Lessons Learned from AWS Leadership Transition

Let’s put today’s AI era into some historic context by looking at the similarities and parallels to the explosion of the 1st wave of the consumer Internet. SHOW: 826SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSOR:Panoptica, Cisco’s Cloud Application Security solutionSHOW NOTES:Building the Information Super Highway (pre-2000)Executives discuss the Information Super Highway2001 - A DotCom Bubble Odyssey (Cloudcast Eps.772)WE’RE FASCINATED BY THE IDEA OF TECHNOLOGY CHANGING EVERYTHING2000s era Internet was going to change everythingGenAI is predicted to change everythingMOST TECHNOLOGY’S SHIFT HAPPEN WITH CONSUMERS FIRSTGenAI still can’t validate accuracy (e.g. hallucinations)GenAI is still extremely expensive to create, maintainGenAI still doesn’t have a widely-adopted business modelShadow GenAI groups will emerge in the EnterprisePeople are still mostly thinking about GenAI as a way to offload things they don’t want to do vs. improving their existing skillsFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Tim Crawford (@tcrawford, CIO Advisor at @AVOAcom) talks about the challenges of the modern CIO, managing stability vs. innovation, and understanding the business value of tech.SHOW: 825SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #825 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: The Cloudcast YouTube ChannelCLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS" SHOW SPONSOR:Neo4j explores knowledge graphs and vector search (graphstuff.fm podcast)See what graphs can do for you at Neo4j.com/developerSHOW NOTES:AVOA WebsiteTim’s article on HashiCorpTopic 1 - Tim, welcome back to the show! We’ve been friends for years, and it’s great to get you on today! We will discuss everything at the top of CIOs' minds today. Why don’t you give everyone a quick background on how you became known as the CIO Advisor?Topic 2 - Before we go into trends over the last few years. Put everyone in a CIO mindset. What do they care about? How do they think about the intersection of technology and business? What keeps them up at night?Topic 3 - We’ve heard many times CIOs have to balance two things: keeping the lights on (the boring side of the business that is often undifferentiated, and the innovative side that often moves the needle. A CIO’s job is to minimize the former and maximize the latter. Do you agree? How accurate is that statement? Topic 4 - I’ll follow that up with a real-world example many organizations might be facing, one we’ve discussed on the show in the past. We’ll discuss VMware on one end of the stable, the keep the lights on model, and AI on the other end as an innovative technology that could differentiate. Let’s talk about VMware first… Topic 4b  - Now the other end of the spectrum, AI. Have we reached peak AI washing and craziness? Is the trough of disillusionment coming? How should a CIO think about it?Topic 5 - Let’s talk about economics over the last few years. Zero-interest money has gone away for VCs and startups and we are seeing some big changes on the vendor side. How does this impact the people you talk to?Topic 6 -  Last topic, you were there and talked about Hashicorp when they rang the bell last week and then were bought 24 hours later. What was that like as someone who was there?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

When you see the headline “<ex-employee> says <company> AI strategy is in chaos”, what does it really mean? Is any company’s AI strategy NOT in chaos at this point? SHOW: 824SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW NOTES:Ex-Google says Google's AI strategy is in chaos (Decoder)The Transformer Paper from Google (foundation of GenAI)NVIDIA coverage on Stratechery (Ben Thompson)DBRX LLM from DatabricksArtic LLM from SnowflakeOpenElm LLM from AppleOpenAI and Apple sign deal, Apple still wants a Google optionIBM and Red Hat bring Open Source to AI with InstructLabWE OVERESTIMATE IN 1YR, AND UNDERESTIMATE IN 10YRS“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” - Bill GatesDOES ANYONE REALLY HAVE THEIR AI STRATEGY FIGURED OUT? NVIDIAGoogleOpenAIMicrosoft / Azure / GitHubAmazon / AWSMetaAppleIBM / Red HatOracleSnowflakeDatabricksVCsStartupsFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Jonas Rosland (@jonasrosland, Head of Open Source Community @CIQ) talks about using AI tools to accelerate building and communications in Open Source Software (OSS) communities. We also discuss the differences between Community Roles and Dev Rel.SHOW: 823SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #823CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS" SHOW SPONSOR:Neo4j explores knowledge graphs and vector search (graphstuff.fm podcast)See what graphs can do for you at Neo4j.com/developerSHOW NOTES:Jonas’ session abstract from All Things Open (ATO) 2023Session slides and description of the talkHit Save! - Video