AWS for Software Companies Podcast

Daryl Martis of Salesforce and Rashna Chadha of AWS share how Amazon Bedrock integrates with Salesforce to enhance AI applications, highlighting the partnership's strategic benefits, AI model customization, and secure deployment options.Topics Include:Introduction to Amazon Bedrock and Salesforce partnership.Overview of Amazon Bedrock as an API-based generative AI service.The strategic collaboration between AWS and Salesforce.Salesforce Data Cloud and its integration with Amazon Bedrock.Overview of Salesforce Einstein and its use of Amazon SageMaker.Recent AI launches between Salesforce and AWS, including Slack AI and MuleSoft.Use cases of AI services like Amazon Textract within Salesforce.Bringing Your Own Large Language Model (BYO LLM) with Bedrock.Foundation models offered by Amazon Bedrock (Anthropic, Cohere, Llama).Overview of security, privacy, and compliance in Bedrock AI services.Salesforce Data Cloud’s unified customer data and real-time AI capabilities.Bedrock’s support for custom AI model evaluation and metrics.Consumption models in Bedrock: on-demand vs. provision throughput.Bedrock’s agent capabilities for real-world applications like scheduling.Demo of using Amazon Bedrock models within Salesforce.Participants:Daryl Martis – Director of Product Management, Einstein AI - SalesforceRashna Chadha – AI/ML Specialist – Principal Solution Architect – Amazon Web ServicesSee how Amazon Web Services gives you the freedom to migrate, innovate, and scale your software company at https://aws.amazon.com/isv/

Ashish Arora, Head of Engineering & Machine Learning, Product Analytics at Autodesk, shares how personalized AI-powered experiences and real-time data can drive product adoption, featuring insights into Autodesk’s transformation journey, leveraging machine learning, and delivering actionable recommendations to millions of users.Topics Include:Real-time data description and examplesLeveraging AWS for real time and generative AI servicesAutodesk’s journey leveraging AWS to transform architecture and deliver personalized insightsOverview of Autodesk and product portfolioUtilizing data gathered for customersPersonalized data-driven insights for customers on Autocad and other productsDescriptive insights: providing usage data for customersPrescriptive insights: Making recommendations to customers based on their workflowsPredictive insights: Using ML to recommend products and featuresAutodesk processes 100+ billion events across all products, delivered 350+ million insights to customers, served to 3.5 million customersExample walkthrough – RachaelArchitecture of Autodesk data and insight processLeveraging LLMs – Sagemaker and BedrockBringing it altogetherSession wrap upParticipants:Ashish Arora – Head of Engineering & ML, Product Analytics - AutodeskBrian Slater – Principal Solutions Architect – Amazon Web ServicesSee how Amazon Web Services gives you the freedom to migrate, innovate, and scale your software company at https://aws.amazon.com/isv/

A panel discussion on presenting on security and data to Boards of Directors, focusing on metrics, ROI, generative AI, securing intellectual property, and strategic board engagement.Topics Include:What security metrics are most valuable for Board of DirectorsArticulating ROI of security programQuantifying benefits of security programSales enablement of the security teamDriving efficiencies within the business with generative AI and moreQuantifying business and template-based reporting to Boards with Diligent softwareLeveraging consultants and 3rd parties to leverage messages to Board of DirectorsManaging and communicating data posture and risk managementWorking with data leadership, securing intellectual propertyChallenges of labelling dataEducating boards on software architecture principles and generative AIHigh focus and techniques for securing IPEnrolling Boards with generative AI use cases and innovationCreating communities of excellenceGamifying security and generative AI to increase internal knowledgeQ&A 1: Taking action on a summarized documentQ&A 2: Mental model for evaluative SaaS partnersQ&A 3: Using the board to influence budgetary decisionsSession wrap upParticipants:Satheesh Ravala - Chief Technology Officer, DiligentJosh Blackwelder – Deputy CISO, Sentinel OneRobert Huber - Chief Security Officer, Head of Tenable Research, President Tenable PublicKaren Henlsey - Principal WW Data & Generative AI Strategist, AWS

