Netflix vs. Verizon: A sign of the cloud wars to come

Grazed from InfoWorld. Author: David Linthicum.

Fighting has erupted between Netflix and Verizon over who bears responsibility for the low quality of service some Netflix subscribers purportedly experience on Verizon’s FiOS broadband service. The angry banter escalated sharply on Thursday when Verizon sent Netflix a letter threatening legal action if the video-streaming company doesn’t stop talking smack about Verizon.

Verizon sells a cloud service of its own that Netflix does not use, and both companies sell streaming video services. Verizon customers who are also Netflix subscribers must access their Netflix content via their Verizon account. That seems to be where things go wrong for Netflix customers with Verizon accounts. Who didn’t see this coming?…

This appears to be an emerging pattern in cloud computing: Competitors are getting more aggressive and even nasty toward one another. The reasons are clear: The cloud-based technology market is beyond exploding, and most of the larger providers view 2014 and 2015 as the time for a cloud land grab. Most are sensitive to any obstacle that stands in the way of capturing that market, and that sensitivity manifested itself most recently as streaming-video services talking trash…

Read more from the source @ http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/netflix-vs-verizon-sign-of-the-cloud-wars-come-243998