Game Preservation OrganizationCIQ Enterprise Linux PlatformTopic 1 - Good Afternoon Jonas! Give everyone a quick background on your time building open-source communities and a bit about your foundation. We’ll dig into both areas today.Topic 2 - We caught up at All Things Open last fall. You gave a fascinating talk on using AI tools to accelerate the building of OSS communities. Give everyone the backstory on how that topic and presentation came to be.Topic 3 - This may be a dumb question, but DevRel is (still) all the rage. What is the difference between the approach to building OSS communities and the straight-up DevRel teams? How is success tracked in each? Are there solid metrics, or is it “fuzzy”?Topic 4 - Sadly, as far as I can tell, the session wasn’t recorded. But, for me, the big takeaway was how much dabbling you were doing with the tools and your good and bad experiences. I learned a lot from a practical aspect. But, the AI industry and tools are moving so fast. What’s in your toolbox today and why?Topic 5 - What are some of the gaps in the tools today? What’s missing?Topic 6 -  Let’s talk about your side gig. You were part of the founding team and are exec director of a video game preservation society, Hit Save! How did that come to be? What does that entail?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

After just three years, AWS is making another change at the top of the leadership org-chart. What lessons can we learn from leadership transitions and what might come next?SHOW: 822SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #822SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW NOTES:Andy Jassy makes AWS leadership announcement“There’s no AI without the cloud”, says AWS CEO (Decoder podcast)Six things to know about the new AWS CEO, Matt GarminAWS HAS NEW LEADERSHIP. WHY NOW? Adam Selipsky is out, Matt Garmin is in. What does it mean?Why is AWS making the change now?WHAT LESSONS CAN WE LEARN FROM SELIPSKY’S 3 YEARS AS AWS CEOProbably don’t take the job immediately after someone is the Nick Saban of techDon’t be the complete opposite of the previous boss (wings guy vs. wine guy)[Andy on X] Lead Amazon, married and father of two kids, big sports/music/film fan, experienced buffalo wings eater. Go Kraken![Adam on X] Husband & dad. Water skier/tennis player. Fan of Seahawks & Sounders. CEO at #AWS.[Andy Jassy] I’ve always had a lot of respect for Adam, and we met several times to discuss the possibility of coming back to lead AWS. In those conversations, we agreed that if he accepted the role, he’d likely do it for a few years, and that one of the things he’d focus on during that time was helping prepare the next generation of leadership.[Andy Jassy] Matt has an unusually strong set of skills and experiences for his new role. He’s very customer focused, a terrific product leader, inventive, a clever problem-solver, right a lot, has high standards and a meaningful bias for action. Realize when your job is to lead and inspire vs. producing the weekly reportThe post-ZIRP CEO of AWS2021 - $62B, , 2022 - $80B, 2023 - $90B, 2024 - $100+BLost key peopleBehind on GenAI vs. other clouds“Wartime CEO” vs. “Peacetime CEO”FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Mark Collier (@sparkycollier, COO @openInfradev) talks about the advantages of open source AI and the intersection of OSS and AI transparency, safety, and potential regulations.SHOW: 821SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #821CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SPONSOR:See what graphs can do for you at Neo4j.com/developerSHOW NOTES:Mark’s Talk at ATOEU AI Act PassesHow Tech Giants Cut Corners Harvest DataThe EU Guide Act - A Guide for DevelopersOpenInfra FoundationTopic 1 - Our topic for today is AI Safety and Regulation. I saw our guest speak at All Things Open here in Raleigh late last year and he is also a Cloudcast alumnus having been on the show previously talking about OpenStack and the OpenInfra Foundation. We’d like to welcome Mark Collier (Chief Operating Officer @ OpenInfra Foundation) for this discussion. Mark, welcome to the show.Topic 2 - There’s a lot of news today about AI safety and regulation. The industry also seems to be caught up in an AI arms race of who has the bigger model, faster model, etc. OpenAI have become the early category leader but they might have started with good intentions, but, contrary to their name, they aren’t open… at all.  