Lacework’s VP and Head of Engineering Arash Nikkar, and Product and Security Software Engineer Teddy Reed, discuss their work with generative AI and Amazon Bedrock, focusing on threat detection, chat interface improvements, and the rapid development of AI-driven solutions.Topics Include:Introducing Lacework with Arash NikkarWorking with AWS and BedrockFocusing on threat detectionLacework ingests over a trillion events each dayComposite alerts for detecting anomaliesDeveloping and improving the chat interfaceTeddy Reed talking chat interface improvementsReviewing the architectureFast engagement with generative AI / AWS BedrockThe rapid delivery with Bedrock – took 20% of expected timeBest practice – build in time to review and verify responsesMeasuring customer’s engagement and return frequency and feedbackUnderstanding customer sentiment and topic analysisAchieving 60% completed results and feedbackTransparency of source, responseEnabling assistant to have more access to data from LLMUsing AWS’ model evaluator, raising the accuracy scoresMoving everything over to Bedrock for multiple reasonsFamiliarity of AWS tools helpful for all development and security teamsAlways challenging assumptions – is chat interface the right interface?Q&A 1: Using vector database for analysis, using results as system promptQ&A 2: Approaching cost-optimization and balancing ROIQ&A 3: Using as automated remediation for findingsQ&A 4: Data source Bedrock in leveragingSession wrap upParticipants:Arash Nikkar – VP, Head of Engineering – LaceworkTeddy Reed – Product and Security Software Engineer - Lacework

Massimo Ghislandi from AWS interviews Frank Contrepois, Chief Innovation Officer of Strategic Blue and Dvir Mizrahi, Head of FinOps for WIX sharing perspectives and best practices for FinOps, implementation, challenges and future FinOps trends for software companies.Topics Include:FinOps is a new approach to managing cloud finances, bridging the gap between finance, engineering, and business stakeholdersThe implementation of FinOps can take a top-down or bottom-up approach, requiring collaboration and a common language across teamsShifting the conversation from "costs" to "investment" and "efficiency" has been an effective strategy for driving cultural changeFocusing on automation, governance, remediation, and anomaly detection can have a greater impact than just cost observabilityEducating finance teams on technical cloud concepts and vice versa is crucial for building trust and alignmentThe future of FinOps may involve expanding beyond just cloud to encompass all IT assets and aligning with a company's overall values and business objectivesPotential changes in legislation or accounting practices related to cloud could drastically impact the FinOps landscapeParticipants:Frank Contrepois – Chief Innovation Officer, Strategic BlueDvir Mizrahi – Head of Financial Engineering (FinOps), WIXMassimo Ghislandi – ISV Marketing Leader, EMEA, AWS

We feature a panel of executives from ASAPP, Glean, Smarsh, Socotra and AWS sharing essential strategies, including the role of Generative AI, trust-building, and addressing legal challenges to secure executive buy-in for transformative initiatives.Topics Include:Introductions to panelExample of ideal Executive SellerDepth of business acumen and problem solving are important skills for Executive SellersFraming a customer problem and create the argumentMaking selling to a C-Suite a team sportKeeping sellers and produce C-suite relevantRevolution and renaissance positioningTrust with the C-suite – do salesperson have a texting relationship w decision makers?How is Generative AI driving customer’s satisfaction and dissatisfaction?Data is the new oilDefining the business problem for insurance industryHelping customers reimagine business with Generative AI80% of customers report the chatbot makes them madThe data journey is the precursor to the Generative AI journeyThe top unique legal challenges with Generative AILegal now brought into early stage of sales processTurning legal concerns into an opportunityThe book “Never Split the Difference” by Christopher VossCalls to action from each panellistSession wrap-upParticipants:Daniel Rood – Senior Vice President Marketing, ASAPPAJ Tennant – Vice President Sales & Success, GleanNeva DePalma – General Council, SmarshEkine Akuiyibo – Chief Business Officer, SocotraLauren Larscheid – Sr. Sales Leader, Business Applications, AWS

Today Anthropic’s Zach Witten takes us on a deep dive into Anthropic’s cutting-edge AI models—Claude Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus—exploring their safety-first approach to generative AI and sharing essential tips for prompt engineering.Topics Include:Introductions, about Anthropic3 models: Haiku, Sonnet and OpusScaling laws for hardware, data and computeCompeting to be safest AI solutions, safety-first organizationLeader in jailbreak resistanceInterpretability features and breakthroughs for AI modelsBasics of prompt engineeringImproving prompts with ClaudeDetails matter – small changes to spelling, context will greatly improve resultsSystem prompt – role setting will improve results (i.e. “You are an expert mathematician…” for math queryBe clear and direct – use XML tags where possibleEncourage Claude to think step-by-step – answering fast comes with accuracy riskUse examples to provide additional clarity to ClaudeBonus tips for image-based prompt engineeringQ&A 1) Who wrote the meta-prompts in the cookbook?Q&A 2) Guidance for writing prompts for prompt generatorQ&A 3) Best practices for tabular and structured dataQ&A 4) Maintaining “tone” across hundreds/thousands of responsesQ&A 5) Reverse engineering a prompt

