Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Adam Selipsky implores cash-strapped companies to move more of their computing to the cloud if they want to cut costs.
During the keynote at this year’s AWS Re:Invent Partner and Customer Conference in Las Vegas, Selipsky cited a series of examples of reference customers who, amid economic uncertainty, have realized cost savings. by choosing to move more of their business – from on-premises computing to the cloud.
“In times of uncertainty, it can actually be tempting to scale back and slow down, but when it comes to the cloud, many of our customers know they should be leaning precisely because of economic uncertainty,” a- he declared. “The cloud is more cost effective and many customers are saving 30% or more.”
He cited the examples of US heating and ventilation company Carrier Global, which claims to have seen a 40% reduction in the cost of running its mission-critical enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the cloud, and life sciences company Gilead, which is on track to save $60 million over five years through “strategic cloud adoption initiatives.”
“If you’re looking to tighten your belt, the cloud is the place to do it,” Selipsky said – because of the flexibility it gives businesses when it comes to scaling up or down. in the face of fluctuating demand.
He then told the story of the app-based vacation rental company Airbnb which, due to its earlier foray into the public cloud, was better equipped to deal with the drop in demand for its services during the pandemic. of Covid-19.
“Airbnb was already a heavy user of the cloud,” Selipsky said. “And with all their cloud expertise and the efficiencies they’ve already achieved, they were far better prepared than many when the hospitality industry bottomed out in 2020.
“Airbnb was able to reduce cloud spending by 27% – quickly. And then, when the world started to emerge from the worst of the pandemic, Airbnb was able to quickly activate the cloud infrastructure they needed and continue to drive innovation. .
Selipsky added, “And you still have to innovate, especially now. You want to develop new ways to operate efficiently and better serve customers. The cloud helps you do it faster and cheaper. You can be agile with fewer resources.
It also cited a study that claimed that moving workloads to the AWS Cloud reduced the time it took for its customers to add new features to their products by 43%, with “many customers” realizing 60% savings. on how long it takes them to bring new offerings to market.
“That means you want to be ready for anything to operate efficiently, for flexible responses to unexpected circumstances, and to innovate,” Selipsky said.
“The cloud gives you that capability, operates efficiently and on time, and is stronger than your competition, ready to accelerate when business conditions change.”
His comments follow the publication of Amazon’s latest financial results at the end of October 2022which showed that the company’s cloud arm recorded its weakest rate of revenue growth to date for the three months to September 30, 2022, as companies sought to reduce cloud spending due to economic uncertainty.
Rahul Subramanian, creator of CloudFix cloud cost optimization software and longtime AWS user, said he would have liked to see and hear more details during the keynote about the cost-cutting benefits of cloud usage given the current economic uncertainty that many are facing.
“AWS had a big opportunity that they didn’t fully exploit,” he said. “I wish Adam had done more to directly address customer concerns about the high cost of cloud. He talked about customers saving 40-70%, but without detail.
“Customers need more clarity on what they need to do. I’m sure they’ll post more case studies in the future, but I think that’s what customers need now. In this time of economic uncertainty, the data and details to make those decisions are essential. »
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