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Adam Selipsky is out at AWS
  + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Ellen Thomas | Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com   time to read: +2 min
Read previewAmazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky is stepping down from his role leading Amazon's cloud unit, according to an internal memo viewed by Business Insider and later posted to Amazon's website. Matt Garman, currently senior vice president of sales, marketing, and global services for AWS, will assume the CEO role. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. AdvertisementSelipsky, who first worked for AWS between 2005 and 2016, was tapped by Jassy to lead the unit in 2021. Selipsky led AWS during the height of the pandemic when the shift to remote work spurred an unprecedented spike in demand for cloud services.
Persons: , Adam Selipsky, Matt Garman, Matt, Andy Jassy, Jassy, He'll, Selipsky, Ellen Thomas, Eugene Kim Organizations: Service, Business, AWS
It's not just Stubblebine who plans to continue cutting cloud costs. The cloud industry refers to cost-cutting as "cloud optimization." Last year, cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft cited cloud optimization as the reason cloud sales growth had slipped to historic lows. As growth has crept back up in recent months, these same companies have declared the days of cloud optimization to be over. But Stubblebine thinks that cloud optimization is part of a broader mentality shift sweeping the pre-IPO startup world.
Persons: , Tony Stubblebine, What's, Stubblebine, It's, We're, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Service, Business, Barclays, Amazon Web Services, Savings, Microsoft Locations: Snowflake
Walmart's internal systems had more than a dozen "major incidents" in the last two months alone. An additional two major incidents occurred this past weekend, the person said. Walmart's global technology platform runs the retailer's core business operations, including in-store point-of-sale systems, e-commerce, and distribution and fulfillment centers. Internal emails obtained by BI show that Walmart's business is interrupted by issues with its global tech platform at a far more frequent rate than previously reported. Last year, Walmart spent $11.8 billion on supply chain, customer-facing initiatives, and technology, according to a recent SEC filing, up from $9.2 billion the year before.
Persons: Mark Cohen, Daniel McCarthy, Jessica Ramírez, Jane Hali, " Ramirez, Cohen, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Walmart's, Business, BI, Walmart, Street, Amazon, SEC, Columbia Business School, Emory, Goizueta Business
Two of the tech industry's biggest AI champions are backing Rep. Abigail Spanberger's run for governor of Virginia in 2025, campaign finance records show. Hoffman donated $250,000 on November 30, and Scott donated $125,000 on December 22. The donations, representing a total of $500,000 are the three largest individual contributions on record for Spanberger's campaign, which ended 2023 with over $3.6 million in funds received. Aside from their personal connections to the state, Virginia is home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world. Hoffman has previously donated over $300,000 to WinVirginia, a PAC that supports Democratic candidates in the state.
Persons: Abigail Spanberger's, Reid Hoffman, Kevin Scott, Hoffman, Scott, Shannon Hunt, Hunt, Prince William County, they're, Spanberger, Glenn Youngkin, Ohio US Sen, JD Vance, Joe Biden's, Nikki Haley, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Microsoft, Business, Democratic, Spanberger, University of Virginia, Culpeper ., CIA, Virginia Gov, Republican, LinkedIn, Ohio US, Trump Republicans, South Carolina Gov, PAC Locations: Virginia, Greylock, Prince William, Spotsylvania, Culpeper, Richmond, San Francisco Bay, Rural America, Silicon, Hampshire
The company laid off 10% of its workforce, which had reached nearly 80,000 employees, last year. AdvertisementJust a year after Salesforce laid off nearly 10% of its workforce, the company's head count is beginning to creep back up. "We're investing into our most productive areas — AI and data," CFO Amy Weaver said this week on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call with investors. The company reported a non-GAAP operating margin of 30.5% for the fiscal year, above the 30% threshold that activist investors had pushed for. New hires, Weaver said, are being added to Salesforce in "cost-effective ways," such as hiring people from areas that have "high talent pools and low cost of living."