Today, Dr. Ratinder Paul Singh Ahuja of Pure Storage takes us through how his organization is leveraging Amazon Bedrock to enrich the digital experience for end users and increase returns for the company.Topics Include:IntroductionsGenerative AI activity within Pure StorageOwnership and expertise of team, role of generative AIRapid changes require dedicated team reporting to office of CTOWhere Pure Storage is investing – Productivity gains, Customer Experience, R&DVision starts with the needs of the business usersGenAI Ops – Content, Voctor databases for ingestion, query strategies & securityExample – Purchase Acquisition ProcessFeatures for a mobile experienceConfigurations and logs are getting more enhanced with generative AIDefining schema and improving large language model for more accurate responsesSecurity models and deploymentSummary and session wrap upQ&A 1) How did the team get trained to use the generative AI tools and systems?Q&A 2) How did the team reduce the hallucinations?Q&A 3) How did you decide on which foundation models to use?Q&A 4) The ROI of this particular use caseQ&A 5) Models working with poly-morphic evolving inputsSession conclusion

Federico Torreti and Tom Sly of AWS discuss how application developers can leverage Generative AI to enhance cross-app experiences, minimize custom integrations and increase the value-add of enhanced communication features.Topics Include:Federico Torreti intro: What is AWS’ vision for applicationsFocus of Machine Learning & AIAbility to build rapid prototypes, experimentationCambrian explosion of SaaS applicationsThe challenge of toggling of multiple applicationsBringing the world of disconnected appsData and focusing on the primary value for customerGenerating more content will raise number of alerts and potential of burnoutTom Sly intro: Being delighted by businessesCustomers expect personalization from businessesMore than 150,000 customers leverage AWS for communications strategyLeveraging messaging to increase customer delight2 examples: restaurant and medical needSession wrap upParticipants:Federico Torreti – Head of Product – Amazon Q, Amazon Web ServicesTom Sly - Director, Special Projects, Amazon Web Services

Sara Yamase, Partner at Simon-Kucher & Partners, Head of Software, Internet and Media Practice shares guidance and industry examples on generative AI pricing and GTM strategies.Topics Include:What percentage of companies are developing Gen AI features for customersProjected returns on Gen AI investmentArticulating the value is 1st step in building pricing and monetization strategyAlmost half of VC funding in last 5 quarters were for AI solutionsGetting through the hype cycle and trough of disillusionmentEducation, Marketing, Food industry examples of companies clarifying value of generative AI to customersHaving strong data sets for identifying trendsPricing tenets for generative AIIndirect monetization – more usage, faster, greater productivity, etcStandalone Generative AI software with bespoke pricingAbility to scale pricing per customer usageSubscription selling for generative AI softwareChoosing pricing model for generative AI solutionsSummaries and session wrap up

Today Nicole Eagan, Chief Strategy and AI Officer and Michael Beck, Global CISO of Darktrace AI Research centre share experience, predictions and guidance on the future of AI and Cybersecurity.Topics Include:A brief history of DarktraceApplying AI to the challenge of cyber securityChanges and evolution of cyber security threatsWhat are the key security challenges business are facing?Generative AI provided a seismic shift with threat actorsBest practices for managing and scaling security teamsGuidance for leaders for baking AI into workflowsResponsible AI best practices for building trustTrends of Generative AI on the security landscapeLeveraging Generative AI to transform the customer experiencePredictions for emerging technology trends over the next 10 yearsRecommendations and parting wisdom for security and AIKeeping a workforce trained and relevant for technology trendsInterview wrap upParticipants:Nicole Eagan – Chief Strategy Officer and AI Officer, DarktraceMichael Beck – Global CISO, DarktracePhil Le-Brun – Director, Enterprise Strategy, Amazon Web Services

A panel discussion with executives from ActionIQ, FloQast and Wiz on experiences and best practices for working and selling to customer C-suites.Topics Include:Panel introductionsKeeping products and sellers focused on C-Suite outcomesCustomer C-suite focus, identifying internal championsKeeping sales motion concise for key C-SuiteConnecting value for enterprise spaceImpact of Generative AI and inventing on behalf of customersCustomer impressions of GenAI and going beyond the hypeHelping customers reimagine / hack their businessC-suite concerns about Generative AIFlipping objections into selling points for C-SuiteBuilding confidence for security, data and GenAI for ExecutivesFinal thoughts, Session wrap-upParticipants:Justin DeBrabant – Chief Product Officer, ActionIQStefan van Duyvendijk – Accounting Operations Evangelist, FloQastRick Kickert – Senior Vice President of Revenue Growth & Strategy, WizVeronica McCarthy – Senior Sales Manager, ISV, Amazon Web Services

We feature a conversation with Yuelin (李玥琳)Li, Chief Product Officer of Onfido and Phil Le-Brun - Enterprise Strategist, Amazon Web Services, about the pivotal role of AI, machine learning, and generative AI in fraud prevention and security in the identity verification industry.Topics Include:Yuelin Li career journeyOverview and mission of OnfidoUse of AI and Machine Learning at OnfidoSuccesses in reducing fraud with identity verificationChallenges faced and overcome with Machine LearningSecure rapid iteration and constant experimentationWorking with customers in highly regulated industriesHot topics and ethics with Generative AITraining, managing bias and maintaining accuracy of modelsStaying aligned with customersSkillets required, creating development paths for staffCreating a culture of learning in the organisationDeciding how to place bets on technology advancesWhat excites Yuelin Li most about Generative AIAdvice for other companies setting out on a similar journeySession wrap-up

Executive Leaders from Proofpoint, Sumo Logic and Zendesk share their experiences and best practices for collaboration with AWS to deliver transformative impact to their business using Generative AI.Panelists:Patrick Wheeler, Director, Product Management, ProofpointBashyam Anant, Senior Director, Product Management, Sumo LogicPatrick Copeland, Chief Engineering & Product Officer, ZendeskOlawale Oladehin, Director ISV Solutions Architecture, North America, AWSTopics Include:Introductions of PanelWhere each organization is doing with Generative AIDesigning data strategy around business outcomesMaking subject matter experts within the businessDefining what success metrics and value to focus onMetrics and KPIs and framework for experimentsThinking and leveraging partnerships for Generative AIDeveloping skillsets, retraining teams and managing resourcesLessons learned, what would you change, advice for othersSession wrap-up

Jimmy Hillis, Head of Engineering at Airtable, shares examples, guidance and major themes for how businesses can successfully build and leverage AI within their enterprise applications and workflows.Topics Include:Introductions and Airtable overviewChallenges businesses have articulating how AI will add valueCore insights: AI needs to leverage your own dataAI functionality needs to live within existing tools and workflowsHave workflow and business experts building prompts for the desired functionAI presents a new set of fears and restrictionsExamples for successful implementation of AIAirtable AI field examples and automations featureExample of leveraging technology to reduce manual activityData governance, training data for useNetwork governance and FlexibilityRecapping the themes, session wrap up

In this highly informative episode, we share strategies and best practices for driving growth for SaaS companies featuring Kulwinder Kalsi, head of UK and Ireland Enterprise Software and SaaS Architecture and Johan Broman, Head of Solutions Architecture for Independent Software Vendors for Europe, Middle East & Africa.Topics Include:Discover the main expectations end customers have of SaaS companies, including frictionless tenant onboarding, instrumentation/monitoring, pricing transparency, and focusing on core innovation.Explore key trends shaping the SaaS industry, such as the shift towards consumption-based pricing models, complex pricing strategies that align packaging with customer segments, and leveraging other software partners to remove undifferentiated heavy lifting.Learn how AWS can help SaaS companies with its global infrastructure, robust security measures, and rich ecosystem of services and partners to accelerate growth and innovation.Get insights into monetizing data strategies that SaaS companies can adopt to unlock additional revenue streams from their tenant data.Understand the different ways AWS partners, including systems integrators, professional services, and other software vendors, can support SaaS companies through their journey.Receive practical advice on approaching cloud migration and modernization, including aligning leadership, assessing growth vs. retention goals, and choosing the right mix of lift-and-shift or full modernization.Gain a nuanced perspective on developing AI solutions, covering use case identification, model selection, deployment techniques like prompt engineering and fine-tuning, and the importance of monitoring and management.Hear expert tips on navigating the rapidly evolving generative AI landscape, leveraging AWS services like SageMaker and Bedrock, and utilizing specialized AI chips like Trainium and Inferentia.

