AWS for Software Companies Podcast

Daniele Di Mattia, Partner at McKinsey and Company and Miguel Alava, General Manager of AWS for software companies in EMEA, discuss strategic software industry insights and trends in Europe, Middle East, Africa and beyond that will shape the future of investment, product development as well as opportunities for regional and global expansion.Topics include:Macro environment challenges and focus on cost optimization for software companiesGenerative AI's massive impact and expanding total addressable marketThe need for increased R&D investment in Europe, Middle East and Africa regionLeveraging cloud elasticity and optimization for cost-conscious environmentsImpact of generative AI on product development and developer productivityEmbedding generative AI in sales, marketing and customer operationsImportance of data strategy and prioritizing high-value use casesBeing bold and courageous in investing during technological inflection pointsOpportunities for software companies to lead in their respective market segments

Register here for The AWS for Software Companies "Generative AI and Business Applications Executive Forum", Wednesday May 15, The Sofitel, New York City---------Frank Della Rosa, Research Vice President of SaaS, Business Platforms, and Industry Cloud at IDC, shares the recent trends of the software industry and how some successful software companies are adapting their strategies to best take advantage and create value.Topics Include:The worldwide forecast for SaaS and cloud softwareMajor growth stats for SaaS and Cloud softwareNorth America growth deep diveTop businesses investing in generative AICo-creation with individuals, teams and machinesCriticality of roadmap for generative AIMonetizing generative AI’s impact on demandData’s role in the “Year of the Platform”Purpose built platformsEnterprise generative AI use casesOpportunities and challenges of generative AIInforming ISV and SaaS partners on tech buyer focusImpact of software architecture from edge infrastructureGenerative AI and application modernization servicesEnhanced productivity, operational excellence, Hyper personalizationDomain specific models and vertical SaaS companiesWhere are we going? What’s ahead?Reiterating the final points

Mark Billige, CEO of global consultancy firm Simon Kucher and Miguel Alava, General Manager of AWS for software companies in EMEA, discuss strategic software industry insights and trends that will shape the future of data, generative AI and cost optimization.Topics Include:Shift from Growth-at-All-Costs to Profitable Growth ModelsMonetizing the Value of Generative AI OfferingsTreating Data as a Monetizable Asset for Software CompaniesStrategies for Expanding into the U.S. Software MarketRethinking Software Pricing and Revenue ModelsOrganizational Changes Required for AI-Driven InnovationAvoiding Undervaluing Software Offerings and Leaving Money on the TableBalancing Cost Optimization with Investing in GrowthLeveraging Partnerships/Acquisitions for New Market Entry

Register here for The AWS for Software Companies "Generative AI and Business Applications Executive Forum", Wednesday May 15, The Sofitel, New York City---------Ep035: Today's podcast features panel discussion from the "AWS for Software Companies Generative AI and Data Executive Forum" featuring leaders from Anyscale, Qlik and Rapid7 sharing insights on data models, policies and optimization for Generative AI applications.Panelists:Zhe Zang, Head of Open Source Engineering, AnyscaleBrendan Grady, EVP & GM, Analytics Business Unit, QlikLaura Ellis, VP - Data Engineering and Platform Analytics, Rapid7Sherry Marcus Ph.D., Director, Applied Science, AWSTopics Include:Introductions of the panelWhat big bets are you making with your companies and why?What have the learnings been with data preparation?Balancing present needs with the future of AI – growing data literacyCost optimization for AI and Data platformsConstraints of hardware and growing expenseWhat models and solutions have customers been asking for?High stakes risks for AI and DataHow customers are reacting to different compute modelsGuardrails, filters and risk-mitigation best practicesData and AI pain pointsNew global policies challenging data and AI developmentChallenges with data qualityHow has AI changed and evolved with digital natives?Open and closed models in the marketMetrics and selection for modelsBiggest lessons learned in the AI and data spaceSession conclusion