Persons: Salesforce, Marc Benioff, , Amy Weaver, Weaver, Benioff, Larry Ellison —, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Service, SEC, New, Business, Oracle Locations: New York, San Francisco, Salesforce
Snowflake's Frank Slootman just announced his retirement. BI reported last year on rumors of Slootman's impending departure. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementWhen Business Insider approached Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman in June to ask him if internal chatter about his impending retirement was right, Slootman said it was "completely untrue." You are regurgitating competitive FUD," Slootman wrote in an email to BI in June in his famously direct, no-nonsense style.
Persons: Snowflake's Frank Slootman, , Snowflake, Frank Slootman, Slootman, Sridhar Ramaswamy, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Service Locations: Snowflake
Read previewNew Bumble CEO Lidiane Jones has hired at least three high-level employees from Slack, where she had been chief executive for about a year until joining the dating app company in January. chief product officer Ali Rayl, chief people officer David Ard, and vice president of global communications Gabrielle Ferree. Rayl, who until recently served as Slack's senior vice president of product, had been at the workplace messaging app for over 11 years. Ard had served as its senior vice president of employee success, while Ferree was its senior communications director. AdvertisementJones, then an executive vice president at Slack parent Salesforce, replaced Butterfield as CEO of Slack in January 2023.
Persons: , Lidiane Jones, Bumble, Jones, Ali Rayl, David Ard, Gabrielle Ferree, Ard, Ferree, Slack, Jones's, Stewart Butterfield, Slack's, Tamar Yehoshua, Jonathan Prince, Butterfield, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Denise Dresser, Cal Henderson, Fortune, Parker Harris, Salesforce, MuleSoft, Antoine Leblond, Selby Drummond, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Service, Slack, Business, Elliott Management, Sonos, Microsoft Locations: ethomas@insider.com
The major cloud service providers are saying their customers are winding down last year's optimization efforts. While the optimization outlook from the cloud service providers is rosy, it doesn't quite match what customers are reporting. Google Cloud revenue grew 26% year-over-year, up from the quarter before. Customers and cloud companies tell a different storyExecutives at all three major cloud companies said that the impact of cloud cost-cutting was behind them. 35% reported cloud cost overruns in the last 12 months, nearly half of which were over $100,000 or $500,000.
Persons: Brian Olsavsky, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Bryan Woodworth, Woodworth, Olsavsky, Pichai, David Linthicum, Linthicum, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Business, Amazon Web Services, Companies Locations: ethomas@insider.com
Salesforce set a goal for all employees to achieve "Ranger" status on Trailhead, the company's internal training software, in 2023, BI previously reported. Becoming a Trailhead Ranger requires the accrual of 50,000 points on Trailhead, earned by completing various training modules, quizzes, and challenges. In January, Salesforce employees took to a companywide Slack channel named "airing-of-grievances" to bemoan an upcoming deadline for achieving Ranger status. One employee mentioned a "rumor" that staffers who failed to earn Ranger status would have their bonuses withheld. The downsizing comes after a year of aggressive cost-cutting and mass layoffs that had already reduced the company's workforce by 10%.
Persons: Srini Tallapragada, Salesforce, Marc Benioff, Benioff, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Rangers, Business, BI, Street, Elliott Management Locations: Benioff, Salesforce, ethomas@insider.com
Generative artificial intelligence won't take jobs from retail workers; instead, it will make them better at their jobs, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told attendees at the National Retail Federation's annual conference in New York last week. They're not going to need as many agents," Benioff said. The system was able to augment those agents and make them better," Benioff said. With generative AI, he added, Gucci had taken its customer service agents to "a whole other level." "They're pretty incredible people, using generative AI for the first time," Benioff said.
