AWS for Software Companies Podcast

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Stay current on new cloud trends. Top software companies, respected industry analysts, and experienced consultants join Amazon Web Services leaders to talk about the cloud topics that matter to you—including the latest in AI, migration, Software-as-a-Service, and more. We produce new episodes regularly.

Ep001: Data - The Engine for Growth

Listen in as Industry Leaders from Coupang, Snowflake and Wiz discuss strategies for using data as a business driver and share their experiences. Topics include:

Intro by Barry Morris of AWS
Yinon Costica of Wiz - introduction
Elise Bergeron of Snowflake - introduction
Seshu Adunuthula of Coupang – introduction
What is the biggest opportunity going forward using data in developing software products?
Integration of disparate data and power of combining it
Elimination of data silos and focusing on how to use it
Culture gaps in data analysis
Deploying AI to address data requirements
Centralized and decentralized data models
Team structure for data management
Graph data model
Technology enablers for data management
How can customer data be leveraged?
Building a data-driven culture internally and w customers
What lessons should customers avoid?
Staying close to customers and ensuring alignment
Building roadmaps with customers
Data monitoring & management tips
Advice for software companies on data platforms

Ep002: Accelerate Machine Learning for SaaS Projects with Proofpoint

Machine Learning is critical for software teams. Adam Starr, Senior Global Engineering Manager, Data Science at Proofpoint, shares their journey to successfully building and deploying AI/ML solutions using Amazon SageMaker.

Topics Include:

Adam Starr, Senior Global Engineering Manager, Data Science at Proofpoint Inc
How Proofpoint leverages AI in security model
ML Ops leverages AWS SageMaker
AWS Innovation – Going from idea to prototype to production (Sagemaker Studio, Ground Truth, GitPush, Sagemaker Pipeline, Sagemaker Endpoints)
Critical success factors and which AWS services to use
Partnering with AWS on Machine Learning Operational platform

Ep003: Accelerate Machine Learning for SaaS Projects with Rokt

Kanishka Mohaia, VP of Engineering (Data and Machine Learning) at Rokt, shares their journey and lessons learnt in developing AI/ML teams.

Topics Include:

Introduction: Kanishka Mohaia, VP of Engineering (Data and Machine Learning) at Rokt

Machine Learning focused on improving eCommerce

Why 85% of AI project fail

Hiring, structures & best practices for AL/ML teams

Rokt architecture overview and AWS Services

Ep004: Accelerate Machine Learning for SaaS Projects with Veeva Systems

Alessandro Maoggi, Senior Manager of Engineering at Veeva Systems, shares their journey and lessons learnt developing AI/ML tools with AWS Sagemaker.

Topics Include:

Intro to Veeva Systems
Background of Veeva TMF Bot
Leveraging AWS SageMaker
Scaling horizontally with smaller instances

Ep005: Building a Roadmap for SaaS

Multiple software industry leaders speak about their journey in building a resilient SaaS business.

Speakers:

Adrian Deluca - Director of Solutions Architecture – AWS
Ashley Kramer - CMO, CSO, Acting CTO at GITLAB
Kochira Okamoto - CEO at Yayoi
Tendü Yoğurtçu, PHD - Chief Technology Officer at Precisely
Mathias Golombek - Member of the Executive Board and Chief Technology Officer at Exasol
Akshay Patel - Principal SaaS Business Development Lead at AWS

Topics Covered:

Introduction by Adrian Deluca
Balancing growth and profitability Q/A by Tendü Yoğurtçu
Building and keeping both Exasol’s product lines running Q/A by Mathias Golombek
What do Enterprise customers value most? Q/A by Ashley Kramer
Balancing growth and profitability in Japanese countries & pivoting the company in a new direction Q/A by Kochira Okamoto
What strategies are used through SaaS factoring engagements Q/A by Akshay Patel
Favorite Metric for growth and profitability Q/A by Kochira Okamoto and Tendü Yoğurtçu
What were you unprepared for, when you were releasing your SaaS products? Q/A by Mathias Golombek and Tendü Yoğurtçu and Ashley Kramer
What sort of attributes do you look for in your developer you hire? Q/A by Ashley Kramer and Kochira Okamoto and Tendü Yoğurtçu
How is diversity playing out particularly in your business? Q/A by Tendü Yoğurtçu, Ashley Kramer and Akshay Patel
What do you think about Re-skilling? Q/A by Mathias Golombek, Kochira Okamoto, Ashley Kramer, Akshay Patel and Tendü Yoğurtçu
What do you do to invest in yourself for personal growth? by Mathias Golombek, K, Ashley Kramer, Akshay Patel and Tendü Yoğurtçu
End – Conclusion by Adrian Deluca

