AWS for Software Companies Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Ep097: Specialized Agents & Agentic Orchestration - New Relic and the Future of Observability Apr 28, 2025

Show notes

New Relic's Head of AI and ML Innovation, Camden Swita discusses their four-cornered AI strategy and envisions a future of "agentic orchestration" with specialized agents.

Topics Include:

Introduction of Camden Swita, Head of AI at New Relic.
New Relic invented the observability space for monitoring applications.
Started with Java workloads monitoring and APM.
Evolved into full-stack observability with infrastructure and browser monitoring.
Uses advanced query language (NRQL) with time series database.
AI strategy focuses on AI ops for automation.
First cornerstone: Intelligent detection capabilities with machine learning.
Second cornerstone: Incident response with generative AI assistance.
Third cornerstone: Problem management with root cause analysis.
Fourth cornerstone: Knowledge management to improve future detection.
Initially overwhelmed by "ocean of possibilities" with LLMs.
Needed narrow scope and guardrails for measurable progress.
Natural language to NRQL translation proved immensely complex.
Selecting from thousands of possible events caused accuracy issues.
Shifted from "one tool" approach to many specialized tools.
Created routing layer to select right tool for each job.
Evaluation of NRQL is challenging even when syntactically correct.
Implemented multi-stage validation with user confirmation step.
AWS partnership involves fine-tuning models for NRQL translation.
Using Bedrock to select appropriate models for different tasks.
Initially advised prototyping on biggest, best available models.
Now recommends considering specialized, targeted models from start.
Agent development platforms have improved significantly since beginning.
Future focus: "Agentic orchestration" with specialized agents.
Envisions agents communicating through APIs without human prompts.
Integration with AWS tools like Amazon Q.
Industry possibly plateauing in large language model improvements.
Increasing focus on inference-time compute in newer models.
Context and quality prompts remain crucial despite model advances.
Potential pros and cons to inference-time compute approach.

Participants:

Camden Swita – Head of AI & ML Innovation, Product Management, New Relic

See how Amazon Web Services gives you the freedom to migrate, innovate, and scale your software company at https://aws.amazon.com/isv/

Ep096: Navigating Cloud Marketplaces: How Suger is Streamlining Software Distribution Apr 22, 2025

Show notes

Jon Yoo, CEO of Suger, shares how his company automates the complex & challenging workflows of selling software through cloud marketplaces like AWS.

Topics Include:

Jon Yoo is co-founder/CEO of Suger.
Suger automates B2B marketplace workflows.
Handles listing, contracts, offers, billing for marketplaces like AWS.
Co-founder previously led Confluent's marketplace enablement product.
Confluent had 40-50% revenue through cloud marketplaces.
Required 10-20 engineers working solely on marketplace integration.
Engineers prefer core product work over marketplace integration.
Product/engineering leaders struggle with marketplace deployment requirements.
Marketplace customers adopt without marketing, creating unexpected management needs.
Version control is challenging for marketplace-deployed products.
License management through marketplace creates engineering challenges.
Suger helps sell, resell, co-sell through AWS Marketplace.
Marketplace integration isn't one-time; requires ongoing maintenance.
Business users constantly request marketplace automation features.
Suger works with Snowflake, Intel, and AI startups.
Data security concerns drive self-hosted AI deployments.
AI products increasingly deploy via AMI/container solutions.
AI products use usage-based pricing, not seat-based.
Usage-based pricing creates complex billing challenges.
AI products are tested at unprecedented rates.
Two deployment options: vendor cloud or customer cloud.
SaaS requires reporting usage to marketplace APIs.
Customer-hosted deployment simplifies some billing aspects.
Marketplaces need integration with ERP systems.
Version control particularly challenging for AI products.
Companies need automated updates for marketplace-deployed products.
License management includes scaling up/down and expiration handling.
Suger aims to integrate with GitHub for automatic updates.

Participants:

· Jon Yoo – CEO and Co-founder, Suger

See how Amazon Web Services gives you the freedom to migrate, innovate, and scale your software company at https://aws.amazon.com/isv/

Ep095: AI and Cybersecurity - How SentinelOne Is Changing the Game Apr 16, 2025

Show notes

SentinelOne's Ric Smith shares how Purple AI, built on Amazon Bedrock, helps security teams handle increasing threat volumes while facing budget constraints and talent shortages.

