Walmart has decided to step up their game in the realm of e-commerce. In a recent move to challenge their longtime competitor Amazon, Walmart has open sourced their OneOps software. This will allow a wealth of new developers to write applications in various clouds. A flexible development that will surely have the retail giant competing with some of the best. Will others like Costco follow suit?
The Benefits of Walmart OneOps
Back in 2013, Walmart purchased OneOps in order to make the move from their rather, bulky e-commerce software to something that could compete with the likes of Amazon. Now that they have open sourced the software, the sky is the limit. Gone are the days of cloud limitations for the company. Walmart can now choose between a wide variety of cloud providers, giving them the option of the best one for their needs. A great opportunity for them, and for the development community.
How This Effects Amazon
One would think that by releasing OneOps to the public that the supposed advantage of the software would be affected. However, by telling their secret to the world, Walmart can create a competitive edge in regards to cloud resources. In the past, Amazon has dominated the market with their own version of large cloud platforms. What makes Walmart version unique is flexibility for developers. No longer will they need to be restricted to certain contracts and technologies.
Where Does Costco Fit In?
Sitting quietly on the sidelines we have Costco. There is no doubt that they are profitable as a brick and mortar operation, but they are certainly behind the likes of Amazon others on e-commerce. In recent years, we have seen Costco open up apps for Android and Apple as well as increase their online profits to above $5 billion dollars. With Amazon still holding on to the top slot of online retail, the still have some improvements to make in the field.