Persons: Marc Benioff, Benioff, NRF, John Furner, Loro Piana, Gucci —, They're, That's, bam, Gucci Organizations: Business, Walmart, LVMH, Gucci, Kering Locations: New York, Italy
Brad Burns, the now former chief communications officer at Salesforce, has joined Snowflake in the same role, the data-cloud company said Wednesday in a press release. At Snowflake, Burns will spearhead communications strategy and advise company leadership. Snowflake's revenue growth and that of the rest of the cloud industry slowed earlier this year as customers tightened cloud budgets after a pandemic-fueled spending spree in 2020 and 2021. Related storiesFrank Slootman, Snowflake's chair and CEO, was previously rumored to be leaving the company, Business Insider reported. Burns joined Salesforce as chief communications officer in 2018.
Persons: Brad Burns, Burns, He's, Frank Slootman, Slootman, Bob Muglia, Bret Taylor's, Salesforce, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Business Locations: Snowflake, ethomas@insider.com
Salesforce has moved slowly on AI, RBC Capital Markets managing director Rishi Jaluria told Insider — at least that's what the company's partners and customers told him. One said they were encouraging customers to start first with Einstein, the original AI product Salesforce launched in 2016, before adding new generative-AI services to their bills. The question was the first of many moments during the conference when a Salesforce executive brought up trust and safety when talking about generative AI. Despite that, Salesforce continues to invest in other companies via its venture arm, which includes a $500 million Generative AI fund. Jaluria said that with the exception of Microsoft, he doesn't expect software companies to see meaningful revenue gains from generative AI until at least 2025.
Persons: Salesforce, Rishi Jaluria, , Jaluria, they've, Einstein, Matthew McConaughey, pensively, Patrick Stokes, Salesforce's, Stokes, it's, There's, John Somorjai, McKinsey's, Somorjai, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Company, Business, RBC Capital Markets, World, Salesforce Ventures, Microsoft Locations: New York, ethomas@insider.com
Either way, one thing is certain: Companies are getting serious about cloud spend. And while Wall Street analysts hope the excitement over generative AI will drive customers to spend more money on cloud services next year, it's clear that optimization won't go away. "Cloud spend got big enough at most of the Fortune 500s that it's actually material now," Storment said. Cloud cost-cutting servicesTo save money on cloud services, customers often must first spend money. Customers aren't spending much on generative AI yetEven though "generative AI is the new sexy thing that everyone is exploring," the technology didn't come up in many conversations about budget, Lowell said.
Persons: Adam Selipsky, Werner Vogels, Sid Nag, Gartner, Nag, wasn't, Dave Linthicum, , Storment, Craig Lowell, Lowell, Linthicum, they're, Bernstein, Mark Schilsky, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Amazon Web, Business, AWS, Wall, Microsoft, Google, Deloitte, FinOps Foundation, Fortune, Venetian Convention, Expo, Companies Locations: Las Vegas, DoiT, ethomas@insider.com
One in particular is open only to very important cloud customers: a meeting for "XXL" or "extra-extra-large" AWS users. Roughly 50 people attended the meeting, they said, including about a dozen AWS representatives and employees from eight large AWS customers, including Salesforce and Adobe. Not all of the largest AWS customers attended the meeting. Though the meeting is for important customers, AWS CEO Adam Selipsky did not attend, the people said. Do you have information or insight to share about AWS or other large cloud providers?
Persons: Adam Selipsky, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Web Services, AWS, Business, Venetian Convention, Expo, Adobe, FinOps Foundation, Microsoft, Google Locations: Las Vegas, ethomas@insider.com
Denise Dresser, a longtime Salesforce exec, will become the new CEO of Slack. AdvertisementAdvertisementSalesforce CEO Marc Benioff said Monday that Slack had named Denise Dresser as its next chief executive. Dresser, who has worked for Salesforce for 12 years, is president of accelerated industries at Salesforce. Salesforce said in August that its chief people officer, Brent Hyder, would leave to "pursue a new opportunity." To contact Ellen Thomas with insight or information about Slack or Salesforce, reach out at ethomas@insider.com or call/text (646) 847-9416 using the encrypted-messaging app Signal.