Business applications are catalyzing profound transformations across industries, streamlining operations, enhancing productivity, and fostering innovation. Leveraging advanced technologies such as generative AI, these applications are reshaping traditional business models, driving agility, and fueling competitive advantage in the global marketplace.Panelists:Neboysa Omcikus - Head of Strategy, https://www.linkedin.com/company/gleanwork/GleanSteve Antonakakis - Divisional COO, Enterprise Productivity, PDI TechnologiesShiv Sehgal - Executive Vice President, Audience Analytics, RSG Media, a Naviga Global companyKaren Hensley - Principal Data Strategist, AWSTopics Include:Panel IntroductionsHow did you decide where to focus with Generative AI?Quantifying the value of projects with customersDelivering the value and capability for customersDo customers care deeply about the technology or the experience?How did you move from “test and experiment” phase to productionHow did you reevaluate your data strategy when developing software?Working with customers on their data safety, security and ethicsDriving innovation within data regulatory and compliance requirementsLooking into the future – What’s the next wave of transformation for industry specific solutions?

Nicholas Marwell, Member of Technical Staff of Anthropic, shares predictions for Generative AI models as well as guidance on safely training and scaling them for the near future.Topics Include:Where are Generative AI Models headingAbout AnthropicClaude Opus, Claude 3 Sonnet & Claude 3 HaikuScaling laws impact on modelsTraining models for text, images and multimediaAI Safety, high stakes and stewarding through potential dangersConstitutional AI and interpretability researchBenefits of Features – combinations of neuronsFinal thoughts – high growth and pace for coming months and years

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

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

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?

Today 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

We share a roundtable discussion on Generative AI featuring Chris Cholette, Agile VP Engineering and SRE for Navan, Swapnil Paranjpe, Senior data Practitioner at Persistent, Gregor Stewart, VP of Artificial intelligence at SentinelOne and all hosted by Matt Thompson of AWS.Topics include:Intro to Matt Thompson4 Pillars of Generative AI for AWSIntroductions of panelHow much is your day is GenAI?How much retraining for techniques for data science or engineer teams?Why are you incorporating GenAI?How do we test for quality of output?When to use an ML model or a foundation model?Session wrap-up

We feature a panel discussion featuring Michael Brown, VP of Technology at Auvik Networks, Rob Woolley, VP of Technology Operations at Benevity moderated by Jeff Klaus of AWS sharing best practices on global expansion. Topics include:The most successful AWS customers are on multiple continentsWhat are the goals for wanting to expand overseas?Going global through acquisitionCopying services to various regions with AWSAWS helping to establish beachheads in new marketsManaging challenges of data residencyBest practices for staffing in a new marketNorth American marketing often doesn’t work in other marketsWorking with resellers in a new marketSession wrap up

This week we’re sharing a panel discussion featuring Mohan Rao - Vice President, Cyber Security Platform at Arctic Wolf, Ramon Pinero - Vice President of Product and Services at BlackBerry AtHoc, Cuneyt Karul - Senior Director, Information Security and Product Privacy at Hootsuite and Wayne Duso, Vice President of Engineering and Product at AWS discussing security models and organizational best practices.Management of the security function in various organizationsSecurity risk register and process best practicesGoing from the “Department of ‘No’” to “Department of ‘Yes and..’”Helping teams become security championsTransformation of the AWS security organizationSecurity visibility of CxOs & ExecutivesBuilding security governance & compliance structureImpact of generative AI on security practice

Barry Morris of AWS discusses Modern Data Strategies with Riaz Raihan, President of Products & Engineering at Alida, on how they have designed their data strategy to manage through the extraordinary complexities of handling large volumes of data.Barry Morris introductionBuilding modern data strategiesData-driven product designRiaz Raihan, President of Products & Engineering at AlidaCollecting large volumes of dataManaging security of large volumes of data beyond standard complianceRebooting Alida – focusing on customer outcomesDriving growth, profit and enabling speedScaling Voice of Employee program for 225,000 employees in 2 daysExecutive alignment is crucial for successManagement, security, protection of data in fundamental

Juan Sequeda, Principal Scientist and Head of AI Lab at data.world shares case studies and best practices for creating cultures of enablement around data quality and behaviours.Topics Include:Juan Sequeda introductionFoundation of knowledge & data graphs for AI2 million users in the OpenData catalogue, 40% of Fortune 500OneWeb Case Study – data from satellitesThe Culture of Enablement to empower your organization with dataOneWeb using AWS SagemakerPrologis Real Estate logistics data case studyTying staff rewards to data quality and behavioursDeveloping a culture of changeSession wrap up