Topics Include:

Introduction of Ric Smith, President of Product Technology and Operations
SentinelOne overview: cybersecurity company focused on endpoint and data security
Customer range: small businesses to Fortune 10 companies
Products protect endpoints, cloud environments, and provide enterprise observability
Ric oversees 65% of company operations
Purple AI launched on AWS Bedrock
Purple AI helps security teams become more efficient and productive
Security teams face budget constraints and talent shortages
Purple AI helps teams manage increasing alert volumes
Top security challenge: increased malware variants through AI
AI enables more convincing spear-phishing attempts
Identity breaches through social engineering are increasing
Voice deepfakes used to bypass security protocols
Future threats: autonomous AI agents conducting orchestrated attacks
SentinelOne helps with productivity and advanced detection capabilities
SentinelOne primarily deployed on AWS infrastructure
Using SageMaker and Bedrock for AI capabilities
Best practice: find partners for AI training and deployment
Customer insight: Purple AI made teams more confident and creative
AI frees security teams from constant anxiety
SentinelOne's hyper-automation handles cascading remediation tasks
Multiple operational modes: fully automated or human-in-the-loop
Agent-to-agent interactions expected within 24 months
Common misconception: generative AI is infallible
AI helps with "blank slate problem" providing starting frameworks
AI content still requires human personalization and review
AWS partnership provides cost efficiency and governance benefits

Participants:

· Ric Smith – President – Product, Technology and Operations, SentinelOne

See how Amazon Web Services gives you the freedom to migrate, innovate, and scale your software company at https://aws.amazon.com/isv/

Ep094: The DEX Factor – How Nexthink is Eliminating IT Headaches Before They Happen Apr 14, 2025

Show notes

Sam Gantner, Chief Product Officer of Nexthink, reveals how DEX is moving IT from reactive firefighting to proactive problem prevention and transforming enterprise productivity.

Topics Include:

DEX stands for Digital Employee Experience
DEX eliminates IT issues preventing employee productivity
Shifts IT from reactive to proactive problem-solving
Employees often serve as IT problem alerting systems
Best IT is transparent to employees
DEX solves device sluggishness and slow application issues
Network problems consistently appear across organizations
IT teams often lack visibility into employee experiences
Many organizations waste money on unused software licenses
DEX Score measures comprehensive employee IT experience
Surveys capture subjective aspects of technology experience
Reduction of actual problems differs from ticket reduction
Nexthink uses lightweight agents on employee devices
Browser monitoring essential as browsers become application platforms
Employee engagement metrics capture real-time feedback
Nexthink rebuilt as cloud-native platform using AWS services
Company deploys across 10+ global AWS regions
30% of engineering resources dedicated to AI development
One customer eliminated 50% of IT tickets
Another recovered 37,000 productivity hours worth $3M annually
A third saved $1.3M by identifying unused licenses
AI implementation requires dedicated employee training
Good AI now better than perfect AI never
Technology adoption is the next DEX frontier
Digital dexterity becoming critical for maximizing IT investments

Participants:

Samuele Gantner – Chief Product Officer, Nexthink

See how Amazon Web Services gives you the freedom to migrate, innovate, and scale your software company at https://aws.amazon.com/isv/

Ep093: Forrester's Vision: Linda Ivy-Rosser on the Evolution and Future of Business Applications Apr 11, 2025

Show notes

Linda Ivy-Rosser, Vice President for Forrester, outlines the evolution of business applications and forward thinking predictions of their future.

Topics Include:

Linda Ivy-Rosser has extensive business applications experience since the 1990s.
Business applications historically seen as rigid and lethargic.
1990s: On-premise software with limited scale and flexibility.
2000s: SaaS emergence with Salesforce, AWS, and Azure.
2010s: Mobile-first applications focused on accessibility.
Present: AI-driven applications characterize the "AI economy."
Purpose of applications evolved from basic to complex capabilities.
User expectations grew from friendly interfaces to intelligent systems.
Four agreements: AI-infused, composable, cloud-native, ecosystem-driven.
AI-infused: 69% consider essential/important in vendor selection.
Composability expected to grow in importance with API architectures.
Cloud-native: 79% view as foundation for digital transformation.
Ecosystem-driven: 68% recognize importance of strategic alliances.
Challenges: integration, interoperability, data accessibility, user adoption.
43% prioritizing cross-functional workflow and data accessibility capabilities.
Tech convergence recycles as horizontal strategy for software companies.
Data contextualization crucial for employee adoption of intelligent applications.
Explainable AI necessary to build trust in recommendations.
Case study: 83% of operators rejected AI recommendations without explanations.
Tulip example demonstrated three of four agreements successfully.
Software giants using strategic alliances as competitive advantage.
AWS offers comprehensive AI infrastructure, platforms, models, and services.
Salesforce created ecosystem both within and outside their platform.
SaaS marketplaces bridge AI model providers and businesses.
Innovation requires partnerships between software vendors and ISVs.
Enterprises forming cohorts with startups to solve business challenges.
Software supply chain transparency increasingly important.
Government sector slower to adopt cloud and AI technologies.
Change resistance remains significant challenge for adoption.
69% prioritize improving innovation capability over next year.

