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Updated March 23rd at 4.22pm to include comments from Jerry Chen of Greylock.
Amazon announced today that the CEO of data analytics firm Tableau Software, Adam Selipsky, will be the new leader of its cloud business.
For Selipsky, 54, it marks a successful return to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Prior to joining Tableau as CEO in 2016, he spent 11 years as an operator at the unit, which was fast becoming a powerhouse in the industry.
Selipsky replaces Andy Jassy, who was named in February to succeed Jeff Bezos as CEO of Amazon. That move takes place in the third quarter, with Bezos staying on as executive chairman. Jassy and Selipsky worked closely together when the latter was vice president of marketing, sales and support at AWS. Selipsky joins Amazon on May 17 and spends time working with Jassy before formally taking over when his predecessor embraces the Chiefs fitness.
In a note announcing Selipsky’s hiring, Jassy said the new AWS chief brings “strong judgment, customer obsession, team building, demand generation and CEO experience” to AWS’s already strong leadership rod.
Profit engine
Selipsky gets into big shoes. Under Jassy’s leadership since its inception, AWS has helped modernize the technical infrastructure of many thousands of companies and generate revenue and profits in the process. Driven in part by the demand for cloud services fueled by the pandemic, the industry reported $ 43.5 billion in revenue last year, a year-over-year increase of around 30%. Its $ 13.5 billion contribution accounted for nearly two-thirds of Amazon’s total 2020 operating profit.
Adam Selipsky, AWS Chief Operating Officer
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The good news for Selipsky is that many CIOs are still in the early stages of their journey to the cloud, which gives AWS and major competitors such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud ample opportunity for further growth. A recent study of cloud investment by Synergy Research Group found that in the fourth quarter of last year, spending on cloud infrastructure services reached just over $ 37 billion, more than a third more than it had been. in the same quarter of 2019. The previous quarter had also seen a significant year-over-year increase. The overall market has doubled in size in just under a year or two.
Selipsky’s experience at Amazon and his time spent as an executive at Salesforce, owner of Tableau, where he served under CEO Marc Benioff, should stand him in a good position says Jerry Chen, a partner at the Greylock enterprise company. “This makes Adam one of the few senior executives to have worked with two of the largest cloud companies in the market. ”
However, AWS and Selipsky will not be able to lie on their laurels. The Synergy study noted that while Amazon and Microsoft make up more than half of the market, Azure landed its biggest competitor and hit a 20% market share in the fourth quarter of 2020 for the first time. That advantage came largely at the expense of smaller cloud providers, but it is a warning sign that even the most advanced computing company in the world cannot ignore.