As the new chief executive of Amazon Web Services, Adam Selipsky is looking ahead in anticipation of the No. 1 cloud computing provider’s 10th annual re:Invent conference as he aims to set AWS on a new course.
When Selipsky took the helm of AWS in the spring of 2021, he inherited a business that was run by Andy Jassy, since elevated to head all of Amazon.com, that was running on all cylinders. In fact, did you know that this year their revenue from Amazon’s cloud computing unit top $60 billion? The SiliconANGLE sister market research firm Wikibon estimated that their revenue will grow 36% from last year! That’s remarkable.
Must Read: Is Digital Demand Setting Course for the Next Stage of Cloud Computing?
That said, it is also evident that Adam Selipsky is facing a few unprecedented challenges for which he must navigate AWS into the next decade with well-funded competitors such as Microsoft Corp. and Google LLC nipping at its heels in an attempt to get a larger share of the lucrative cloud computing market. Considering its competitors, Microsoft has developed its cloud business by building software as a service application offerings that run on top of its Azure infrastructure. Similarly Google leverages its Workspace suite of productivity apps to compete in cloud computing.
It’s right that AWS has not copied its competitors by offering the same kind of SaaS products for business users. Instead, it has primarily relied on delivering a wide range of infrastructure products and services, from myriad methods of compute and storage to data analysis, artificial intelligence, fraud detection, enterprise search and much more! Developers then use these services as building blocks to run sophisticated and scalable applications that more directly competing with traditional SaaS applications. This unique model’ focus has left organizations that have limited in-house cloud expertise and whose information technology services are still locked inside their own data centers, which makes a vast majority of nearly $4 trillion in IT spending!
Also Read: The 3 Most Important Technologies in 2022
Now, that focus on foundational services, as AWS calls the infrastructure services is still building at a breakneck pace, is about to expand. “More and more, customers are asking us to provide them with higher-level abstractions on top of AWS services,” said Adam Selipsky in an interview recently. One iconic example of this “horizontal” software push that Selipsky waxes eloquent about is Amazon Connect, a business that has helped the likes of Barclays plc reach more people at lower costs than traditional software solutions.
In the words of Adam Selipsky himself, “We’re looking at a whole bunch of those horizontal use cases. In the coming years, I think you’ll see us continuing to look at horizontal use cases such as the call center. We’ll undoubtedly try and help by releasing higher-level capabilities that both have brand-new functionality as well as bundling up, if you will, some of our existing capabilities.” He further added by saying that AWS needs to continue to expand vertically as well, by providing more complete solutions for specific industries such as health care and manufacturing. And to do so, the company is bringing its services to the edge of the network, including traditional data centers, the factory floor, and even the field, and establishing an operating model that integrates AWS more deeply into businesses in virtually every industry.
Strategic moves have already been made to advance the company’s trajectories. In addition, befitting Selipsky’s recent history as CEO of the business intelligence firm Tableau Software, acquired by Salesforce.com Inc. two years ago, AWS is digging deeper into providing enterprise customers more ways to provide AI and data analytics services usable by mere mortals and not just data scientists.
Along with increased adoption of AWS, Selipsky is seeing increased sophistication from both longtime and newer AWS customers because according to him, “the world has changed, and customers and developers are expecting more from AWS.” So, AWS is developing a “new playbook” to raise the bar for its customers while changing the game on the competition.
Recommended Read: What is Grid Computing?
For more articles like “Adam Selipsky’s New Plan for Cloud Computing Next”, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.