Ep006: Leading and Innovating Through a Major Disruption with Jonathan Barouch of Local Measure

Jonathan Barouch, CEO of Local Measure, joins us to discuss their journey of leading and innovating through a major business disruption.

Topics Include:

Intro to Local Measure
The pre-Covid business model and customers
Impact of Covid
Losing 75% of their revenue within months
Teams navigating the early months of Covid
Reinventing the business
Testing, iterating new business models
Leveraging AWS APIs for Amazon Connect Cloud Contact Center solution
Balancing the former focus and contact centre pivot
The importance of a call centre in lean times
Migrating call centres of airlines and banks within 30 days
Change management and the Local Measure solution
Leveraging AI/ML for additional customer efficiencies
Shaving seconds off calls equate to huge savings
Leveraging AI/ML to turbocharge agents
Additional industries for the Local Measure solution
Transforming data for tangible benefit
Proactive, predictive and outbound engagements
Guidance for other Software Executives going through disruption
What’s next for Local Measure
Interview wrap up

Ep007: Data-Driven Enterprise - Vision to Value with Tom Godden

Tom Godden, Enterprise Strategist with AWS and Executive advisor shares his experience as both a CIO and CTO on how to drive higher value from data strategies.

Topics include:

About the Enterprise Strategy team
Learning from customers using data to go from vision to value
Speed and agility is the only differentiator
What it means to be a data-driven enterprise
How companies like Disney, Formula 1 and Amazon use data as a differentiator
“Data is the new oil” – CIO Magazine
79% of the challenges around the adoption of data are cultural
4 “Es” of data – Engage, Enable, Educate, Eliminate
Insist on having the data
One way and two-way doors & Two pizza teams
Decentralize data producers, distribute throughout organization
Be prepared to re-evaluate your metrics
Govern to enable, not to restrict
Building tenets for data policies and procedures
A data asset is not successfully deployed until it is fully automated
Think big and execute small
Building a smarter organization leveraging machine learning
A mission statements needs to mean something
Work to eliminate biases
Avoiding “The Frozen Middle”
Be clear on the “why” for implementing machine learning
Start small and think big with AI
Presentation wrap up

Ep008: Generating Value from Data with Dr Lou Kratz of Bazaarvoice

Dr Lou Kratz, Principle Research Engineer of Bazaarvoice, shares how his organization generates value from data, cutting time to value by 6x and leveraging AWS to save big on cloud costs.

Topics include:

Making smart decisions automatically from data with machine learning
Bazaarvoice business model
Understanding value is the most important part of any machine learning project
Leveraging AI/ML for content moderation
Leveraging AWS Sagemaker
Being cost effective with serverless options
Cutting time to value by 6x with savings of 82%
Investing in ML Ops
Final recommendations for data and ML Ops

Ep009: Transform Manufacturing with Data Driven Innovations with Sam Lakkundi of BMC

Sam Lakkundi, Vice President of Innovation and Head of Innovation Labs at BMC, share insight on the roadmap and massive benefits applying the power of data and the cloud to the Manufacturing industry.

Topics include:

About BMC Software
Moving their stack to AWS
The rapid change of the manufacturing industry
Predicting and simulating downtime w a digital model
Creation of BMC Helix
Leveraging AWS Sagemaker and Twinmaker
Simulating manufacturing changes to identify opportunities to action
Presentation wrap up

Ep010: Digital Transformation leveraging Purpose-Built Databases with Sailpoint

Grady Summers and Marty Bowers of Sailpoint share how their partnership with AWS resulted in their product running 1800x faster at 1/50th of the cost.

Grady Summers & Marty Bowers introduction
Automating access and recertification
Leveraging Infrequent Access Tables in Dynamo DB for cost reduction and autoscaling
Guidance and lessons learned