Persons: Denise Dresser, Slack, Lidiane Jones, Marc Benioff, , She'll, who's, Dresser, Denise, Benioff, Jones, Whitney Wolfe, Stewart Butterfield, Bret Taylor, Mark Nelson, Gavin Patterson, Ebony Beckwith, Salesforce, Brent Hyder, Salesforce's, Vikram Rao, Ariel Kelman, Oracle's, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Bumble Inc, Service, Salesforce, Elliott Management Locations: Salesforce
Microsoft and Google, the next two biggest American cloud providers, also saw cloud revenue growth rates slow this year. Microsoft Azure and other cloud services saw revenue growth of 29%, down from 35% this time last year. Wall Street has been hopeful that generative AI will provide a much-needed revenue boost for the big three cloud providers. The one exception is Microsoft, which has spent billions investing in generative AI startup OpenAI, maker of the chatbot ChatGPT. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stressed on the earnings call Thursday that generative AI is still in its "early days."
Persons: Karl Keirstead, they're, they'd, Rishi Jaluria, Andy Jassy, Jassy, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Microsoft, Web Services, Google, UBS, Enterprises, Wall, RBC Capital Markets, Amazon Locations: Ukraine, Israel, ethomas@insider.com
Rates of cloud-computing sales growth slowed to historical lows this year as customers slashed IT budgets. Microsoft and Google, the next two biggest American cloud providers, also saw rates of cloud-revenue growth slow this year. Microsoft's Azure and other cloud services saw revenue growth of 29%, down from 35% this time last year. Google this week reported a 22% year-over-year increase in cloud revenue the past quarter, down from 28% the previous quarter. The company attributed this to customer "optimization," or looking for ways to save money on cloud services.
Persons: Karl Keirstead, they're, they'd, Rishi Jaluria, Andy Jassy, Jassy, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Microsoft, Web Services, Google, Enterprises, UBS, Wall, RBC Capital Markets, Amazon Locations: Ukraine, Israel, ethomas@insider.com
Despite the promise of generative AI to turbo-charge cloud computing sales, growth rates in the sector remains stalled for Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. All three cloud providers reported this week that cloud customers are still scrutinizing their IT budgets amid a shaky global economy. Cloud sales growth rates stalled this year as customers navigated rising inflation and destabilizing geopolitical conflicts. The company told investors the stalled growth was due to "customer optimization efforts" — a nicer word for cost-cutting. At the same time last year, Amazon Web Services sales were growing by more than double that rate.
Persons: Brian Olsavsky, GitHub Copilot, Satya Nadella, Amy Hood, Hood, It's, Nadella, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services Locations: ethomas@insider.com
Google is ordered to pay the executive $1.15 million in damages. Rowe joined Google as technical director of financial services at Google Cloud in 2017. At Google, Rowe was hired as a "Level 8 director." The hiring manager told Rowe that all technical directors were being hired at Level 8, according to the complaint. A leaked set of Google salary data submitted by over 12,000 employees showed a small median pay gap between male and female employees.
Persons: Ulku Rowe, Rowe, Morgan Chase, it's, Meta, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Elon Locations: New York, Texas, ethomas@insider.com
CEO Marc Benioff says he's got no plans for another big round of cuts and hopes layoffs are done. So on this week's call, Benioff took time to thank and wax poetic on all the former Salesforce employees who returned to work at the company during its turnaround effort. Former chief business officer Ebony Beckwith, a longtime executive who led the company's philanthropic foundation, quietly exited Salesforce in June. "We're ramping up hiring for critical roles," a spokesperson for Salesforce wrote to Insider via email when asked for clarification on Benioff's comments. At the same time, if former and current Salesforce employees are feeling whiplashed — told to leave and then told to come back — it's because the message coming from the top is mixed.
