth, no. Logical, no.
So here I am half a year later. I haven't hit rock bottom, and it doesn't seem like I will do so anytime soon, so I thought I'd better document some of the findings, the workarounds and some of the struggles which I label flaws in the hype wagon called AWS.
FWIW I'm a well-above-average reader of technical documentation, and I have a sound experience in software development, Unix, networking, protocols, virtualization, infrastructure, devops, etc. This is the reason for choosing flaws over personal lacking in motivation/understanding, and not the customer is always right.
I know that there's a bunch of "smartness" in and at AWS, but that's beside the point. This repo is not about throwing rotten tomatoes at AWS, though the number of open issues over time can point in that direction.
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Overheard: AWS tagline "Friends don't let friends build data centers,"
— Tony Baer (@TonyBaer) July 21, 2016
There's a discrepancy between what I see AWS delivering in "the not-just-iron department" and what AWS promises overall, the quality that one expects in these times, not just from a AAA class company but from the IT sector in general, even when it's marked "beta", MVP, etc.
Customers on the Basic support plan can only ask for help and file issues on the AWS public forums and general public sites like StackOverflow, while the ones paying for Technical Support can do so in a closed environment called "Support Center". NOTE: on top of that, most paying customers still won't get information about AWS decisions, just that behaviour/limitation X is by design (o.O) . I can't help but think that the split (forums vs support center) is strategic as to keep the noise levels up, in order to disperse any concentration of negative perception.
Maybe that's just me and my conspiracy devil sitting on my left shoulder talking, but that's what I'm addressing with this repo. I'm concentrating all the negative perception facts about the AWS offerings.
I'd like this repo to keep AWS transparently accountable for the lackings in their offering.
We will not inflict a change in their reply style "I have +1 you on our internal backlog, but I can't give you any ETA on a fix" (what year is this that I need a proxy to +1 for me?! and +1 on top of which number?!) and surely not get to peak into their development process --- for instance, as it is already possible with Atlassian (creators of JIRA, BitBucket, etc), who keep their issues public making it trivial to see and judge the quality of their products and of their development process --- but at least next time someone asks what's the quality level of AWS and what are some of the pain points with a specific service, they can read some these war stories from the AWS front line.
If you too are working on the AWS platform, feel free to submit a new issue or submit a PR with a BCP proposal.
There are plenty and there will be even more people that will want to get their hands dirty with AWS. Help them make an informed decision.
NOTE: https://github.com/open-guides/og-aws is great, but it fills a different void.