The post The centralized cloud: A barrier for startups in the developing world appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news’ editorial. The promise of cloud computing was to expand access to the digital world across the globe, but for startups in developing countries, this promise remains largely unfulfilled. Centralized cloud services, dominated and gatekept by tech giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, often create as many obstacles as opportunities that inhibit innovation in emerging economies. While these services initially accelerated the development of digital connectivity in developed nations, their centralized model has grown to pose significant challenges for sustainable growth and innovation. From technological dependency and prohibitive costs to physical infrastructure limitations, the current cloud computing paradigm is inadvertently widening the digital divide as progress accelerates, leaving many promising young minds and startups in developing countries struggling to compete on the global stage. Technological dependency and operational risks  Technological dependency and operational risks are two of the most critical issues users face in developing nations. In the Asia-Pacific region, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud dominate with a combined 66% market share. This concentration leaves developing economies reliant on foreign-owned digital infrastructure, limiting local innovation and exposing businesses to service disruptions ranging from latency issues to full-on outages.  Recent high-profile outages have tested cloud infrastructure resilience. In December 2021, AWS experienced a significant disruption affecting critical services like EC2, S3, RDS, and Lambda for several hours. The impact was far-reaching, causing issues for major platforms such as Netflix, Disney Plus, and Ticketmaster, as well as Amazon’s services, including Prime Music, Ring doorbells, and parts of Amazon.com. For small businesses and startups, particularly in developing countries, such outages can pose serious challenges, potentially resulting in financial losses and impacting customer trust. In 2023, another notable…

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Filed under: News - @ August 25, 2024 11:12 am