Persons: Marc Benioff, he's, Salesforce, Benioff, we've, It's, Ariel Kelman, Benioff's, Bret Taylor, Slack, Stewart Butterfield, Mark Nelson, Brent Hyder, Ebony Beckwith, Salespeople, Karl Keirstad, we're, whiplashed —, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Oracle, UBS, ethomas Locations: Salesforce
CEO Marc Benioff thanked "boomerangs," employees who left and came back, for the fast-tracked growth. Salesforce overachieved its profit margin goals in the second quarter, earlier than planned for — and CEO Marc Benioff says "boomerang" employees played a big part in the results. Three high-profile Salesforce boomerangs have re-joined the company in recent months: president and chief revenue officer Miguel Milano, chief marketing officer Ariel Kelman, and chief business officer and chief of staff to Marc Benioff, Kendall Collins. Collins worked for Salesforce from 2004 to 2012, leaving as executive vice president of Salesforce Cloud. Over the last decade, he has worked in various roles across the tech industry, most recently as chief marketing officer of Okta.
Persons: Marc Benioff, boomerangs, Benioff, Salesforce, It's, Miguel Milano, Ariel Kelman, Kendall Collins, Milano, Celonis, Kelman, Collins, Ellen Thomas Organizations: , Salesforce International, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, AWS, Salesforce, ethomas Locations: Salesforce
Salesforce reported a 31.6% profit margin on Wednesday for its Q2 FY '24, raising annual guidance to 30%. Activist investor Starboard Value last year called on Salesforce to up its profit margins. A leaked plan said Salesforce aimed to deliver above a 30% margin by fiscal 2025. That plan outlined a goal to reach above 30% profit margins in fiscal 2025. Starboard noted that Salesforce should have profit margins of at least 30% — exactly what the company delivered Wednesday.
Persons: Salesforce, Marc Benioff, Benioff, It's, it's, Wedbush's Daniel Ives, Ives, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Morning, Oracle, Microsoft, ethomas Locations: Salesforce
A former DEI leader at Salesforce is now suing the company for race discrimination. It's not the first time a Black woman has claimed she was discriminated against at Salesforce. In November 2021, the complainant was moved to the Office of Equality at Salesforce, where she reported to the company's Chief Equality Officer. This complainant is not the first Black woman to complain of biased and unfair treatment at Salesforce. In 2022, Salesforce reported that 5.2% of its workforce identified as Black or African-American, up from 3.5% in 2020.
Persons: It's, Andy Kofoid, Salesforce, Tom Nesbitt, Michael Shaunessy, Nesbitt, Shaunessy, Cynthia Perry, Perry's, Tony Prophet, Prophet, Marc Benioff, Ellen Thomas Organizations: company's, Equality, Salesforce, North, Court of Locations: Salesforce, Austin , Texas, North American, Databricks, Court of Texas, Austin
Training AI models in data centers uses up to three times more energy than traditional cloud tasks. A warning from a Microsoft data center veteranA Microsoft data center. MicrosoftTom Keane, who oversaw Microsoft's cloud data centers for about two decades, recently warned about this. An AI data center will need up to three times more power than a traditional cloud facility, he estimated. "The data center of the future is not in Virginia, it's not in Santa Clara, it's not in Dallas, Texas," Ganzi said.
Persons: Marc Ganzi, Cowen, Nammo, TikTok, Jack Clark, Matthew Barakat, Shaolei Ren, Microsoft Tom Keane, Keane, Bernstein, Mark Moerdler, DigitalBridge, Ganzi, it's, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Dominion Energy, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, McKinsey, Big Tech, Financial Times, AP, Nvidia, UC Riverside Locations: Northern Virginia, Manassas , Virginia, Virginia, DataBank, Santa Clara, Dallas , Texas
Microsoft is betting on making its own AI chips for long-term growth, new internal documents show. Cloud market leader AWS is lagging behind Microsoft in AI efforts. Microsoft is betting on developing its own silicon chips to drive long-term growth for its cloud business, newly-released internal strategy documents confirm. It hopes the chip will outperform the ones it buys from vendors to save money on its high-cost AI efforts. Wall Street was less impressed by the AI efforts AWS touted on its earnings call a few days later.
Persons: We're, Satya Nadella, Bernstein, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Microsoft, FTC, Activision Blizzard, AWS, Federal Trade Commission, Companies, Apple, Google, Amazon Web Services
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