Frontend clouds replace AWS operations
Thom Krupa, co-founder of Bejamas, on building dynamic apps on the Jamstack
This points to Netlify winning not on raw infrastructure, but on removing the work of operating AWS. For a team shipping a marketing site, docs hub, or lightweight product surface, moving from Amazon to Netlify often means replacing a pile of S3, CloudFront, CI, routing, and deployment setup with a git connected workflow where pushes create previews, publish globally, and let front end teams move without dedicated DevOps.
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The common pattern is not a full company wide cloud migration. Enterprise teams usually keep core systems on AWS, then use Netlify or Vercel for a specific web property that needs to launch fast, iterate often, and be managed by a small front end team.
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AWS Amplify exists as Amazon's closest answer, but the trade off is that once a project moves outside the default path, teams can end up back in the broader AWS service maze. Netlify and Vercel are winning where the buyer wants fewer knobs, not more power.
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There is still a scale breakpoint. These platforms sit on top of cloud infrastructure and can cost materially more than rolling it yourself at high traffic, which is why the usual long term path runs from Netlify or Vercel into AWS, not the reverse. Cases moving from Amazon to Netlify tend to be about simplicity and team speed.
The next phase is deeper adoption inside large companies, but in a narrow shape. Netlify and Vercel will keep taking the front door of the enterprise through new sites, campaigns, docs, and app front ends. AWS will remain the system of record underneath, while higher level frontend clouds keep absorbing the workflow that developers do not want to wire together by hand.