A panel discussion from the AWS for Software Companies Generative AI and Data Executive Forum featuring leaders from DatologyAI, Gretal.ai and Zscaler sharing insights on data analytics, AI/ML and cost optimization.Panelists:Ari Morcos - CEO and Co-founder at DatologyAIJohn Meyers - CTO and Co-Founder at Gretel.aiSanjay Kalra - Product Management at ZscalerAndy Perkins – General Manager, Data, Analytics, GenAI at Amazon Web ServicesTopics Include:Top 3 keys to success integrating insights, AI-ML, generative AIBig business opportunities for data curation, data analytics to reduce costsRecent ML innovations for solving problems with dataBalancing utility and accuracy with synthetic data for privacyWhat is the role synthetic data plays in AI/ML OpsBenefits of synthetic dataCost optimization existing data in AI/ML platformReinvesting cost savings into innovation with data and generative AIInsights and predictions for data, AI/ML, generative AI to transform user journeys

Phil Le-Brun of AWS speaks to Brad Porter, CEO of Orion Health about the exciting future healthcare, communities that have adopted a “Digital First” strategy and improving the healthcare experience through data and technology.Topics Include:The ambitious mission and vision for Orion HealthcareImproving the clinician and patient experience through dataThe role of data in healthcareOpportunities for digitization and innovation in healthcareAI and data for improving healthcare predictability & efficiency.Using technology to “join the dots” for health trends of the populationExamples and benefits of communities that have a “Digital First” strategy for healthcareThe patient experience with their healthcare dataBuilding trust with personal health informationLearning about digital opportunities from personal experiences with healthcare

In this podcast we’ll hear from Stephen Manley, CTO of Druva, about the problem of data sprawl, and how AWS customers like Druva have prepared, orchestrated, and unified petabytes of data to analyze and perform at scale. Topics Include:Generative AI has flipped a lot of legacy AI in last few monthsOverview of Druva / a SaaS backup companyHow do we use generative AI to help customers get more value?What problems did we not expect with generative AI?Curating data to feed into LLMsIntegrating security and privacy into the productMeasuring performance with generative AIAWS team helping solve the issuesBetting big on AWS BedrockIngesting data into S3 with 5x performance improvementUnified view of security, aggregating data for efficiencyWalking through an example querySummary recommendations

Today, in collaboration with Business Insider India, Raviteja Dodda, Founder and CEO of MoEngage shares the story of how MoEngage is shaping customer engagement and provides guidance for other software leaders wishing to make the same journey. Topics Include:Jeff Klaus and Raviteja Dotta IntroductionsHow has the Customer Engagement Space evolved in recent years?How has SaaS help automate AI-driven personalization?Maximizing existing customersSteps and best practices for growing to multiple marketsDeveloping GTM approach for Asia, Europe and North American marketsCreating a “flywheel effect” by leveraging customer communitiesInnovating to stay ahead of the curve in the software industryMoEngage implemented AI in 2016 – how had that AI strategy evolved through to generative AI?Recommendations and Lessons Learned

Today, a session from the AWS for Software Companies Executive Forum at re:Invent, Jeremy Schnieder, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, shares some mega trends of the software industry.Topics Include:Software is growing significantly.Total value of Enterprise software industry has doubled in the last 5 yearsIT spending rising, SaaS now over 50% of software revenueOpportunities & major growth drivers with GenAIShifts balance of internal development and commercial software due to GenAIGenAI influenced changes in various market segmentsTactics that product led sales are usingProductivity benefits from generative AI-assisted software developmentProductivity metrics for generative AI

Gabriele Lasauskaite, Head of Growth & Community Programs at AWS, speaks with Luke Anear, CEO and Founder of SafetyCulture as he shares the story of SafetyCulture, becoming a critical app for businesses, supporting 75,000 customer globally and the plans for 100x growth in the coming years.Topics Include:How did SafetyCulture begin? What problem were you trying to solve?Who are the customers of SafetyCulture?Australian Open using SafetyCulture for their eventsAirlines relying on SafetyCultureThe role of technology on SafetyCultureThe importance of User ExperienceGrowing the SafetyCulture business 100x by 2032Interview wrap up

