Is ‘simplexity’ the right approach?
Vogels’ approach is an architecture-forward method that does not insist on throwing more technologies at the problem. I like that. We should be normalizing the technologies in use and, in some cases, looking for third-party solutions such as common directory services, database virtualization, etc.
The obvious elephant in the room is that most enterprise cloud deployments are heterogeneous, meaning they use multiple cloud providers. Vogels’ vision does not include multiple provider deployments, which is unsurprising. Are you solving the problems that most enterprises face if you do not consider multicloud deployments? A single cloud deployment is not the norm, complex or not.
The principles of the AWS approach are helpful, but they do not tailor solutions to the specific demands of multicloud. Multicloud environments require organizations to integrate and manage diverse platforms, APIs, tools, and security models from different providers, adding layers of operational complexity. Multicloud deployments come with unique challenges such as ensuring data portability between clouds, maintaining unified compliance frameworks, and optimizing workloads distributed across providers.