AdPredictive’s Ali Levitan, EVP of Business Development & Growth, and Laura Crossley, VP of Experience, join us to discuss how AdPredictive’s partnership with AWS Clean Rooms is empowering marketing teams with data-driven tools. Topics Include:Introduction to Ali Levitan & Laura CrossleySolving the big problems for MarketersThe challenges marketers are facing in current environmentThe partnership of AWS Clean Rooms and AdPredictiveUse Cases and Success StoriesExpanding the power of data to non-technical marketing teamsOvercoming challenges throughout the integrationInnovating and staying focusedAdvice for other software leadersAdPredictive is passionate about supporting marketersAccessing the AdPredictive solutionInterview wrap upFree Trial of AdPredictive's tools are available here.

Tim LoGrasso of Kickdrum and Matt Thompson of AWS host a roundtable sharing best practices for software mergers and acquisitions.Topic include:Karthik Krishnamurthy introductionTim LoGrasso, Kickdrum introductionMaturity model for calculating risk in M&AM&A changes and challenges in 2023Matt Thompson, AWS introductionIs architecture a focus when considering M&A?Most M&A struggles due to product team misalignmentContainers, APIs in compute infrastructure easier to integrate than MonolithsM&As are often driven by Finance and Business Development, not so much Product TeamsTime metric to measure success and failure for M&AsBuilding a case for M&A vs buildPreethi Srinivasan (Druva, DataStax) on due diligence for M&A considerationsPre-integration Proof of Concepts increase the success rate90 day and 12 month plans with funding models to deliver the joint opportunityUnderstand the ‘white space’ to address with the combination of productsWhat can product teams do to accelerate value?Identify potential friction points and how to addressAccess to cheap compute power is importantGuidance on managing customer data during M&AThe customer data to reviewManaging people risk during an M&ASession wrap up

Deepak Thakral, VP of eCommerce at McAfee and Bob Page, SVP of Product at Tealium discuss Software Data Architectures and share best practices in a roundtable hosted by AWS’s Denise Zelt.Topics include:Deepak Thakral of McAfee introductionBob Page of Tealium introductionBob Page on helping customers with their end users and creating business valueSetting up priorities for data architecture and roadmapLessons learned from TealiumDeepak: How McAfee manages high performance & security with increasing dataShankar Venkataraman of Jivox on scaling and processing 10 times data volume in past 3 yearsSteven Tiell of DataStax on performing real time AI of time series dataBob Page on adoption of microservices and best practicesTradeoffs of transitioning from monolithic to micro servicesYuan Liu of Stripe on service oriented architecture vs microservicesAmit Pande of Dhruva providing SaaS based data protectionFinal thoughts and recommendations from Bob Page and Deepak Thakral

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 introductionAutomating access and recertificationLeveraging Infrequent Access Tables in Dynamo DB for cost reduction and autoscalingGuidance and lessons learned

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 SoftwareMoving their stack to AWSThe rapid change of the manufacturing industryPredicting and simulating downtime w a digital modelCreation of BMC HelixLeveraging AWS Sagemaker and TwinmakerSimulating manufacturing changes to identify opportunities to actionPresentation wrap up

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 learningBazaarvoice business modelUnderstanding value is the most important part of any machine learning projectLeveraging AI/ML for content moderationLeveraging AWS SagemakerBeing cost effective with serverless optionsCutting time to value by 6x with savings of 82%Investing in ML OpsFinal recommendations for data and ML Ops

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 teamLearning from customers using data to go from vision to valueSpeed and agility is the only differentiatorWhat it means to be a data-driven enterpriseHow companies like Disney, Formula 1 and Amazon use data as a differentiator“Data is the new oil” – CIO Magazine79% of the challenges around the adoption of data are cultural4 “Es” of data – Engage, Enable, Educate, EliminateInsist on having the dataOne way and two-way doors & Two pizza teamsDecentralize data producers, distribute throughout organizationBe prepared to re-evaluate your metricsGovern to enable, not to restrictBuilding tenets for data policies and proceduresA data asset is not successfully deployed until it is fully automatedThink big and execute smallBuilding a smarter organization leveraging machine learningA mission statements needs to mean somethingWork to eliminate biasesAvoiding “The Frozen Middle”Be clear on the “why” for implementing machine learningStart small and think big with AIPresentation wrap up