Why And How Amazon Made Web Services Work

Case Study: Why and How Amazon Made Web

Services WorkJeff Barr

([email protected])

Technical Program Manager

>> ABOUT AMAZON.COM ABOUT AMAZON.COM >> WEB SERVICES WEB SERVICES >> TECHNOLOGY TECHNOLOGY >> SOLUTIONS SOLUTIONS >> BENEFITS BENEFITS

Amazon.com Quick Facts

> $1B Technology Investment

> Sites in 6 countries

> More than 7000 Employees

> 9 Distribution Centers Worldwide

> More than 13,000,000 Products in Our Catalog

> Ship To More Than 220 Countries


> Earth’s Biggest Selection

The place where people can find, discover and buy anything they want to buy online

> Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company

Start with the customer and work backward

Be The First Place People Come to Look for *Anything*

Amazon.com Vision


Amazon Customer Sets

> Buyers – the 31 million people who bought stuff on Amazon last year

> Sellers – merchants who sell on Amazon’s platform (21% of total Amazon transactions)

> Web Site Owners (Associates) – people who own Web sites and link to Amazon in return for referral fees

> Developers – people who use Amazon Web Services to create applications and productivity tools


Amazon Associates Program

> Founded in 1996

> Third party sites link to Amazon products

> First associate was puppynet.com

> 950,000 associates & growing

> Ready market for tools and components

www.amazon.com/associates


Amazon Merchant Program

> Sellers upload inventory and fulfill orders

> Merchants and Pro Merchants

> Hundreds of thousands of participants

> Seller Tools (e.g. www.sellerengine.com)

> Over 21% of our transactions

www.amazon.com/sellers


Amazon Technology Platform

Search

Catalog Payments AssociatesSimilarities Order Pipeline

1-Click

Shopping CartPersonalization

Wish List

Marketplace ForecastingSeller Tools

Products Customers Orders

International much more…Distribution

Reviews

Features

Content

Amazon.com, .ca, .co.uk, .de, .fr, .co.jp


The Road to Web Services (2002)> Partners needed better access to data

> Some obtained data feeds (text or XML)

> Others scraped the site to obtain:

• Descriptions

• Images

• Prices

• Availability

> This was expensive and fragile


The Web Services Concept

> The Programmable Web Site:

• Support for industry standards

• Remote access to data and functionality

• Decoupling of data and presentation

• Creation of a platform to attract software developers

• Unlocking creativity

• Leveraging technology investmentwww.simplest-shop.com


Planning for Web Services

> Business

> Licensing

> Protocol

> Platform

> Developer Support


Business Model

> Issues:

• No revenue model

• Usage fees (per-call, per-month, per-app, etc.)

• Profit center

> Resolution:

• Profit center

• Extend Amazon Associates model

• Support Associates and Sellers


License - Issues

> Issues:

• Degree of openness

• Ensuring developer’s rights

• Protecting Amazon’s rights

• Ensuring data freshness

• Supporting business model

• Control of server load


Licensing - Terms

> Resolution:

• Use data to create applications

• 1 call per second

• Cannot resell our data

• Can display and use data

• Must link to our site

• Store non-pricing data for up to 24 hours

• Store pricing data for up to 1 hour


Protocol

> Issues:• Support SOAP or XML over HTTP (REST)?

> Resolution:• Let developers make the choice• Support both

> Observation:• SOAP is industry standard• However, SOAP makes up just 15% of calls to AWS


Platform

> Issue: How to create a platform for developers

> Resolution:

• Use best practices from software world

• Documented APIs

• Stable evolution

• Backward compatibility


Developer Support

> Issue:• How to help developers to succeed• How to communicate with developers• How to create a scalable support model

> Resolution:• Online discussion board• Weekly developer chats• Regular newsletter• Frequent releases (fixes and features)• Online FAQ


Amazon Web Services> July 2002 – AWS 1.0

• SOAP and REST interfaces• SDK• Basic merchandising capability• Data from US site

> November 2002 – AWS 2.0• Marketplace support• Quick-Click

> April 2003 – AWS 3.0• Seller APIs• Remote Shopping Cart• Data from UK site

> July 2003• Data from German and Japanese sites


AWS API Categories

> Merchandising

• Access to rich product information

• 4 locales (US, UK, Germany, Japan)

> Selling

• Merchant product & inventory upload

• Shipping report download

> Buying

• Remote Shopping Cart

• Quick-Click Links

www.hivegroup.com/amazon_dyn.html


How AWS Works

AmazonPlatform

3rd party’s Web server

Customer’s Browser

AWS Web server

1

534

2

6

Process flow for a typical AWS XML or SOAP request: Example


What does AWS Enable?

> Customized Shopping Experience

> Rich Presentation

> User Stickiness

> More Revenue for Associates

> New Shopping / Browsing Models

www.kokogiak.com/amazon2/default.asp

Amazon Research and Reference Pane


AWS Features• Search• Browse • Product Details• Similarities• Accessories• Availability• ListMania/Wishlists/Registry• Track Listings• Customer Reviews• Sales Rank• Apparel / Merchant Details• Echo / Response• Blended Search• Text Stream Search

• XSLT • SellerSearch• SellerProfileSearch• MarketplaceSearch• ExchangeSearch• Quick-Click• Content-Type Switches• XML + SOAP Support• Remote Shopping Cart• Quick PayTM Transactions• Exchange Buy Buttons• Featured Products• AWS Developer Tools• Developer Portal


In Depth Example – Hacks Mania

> Select A Manufacturer

> Find Match a Keyword

> Sort by Sales Rank

> Apply an XSLT Transformation

> One link


AWS Challenges for Developers

> Lots to learn:

• XML

• SOAP

• XSLT

• HTTP

> Application Architecture

> Caching


Web Services Best Practices

> Cache data to improve performance

> Log successes and failures

> Handle error conditions

> Degrade service if necessary

> You are building a distributed application:

• More moving parts

• More things can go wrong

• plan for failure


Amazon Hacks

> Published 8/2003

> Tips and Tools

> Shopping

> Selling

> Developing

www.oreilly.com/hacks


Call to Action

> Visit www.amazon.com/webservices

• Get a developer token

• Download the SDK (Software Development Kit)

> Join the community

> Create your application

> Make money


Questions?


Thanks for Listening!


Links Reference

> www.amazon.com/webservices> www.amazon.com/associates> www.simplest-shop.com> www.shopforpowertools.com> bookstore.webguest.com> www.nba.com> www.hivegroup.com/amazon_dyn.html> www.kokogiak.com/amazon2/default.asp> www.oreilly.com/hacks

Why And How Amazon Made Web Services Work

Technology

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