Summary: Management at US retail chain Target – which has 1.9k stores and 40 distribution centres – went on record with details of its hybrid and multi-cloud architecture. Target turned to Amazon to run its e-commerce operation in 2001 but moved away after Amazon acquired Whole Foods. It no longer uses any AWS services. Unusually, the company brought all its engineering back in-house to build a new set of applications on a new application platform that runs all the technology underlying its entire operation from website to cash registers in physical stores. This single platform gives Target the flexibility to deploy workloads in its own data centres or with Google Cloud (its primary provider) or Azure. Target uses public cloud only for infrastructure-as-a-service and for flexibility to scale in peak periods. With over 4k engineers, Target is able to build and run its tools in-house rather than use a managed service provider. And with a footprint of owned data centres, which management claims it can run efficiently, Target has continued to use its existing assets. An interesting example of how in-house development and infrastructure can be used alongside cloud infrastructure. Can it be efficient? For specific applications and workloads, this would be possible, but over time inefficiencies can and will emerge as proprietary infrastructure ages.
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