AWS for Software Companies Podcast

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

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 MeasureThe pre-Covid business model and customersImpact of CovidLosing 75% of their revenue within monthsTeams navigating the early months of CovidReinventing the businessTesting, iterating new business modelsLeveraging AWS APIs for Amazon Connect Cloud Contact Center solutionBalancing the former focus and contact centre pivotThe importance of a call centre in lean timesMigrating call centres of airlines and banks within 30 daysChange management and the Local Measure solutionLeveraging AI/ML for additional customer efficienciesShaving seconds off calls equate to huge savingsLeveraging AI/ML to turbocharge agentsAdditional industries for the Local Measure solutionTransforming data for tangible benefitProactive, predictive and outbound engagementsGuidance for other Software Executives going through disruptionWhat’s next for Local MeasureInterview wrap up

Multiple software industry leaders speak about their journey in building a resilient SaaS business.Speakers:Adrian Deluca - Director of Solutions Architecture – AWSAshley Kramer - CMO, CSO, Acting CTO at GITLABKochira Okamoto - CEO at YayoiTendü Yoğurtçu, PHD - Chief Technology Officer at PreciselyMathias Golombek - Member of the Executive Board and Chief Technology Officer at ExasolAkshay Patel - Principal SaaS Business Development Lead at AWS Topics Covered:Introduction by Adrian DelucaBalancing growth and profitability Q/A by Tendü YoğurtçuBuilding and keeping both Exasol’s product lines running Q/A by Mathias GolombekWhat do Enterprise customers value most? Q/A by Ashley KramerBalancing growth and profitability in Japanese countries & pivoting the company in a new direction Q/A by Kochira OkamotoWhat strategies are used through SaaS factoring engagements Q/A by Akshay PatelFavorite Metric for growth and profitability Q/A by Kochira Okamoto and Tendü YoğurtçuWhat were you unprepared for, when you were releasing your SaaS products? Q/A by Mathias Golombek and Tendü Yoğurtçu and Ashley KramerWhat sort of attributes do you look for in your developer you hire? Q/A by Ashley Kramer and Kochira Okamoto and Tendü YoğurtçuHow is diversity playing out particularly in your business? Q/A by Tendü Yoğurtçu, Ashley Kramer and Akshay PatelWhat do you think about Re-skilling? Q/A by Mathias Golombek, Kochira Okamoto, Ashley Kramer, Akshay Patel and Tendü YoğurtçuWhat do you do to invest in yourself for personal growth? by Mathias Golombek, K, Ashley Kramer, Akshay Patel and Tendü YoğurtçuEnd – Conclusion by Adrian Deluca

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 SystemsBackground of Veeva TMF BotLeveraging AWS SageMakerScaling horizontally with smaller instances

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 RoktMachine Learning focused on improving eCommerceWhy 85% of AI project failHiring, structures & best practices for AL/ML teamsRokt architecture overview and AWS Services

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 IncHow Proofpoint leverages AI in security modelML Ops leverages AWS SageMakerAWS 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 usePartnering with AWS on Machine Learning Operational platform

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 AWSYinon Costica of Wiz - introductionElise Bergeron of Snowflake - introductionSeshu Adunuthula of Coupang – introductionWhat is the biggest opportunity going forward using data in developing software products?Integration of disparate data and power of combining itElimination of data silos and focusing on how to use itCulture gaps in data analysisDeploying AI to address data requirementsCentralized and decentralized data modelsTeam structure for data managementGraph data modelTechnology enablers for data managementHow can customer data be leveraged?Building a data-driven culture internally and w customersWhat lessons should customers avoid?Staying close to customers and ensuring alignmentBuilding roadmaps with customersData monitoring & management tipsAdvice for software companies on data platforms