Participants:

Linda Ivy-Rosser - Vice President, Enterprise Software, IT services and Digital Transformation Executive Portfolio, Forrester

See how Amazon Web Services gives you the freedom to migrate, innovate, and scale your software company at https://aws.amazon.com/isv/

Ep092: The Evolution of Monitoring: How New Relic is Transforming Cloud Operations Apr 09, 2025

Show notes

New Relic's Chief Customer Officer Arnaldo (Arnie) Lopez details how their observability platform helps 70,000+ customers monitor cloud performance through AWS infrastructure while introducing AI capabilities that simplify operations.

Topics Include:

Arnie Lopez is SVP, Chief Customer Officer at New Relic.
Oversees pre-sales, post-sales, technical support, and enablement teams.
New Relic University offers customer certifications.
Founded in 2008, pioneered application performance monitoring (APM).
Now offers "Observability 3.0" for full-stack visibility.
Prevents interruptions during cloud migration and operations.
Serves 70,000+ customers across various industries.
16,000 enterprise-level paying customers.
Platform consolidates multiple monitoring tools into one solution.
Helps detect issues before customers experience performance problems.
Market challenge: customers using disparate observability solutions.
Reduces TCO by eliminating multiple monitoring tools.
Targets VPs, CTOs, CIOs, and sometimes CEOs.
Decade-long partnership with AWS.
Platform built on largest unified telemetry data cloud.
Uses AWS Graviton instances and Amazon EKS.
AWS partnership enables innovation and customer trust.
Three AI approaches: user assistance, LLM monitoring, faster insights.
New Relic AI helps write query language (NURCLs).
Monitors LLMs in customer environments.
Uses AI to accelerate incident resolution.
Lesson learned: should have started AI implementation sooner.
Many customers still cautiously adopting AI technologies.
Goal: continue growth with AWS partnership.
Offers compute-based pricing model.
Customers only pay for what they use.
Announced one-step AWS monitoring for enterprise scale.
Amazon Q Business and New Relic AI integration.
Agent-to-agent AI eliminates data silos.
Embeds performance insights into business application workflows.

Participants:

Arnie Lopez – SVP Chief Customer Officer, New Relic

See how Amazon Web Services gives you the freedom to migrate, innovate, and scale your software company at https://aws.amazon.com/isv/

Ep091: The Business of Better Decisions: PDI's Journey in Retail and Energy Tech Apr 07, 2025

Show notes

PDI Technologies’ Steve Antonakakis shares how his company is implementing generative AI across their fuel and retail technology ecosystem through a practical, customer-focused approach using Amazon Bedrock.

Topics Include:

PDI's COO/CTO discussing generative AI implementation
Practical step-by-step approach to AI integration
Testing in real-world settings with customer feedback
AWS Bedrock and Nova models exceeded expectations
Early adoption phase with huge potential
Fuel/retail industry processes many in-person transactions
PDI began in 1983 as ERP provider
Grew through 33+ acquisitions
Provides end-to-end fuel industry solutions
Owns GasBuddy and Shell Fuel Rewards
Processes millions of transactions daily
Generative AI fits into their intelligence plane architecture
AWS Bedrock integrates well with existing infrastructure
Focus on trusted, controlled, accountable AI
Productizing AI features harder than traditional features
Created entrepreneurial structure alongside regular product teams
Team designed to fail fast but stay customer-focused
AI features can access databases without disrupting applications
Customers want summarization across different business areas
AI provides insights and actionable recommendations
Conversational AI replaces traditional reporting limitations
Working closely with customers to solve problems together
Beyond prototyping phase, now in implementation
AWS Nova provides excellent cost-to-value ratio
Focus on measuring customer value over immediate profitability
RFP use case saved half a million dollars
Early prompts were massive, now more structured
Setting realistic customer expectations is important
Data security approach same as other applications
Treating AI outputs with same data classification standards

Participants:

Steve Antonakakis – COO & CTO, Retail & Energy, PDI Technologies

See how Amazon Web Services gives you the freedom to migrate, innovate, and scale your software company at https://aws.amazon.com/isv/

Ep090: Triple-Digit Growth - How Leading Partners Successfully Leverage AWS Marketplace Apr 03, 2025

Show notes

AWS partners Braze, Qualtrics, and Tealium share strategies for marketplace success, vertical industry expansion, and generative AI integration that have driven significant business growth.

