Thread by @QuinnyPig

Good morning, #AWSPSSUMMIT! We're a few minutes away from @teresacarlson's fireside chat with @awscloud CEO @ajassy. It's livetweet thread time!

Fun fact-- @ajassy didn't spring fully formed from the forehead of some god. He started his career in Amazon.com marketing.

That's right! Once he was Systems Manager Marketing Manager... #AWSPSSUMMIT

And @teresacarlson takes the stage for a second day in a row.

#AWSPSSUMMIT

And introduces @ajassy, CEO of @awscloud and apparently wearing the same blazer I am today.

He has excellent taste. #AWSPSSUMMIT

Talking about the origins of AWS and its relationship with public sector.

#AWSPSSUMMIT

Now talking about the pace of innovation.

I've always seen it as a double-edged sword. At some point you have to start tying disparate services together into a cohesive story, or you'll drive people away by overwhelming them.

#AWSPSSUMMIT

Now @ajassy talks about failure, highlighting the Fire phone.

I'd have preferred something in the AWS space; he's told similar stories in years past about SimpleDB but--oh my god there are big SimpleDB customers here so he can't!
#AWSPSSUMMIT

Talking about turning CapEx into variable expenses, touting the benefits of elasticity.

Y'know how I can tell that @ajassy doesn't have to make Reserved Instance purchases himself?

#AWSPSSUMMIT

Fun @ajassy trivia:

He's apparently got a superpower. You can refine a proposal to death for months on end, finallly present it to him--and he'll instantly spot the one weakness in the proposal.

#AWSPSSSummit

This is all secondhand; I still have no idea whether @ajassy doesn't know who I am or knows *EXACTLY* who I am.

Both possibilities are equally terrifying in different ways.

#AWSPSSSummit

Working with over 28,000 not-for-profits.

And a few atheist organizations, which are non-prophet organizations.

I'll be here all week. #AWSPSSSummit

I find it amusing to watch @ajassy talk about how to run other large organizations.

What he does at @awscloud requires an incredibly mastery of applied minutiae. I don't think most execs will ever get there. #AWSPSSSummit

He's now threading the needle of the @vmware story. On the one hand, it meets customers where they are. On the other, it's very far from cloud native (in the context most people consider VMware).

It's an intractable problem.
#AWSPSSSummit

#AWSPSSSummit "We delivered over 2,000 features and services last year" deviates @ajassy from yesterday's Slide of Trepidation:

Now @ajassy talks about purpose built databases and rattling off a bunch of @awscloud options that don't include Route53, Secrets Manager, or SimpleDB. #AWSPSSSummit

"I believe every application will have AI/ML infused in it in ten years." --@ajassy

I respectfully challenge that assertion.

#AWSPSSSummit

I don't envy @ajassy or other senior AWS leaders.

The higher you go, the more impact your words have, and the less you can say.

That kind of message discipline is incredibly hard.

#AWSPSSSummit

Now @ajassy talks about multi-cloud.

My words coming out of his mouth. Granted he's got an incredible bias here, but what he's saying is what I'm seeing in the world.

#AWSPSSSummit

"Asking your developers to be fluent across multiple clouds is a heavy lift." --@ajassy

ABSOLUTELY.

"Discounts are volume based, so you're spending more by splitting too."

Yes, but I have some hacks for that, in fairness. :-)

#AWSPSSSummit