James Hunt, Vice President of Product Management of eGain shares the story of how eGain Analytics is helping Amazon Connect customers to measure, manage and optimize their contact centers.Topics Include:Overview of eGaineGain Solution hubs: Knowledge, Conversation & AnalyticsWhy enterprises choose eGain AnalyticsContact Center Analytics: Buy vs. BuildNavigating a migration from On-Premise to Amazon Connect – Best Practices & Pitfalls.A real customer migration experienceBuilding trust with large enterprises and government clientsHow eGain leverages AWS servicesThe Amazon/eGain partnershipAdvice for other software executivesFind out more: eGain.com and eGain on AWS MarketplaceNavigating the migration from On-Premise Solutions to Amazon Connect – Best Practices & Pitfalls.

We feature a panel discussion from the AWS for Software Companies Executive Forum at re:Invent, featuring software leaders, founders and co-founders from Cohesity, HashiCorp, Postman and SentinelOne sharing how they grew their software business, software trends they are seeing and growth plans for 2024Panelists:Mohit Aron, Founder and Chief Technology and Product Officer, CohesityArmon Dadgar, Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer, HashiCorp Ankit Sobti, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, PostmanEly Kahn, Vice President of Product for Cloud Security and AI/ML, SentinelOneCarol Potts, Director ISV Sales, North America, Amazon Web ServicesTopics Include:Software trends being seen in the market todayIntroductions from each panellistSeeing a market opportunity and the founders’ journeyThe evolving vision of software companiesInvolvement & impact of AWSReactions to present day market conditionsChanges for various sized customersStrategies for delivering value and staying nimbleWhere are software companies pushing for growth?Impact and approach to generative AISoftware and growth strategies for 2024Session wrap up

We feature a panel discussion from the AWS for Software Companies Executive Forum at re:Invent, featuring software leaders from Appen, Coinbase, Rapid7 and AWS sharing strategies and best practices to optimize their businesses to free up budgets and enable further software innovations. Panelists:Bobby Smith, Vice President of IT and Engineering, AppenSumanth Sukumar, Vice President Engineering, CoinbaseElaine Hardwick, Director of Engineering, Rapid7Sree Ratnasinghe, Director, NAMER Tech, Amazon Web ServicesTopics Include:Potential future market and impact of driving optimizationHow optimization drove innovationUsing optimization to free up budget & time for growth programsOptimization becomes part of the organizational cultureLessons learned through optimizationRunning internal competitions to drive innovation and modernizationAWS’ “Experience Based Accelerator” 3 day hackathon-style optimization programLeveraging AWS to help optimize to invest in generative AIInvestment returns in Bedrock and Code WhispererEnsuring team alignment for optimization focusMaking roadmap trade-offs – features v optimizationFinal thoughts, panel wrap up

We feature a panel discussion from the AWS for Software Companies Executive Forum at re:Invent, featuring software leaders from Canva, Databricks, Okta, PagerDuty and AWS discussing modern data strategies for software companies.Panelists:Fawaz Ahmed, Senior Director of Engineering, CanvaDavid Meyer, SVP of Product Management, DatabricksBhawna Singh, CTO, OktaTim Armandpour, CTO, PagerDutyBarry Morris, GM, In-Memory and Emerging DB, AWSTopics Include:Sharing approach to data strategiesCanva providing and leveraging user analytics.Databricks data strategy and architectureProcessing data with minimal latencyGovernance and challenges with generative AIBeyond the chatbots - fundamental shifts in data strategy with generative AIManaging data for generative AI verification and trustTraining and fine-tuning data modelsPrioritizing data integration and evolutionHow will generative AI evolve data over the coming yearsCan providing insights be monetized?Technology requirements for driving data-based decision makingPredictions for data and generative AI