One message in your talk is how open-source software will prevent the coming of the “AI overlords”. Tell everyone a bit of what you mean by this. What is the problem we are facing and many may not even realize it.Topic 3 - I don’t want to call you old (I think we are about the same age), but you’ve seen some things. You’ve also been around OSS and foundations for a bit now. How can open source solve the problem?Topic 4 - We hear a lot about AI regulation, but this seems to be a moving target. What is both the current and future state of AI regulation? In my opinion, we haven’t seen a lot of successful regulations to date. We saw recently the EU pass an AI Act. Is this the first of many? The start of a trend?Topic 5 - Let’s talk about the “day job”. What’s new with OpenInfra Foundation these days?Topic 6 -  OpenStack releases are still going strong and you’ve even run out of letters on OpenStack releases and have rolled around on the alphabet and are back to C. This is the 29th release of OpenStack. What’s the news for the Caracal release?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Happy Mothers Day! And let’s explore some new happenings at the intersection of open source and AI. SHOW: 820SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #820SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW NOTES:InstructLab Project (github homepage)LAB: Large-Scale Alignment for ChatBots (research paper)Granite LLMs (IBM research - Hugging Face)7b-base model7b-lab modelInstructLab: What is contributing to AI LLM models was easy? (Redmonk)HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL THE MOMSCall you mom, be good to your wife, and be a role model for the young girls in your lifeOPEN SOURCE MEETS AIThe big AI question: 1 model, or many models?2023 was the year of model diversity, and the beginnings of “open” models (Llama 2, Mistral, etc.)Can we make it easier to contribute to an open model?Can we create communities around models?Can we reduce the costs of expensive parts of AI? How can businesses bring their knowledge to a model, without security concerns about their data? (options like RAG (retrieval augmented generation) exist)FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Malte Ubl (@cramforce, CTO @Vercel) talks about Front-End web development and clouds, how AI impacts front-end infrastructure, and impacts to the business.SHOW: 819CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW NOTES:Vercel (homepage)Elevate your frontend with AIV0.devTopic 1 - Our topic for today is front-end development and front-end clouds, and we’ll also explore AI-generated front ends. Our guest is Malte Ubl, CTO at Vercel. Malte, welcome to the show. Give everyone a quick background on your time at Vercel and Google Search. Topic 2 - Let’s start at the start. We hear all the time about front-end developers and back-end developers. What is your definition of a front-end and, more specifically, a front-end cloud?Topic 3 - What are the most common use cases you see today? What problem are you solving when you talk to organizations?Topic 4 - How much of a front-end is typically integrated with 3rd party services, and how much is build your own?Topic 5 - Where does AI fit into this from a developer's perspective? Are we to the point where we can develop a front-end from a prompt?Topic 6 - Let’s talk about the business side of this. Do companies typically have a “front-end problem”? If so, what does it look like, and how do they know?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

What are the key characteristics and red flags with today’s leaders in the tech industry? How to identify the leadership skills, the team building skills, and the execution skills.SHOW: 818SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #818SHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW NOTES:WHERE ARE THE LEADERS IN THEIR CAREERS? Are they a 1st time manager?Have they managed distributed teams? Managed multiple teams?Have they managed a P&L? Have they had significant success in the past? What was their role?LEADERSHIP SKILLS, TEAM BUILDING, EXECUTION AND RED FLAGSAre you joining an established “team” or group that’s worked together before?Is the leader repeating a previous success, in a similar or different domain?What motivates the leader? What is their view on competition?What are the leader’s best skills? Do they recognize this? Does the leader augment their skills with the team around them? Do they recognize this?Does your personality mesh with the team you’re joining, or are you expecting to be a change agent?FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Aaron (@aarondelp) and Brian (@bgracely) talk about all the major news stories in Cloud and AI from April 2024SHOW: 817TRANSCRIPT: Cloudcast #817 - CNOTM - April 2024CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCAST - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW NOTES: LINKS TO ALL ARTICLES FOR APRIL 2024 CLOUD NEWSSegments Covered in the Show:Good Old Fashioned Cloud NewsThe AI Innovation Continues - Speed RoundTrend 1 - 2024 is going to be a year of big announcementsTrend 2 - We’re starting to see some (early) reality set in with AITrend 3 - Lots of things are being lost between Broadcom/VMware and AI discussionsFEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @cloudcastpodInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod