Adam Selipsky’s departure as CEO of Amazon’s AWS cloud computing unit was a surprise, as was Matt Garman’s subsequent appointment. Garman, who joined Amazon in 2005 as an intern and later as a full-time employee, has extensive knowledge of the business, having worked on early AWS products. His most recent position before becoming CEO was as senior VP for AWS sales, marketing, and global services.
In a recent interview, Garman mentioned that he has not made significant changes to the organization yet, emphasizing the current success of the business. However, he highlighted a few areas for potential focus and growth within AWS.
Reemphasizing Startups and Innovation
Garman stressed the importance of startups in AWS’ continued growth. He acknowledged the early focus on developers and startups and emphasized the need to maintain that focus while expanding into other sectors. Additionally, he highlighted the importance of innovation and pushing forward with new services and capabilities to meet evolving industry demands.
Garman also discussed the significance of staying ahead in a rapidly changing industry by continuing to innovate and deliver cutting-edge solutions to customers.
Generative AI at AWS
Responding to advancements in generative AI technologies, Garman highlighted AWS’ commitment to staying at the forefront of this area. He noted the deliberate approach AWS took in offering generative AI tools and platforms, such as Bedrock, to meet customer needs for flexible and customizable AI solutions.
Garman discussed upcoming developments in AWS’ custom silicon and the launch of next-generation Trainium chips to improve the affordability of AI inference in customer applications.
He also touched upon the importance of integrating first-party AI models alongside third-party models to provide unique value and differentiation in the market.
Q, an AI-powered Chatbot
AWS introduced Q, a generative AI-powered assistant, at the last re:Invent conference. Q Developer and Q Business are two variants of this AI assistant, catering to different needs across developer tools and internal business data aggregation.
Garman highlighted the impact of Q Developer in streamlining developer workflows and shared success stories from Amazon teams implementing Q Developer to modernize Java apps.
Shutting down services
While not many changes have occurred under his leadership, Garman mentioned AWS’ recent decision to discontinue certain services to focus on better alternatives or partner solutions. This strategic move aims to ensure sustainability and customer satisfaction in the long run.
AWS and the Open Source Ecosystem
Garman emphasized AWS’ commitment to open source collaboration and contribution. He acknowledged past friction but highlighted AWS’ investments in open source projects and its role as a steward in the open-source community.