Description:Today, a fascinating panel discussion from the AWS for Software Companies Executive Forum at re:Invent November 2023, featuring software leaders from Anthropic, Freshworks, Genesys, Snaplogic and AWS discussing the disruption, impact and opportunities of generative AI for software companies. Panelists:Matt Bell, Member of Technical Staff, AnthropicSiddhartha Agarwal, Senior Vice President, Product Strategy & Operations, FreshworksGlenn Nethercutt, Chief Technology Officer, GenesysJeremiah Stone, Chief Technology Officer, SnaplogicSherry Marcus Ph.D, Director of Applied Science, Generative AI, AWSAndy Perkins, Director ISV Sales, AWSTopics Include:Observations of the current state of generative AIHow will AI continue to disrupt industries?Agents and bots to help employers scaleImpact of generative AI on retail and supportLeveraging generative AI and automation to become lean and reduce wasteRisk management for generative AIEthical concerns – Security, data accuracy and privacyManaging/reducing “jailbreaks” – users attempting to break the modelsDeveloping leadership clarity and in-house expertise for large language modelsIncreased power of Product Managers, evolution of engineering departmentsHow SaaS companies work with generative AILeveraging AWS Bedrock for accelerationAdvice for Software Executives going into generative AIPartnering with AWS for POCs

We present a panel discussion with software leaders from Contrast Security and Tenable sharing guidance and best practices for security in DevOps practices. Panelists are:Mike Clausen - Director of Product Management, Contrast SecurityPhillip Hayes - Director Information Security, TenableTemi Adebambo - Head of Security Solutions Architecture, AWSTopics Include:The significance of introducing security into the DevOps processes for Modern ArchitecturesBalancing need for speed & agility with need for securityCommon challenges in security in DevOpsWhat does “Shift Left” mean to the panelists?Considerations & guidance for “shifting left”Best Practices for security testing & vulnerability managementSuggested metrics for organizational leaders 

Enjoy our panel discussion with executive leaders from ChaosSearch, Sentra and ZeroFox and discuss some best practices for secure data management and compliance in the cloud.Speakers:Thomas Hazel, CTO & Chief Scientist, ChaosSearchYoav Regev, CEO and Co-founder, SentraMike Price, Chief Technology Officer, ZeroFoxMark Terenzoni, Service Leader, AWS, Amazon Inspector and Amazon DetectiveTopics Include:Customers concerned about size of dataHow AWS manages large amounts of dataChallenges of compliance with data storagePeople challenges with data securityGetting security info from customers isn’t always easyComplexity of security options still challenging to many customers

Today we have a panel of software industry leaders from Braze, N-able and Rapid 7 discussing how to use security as a strategic advantage Speakers:Mark Shasha, Head of Security, BrazeUlrich Dangel, Director of Engineering, Rapid7Stefan Voss, VP of Product Management, N-ableClayton Smith, Global Startup Evangelist, Amazon Web ServicesTopics Include:Thesis: Security is good for businessIs security a differentiator and lead to sales?Is your customer base being more educated on security issues?How have you built a culture of security?How do you hire for a security cultureAre security teams involved in sales discussions?Is security risk communication easier with the cloud?

We feature a roundtable discussion with several software industry leaders on how their organizations leveraged Kubernetes for their AI and ML workloads as well as lessons learned from the experience.Featuring:Amreth Chandrasehar - Director of MLOps, SRE and Observability, InformaticaÚlfar Erlingsson - Chief Architect, LaceworkMurli Thirumale - General Manager of the Cloud Native Business Unit, Pure StorageBarry Cooks - VP Kubernetes, AWSTopics include:Huge amounts of AI/ML workloads at AWSWhat is the path from data to value for customers?What were challenges with leveraging Kubernetes?What were the top wins, biggest regrets & lessons learned from leveraging Kubernetes?

Register for AWS reInvent: NOV. 27 – DEC. 1, 2023 | LAS VEGAS, NVToday we feature a roundtable discussion on organizational adoption, benefits and best practices for deploying serverless containers featuring Skylar Graika, Product & Engineering Leader of Smartsheet and Jeet Kaul, Senior Vice President of Jumio, moderated by Banjot Chanana of AWS.Topics include:Serverless session introsWhere does “Serverless” start and stop?How did Serverless get adopted within the organization?Reaction of developers and Operations teams to ServerlessAny unintended benefits from adopting Serverless?Cost structures of shifting to serverlessHow to approach 3rd parties with serverlessObtaining executive sponsorship for business caseSession wrap-up