> But Walmart's decision to build a network that is not reliant on a single third-party cloud technology provider has transformed its ability to understand shoppers, who now move between store, desktop, mobile and app to make purchases.<p>That's a pretty big claim, and it's basically unsubstantiated by the rest of the article. How, exactly, does running their own infrastructure "[transform Walmart's] ability to understand shoppers," more than just using an incumbent cloud provider would? They cite security and the possibility of commoditizing excess capacity as additional motivators for going in-house, but these explanations seem incomplete to me.