Topics Include:

Jason Warren introduces AWS Business Application Partnerships panel.
Three key topics: Marketplace Strategy, Vertical Expansion, Gen-AI Integration.
Alex Rees of Braze, Matthew Gray of Tealium, and Jason Mann of Qualtrics join discussion.
Braze experienced triple-digit percentage growth through AWS Marketplace.
Braze dedicating resources specifically to Marketplace procurement.
Tealium accelerated deal velocity by listing on Marketplace.
Tealium saw broader use case expansion with AWS co-selling.
Qualtrics views Marketplace listing as earning a "diploma."
Understanding AWS incentives and metrics is crucial.
Knowing AWS "love language" helps partnership success.
Braze saw transaction volume increase between Q1 and Q4.
Aligning with industry verticals unlocked faster growth.
Tealium sees bigger deals and faster close times.
Tealium moved from transactional to strategic marketplace approach.
Private offers work well for complex enterprise agreements.
Qualtrics measures AWS partnership through "influence, intel, introductions."
AWS relationships help navigate IT and procurement challenges.
Propensity-to-buy data guides AWS engagement strategy.
Marketplace strategy evolving with new capabilities and international expansion.
Brazilian marketplace distribution reduces currency and tax challenges.
Partnership evolution: sell first, then market, then co-innovate.
Braze penetrated airline market through AWS Travel & Hospitality.
RFP introductions show tangible partnership benefits.
Tealium partnering with Virgin Australia and United Airlines.
MUFG bank case study shows joint AWS-Tealium success.
Qualtrics won awards despite not completing formal competencies.
Focus on fewer verticals yields better results.
Gen AI brings both opportunities and regulatory concerns.
First-party data rights critical for AI implementation.
AWS Bedrock integration provides security and prescriptive solutions.

Participants:

Alex Rees – Director Tech Partnerships, Braze
Jason Mann – Global AWS Alliance Lead, Qualtrics
Matthew Gray - SVP, Partnerships & Alliances, Tealium
Jason Warren - Head of Business Applications ISV Partnerships (Americas), AWS

See how Amazon Web Services gives you the freedom to migrate, innovate, and scale your software company at https://aws.amazon.com/isv/

Ep089: Enterprise AI at Scale: Box's Approach to Secure Content Intelligence Mar 31, 2025

Show notes

Yashodha Bhavnani, Head of AI at Box, reveals Box's vision for intelligent content management that transforms unstructured data into actionable insights.

Topics Include:

Yashodha Bhavnani leads AI products at Box.
Box's mission: power how the world works together.
Box serves customers globally across various industries.
Works with majority of Fortune 500 companies.
AI agents will join workforce for repetitive tasks.
Workflows like hiring will become easily automated with AI.
Content will work for users, not vice versa.
Customers demand better experiences with generative AI.
Box calls this shift "intelligent content management."
90% of enterprise content is unstructured data.
AI thrives on unstructured data.
Current content systems are unproductive and unsecured.
AI can generate insights from scattered company knowledge.
AI extracts metadata automatically from documents like contracts.
Automated workflows triggered by AI-extracted data.
Box provides enterprise-grade AI connected to your content.
AI follows same permissions as the content itself.
Customer data never used to train AI models.
AI helps classify sensitive data to prevent leaks.
Box offers choice of AI models to customers.
AI is seamlessly connected with customer content.
Administrators control AI deployment across their organization.
Partnership with AWS Bedrock brings frontier models to Box.
Box supports customers using their own custom models.
Box preparing for AI agents to join workforce.
Introduced "AI Units" for flexible pricing.
Basic AI included free with Business Plus tiers.
Both horizontal and vertical multi-agent architectures planned.
Working toward agent-to-agent communication protocols.

Participants:

Yashodha Bhavnani - VP of Product Management, AI products, Box

See how Amazon Web Services gives you the freedom to migrate, innovate, and scale your software company at https://aws.amazon.com/isv/

Ep088: Monetizing and Productizing Generative AI for SaaS with RingCentral & Zoom Mar 27, 2025

Show notes

Tech leaders from RingCentral, Zoom and AWS discuss how generative AI is transforming business communications while balancing challenges & regulatory concerns in this rapidly evolving landscape.

Topics Include: