AWS Cloud Enterprise Strategy Blog
Author: Ishit Vachhrajani
Ishit leads a global team of Enterprise Strategists consisting of former CXOs and senior executives from large enterprises. Enterprise Strategists partner with executives of some of world’s largest companies, helping them understand how the cloud can enable them to spend more time focusing on customer needs with its ability to increase speed and agility, drive innovation, and form new operating models. Prior to joining AWS, Ishit was Chief Technology Officer at A+E Networks responsible for global technology across cloud, architecture, applications and products, data analytics, technology operations, and cyber security. Ishit led a major transformation at A+E moving to the cloud, reorganizing for agility, implementing a unified global financial system, creating an industry leading data analytics platform, revamping global content sales and advertising sales products, all while significantly reducing operational costs. He has previously held leadership positions at NBCUniversal and global consulting organizations. Ishit has been recognized with several awards including the CEO award called “Create Great” at A+E Networks. He is passionate about mentoring next generation of leaders and serves on a number of peer advisory groups. Ishit earned his bachelor’s degree in Instrumentation & Control Engineering with a gold medal for academic achievement from the Nirma Institute of Technology in India.
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Lessons from Edison’s Bulb: Using Generative AI to Light the Way for Business Transformation
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” —Arthur C. Clarke Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park in Edison, New Jersey, commemorates the birthplace of recorded sound and the world’s first practical incandescent light bulb. On New Year’s Eve, 1879, Thomas Edison used his newly invented incandescent lamp to illuminate Christie Street, where his laboratory […]
Managing in Economic Uncertainty: Cost Reductions
Managing in times of economic uncertainty means facing difficult choices. Reducing costs is a choice that leaders often face but mostly dread. Many of us on the Enterprise Strategy team have faced multiple macroeconomic headwinds or other industry- and company-specific challenges in our previous roles as CXOs. In this post, I outline some of the […]
Announcing the New AWS Enterprise Strategy Track at re:Invent
Recommended sessions for enterprise executives looking to accelerate digital transformation. On behalf of the entire Enterprise Strategy team at AWS, we’re looking forward to welcoming you to re:Invent 2022. With over 2,000 sessions including keynotes and leadership sessions, re:Invent provides an excellent opportunity to learn, share, and connect with your peers. We are excited to […]
Surviving Digital Disruption: Back to Basics
Internet was the future and the dot-com boom was just around the corner. I had just landed a job as a developer before I even graduated. I was looking forward to learning Java, working on some e-commerce projects, and being a part of the next dot-com success story. Optimism was in the air. Then, on […]
Hitting the Target but Missing the Mark
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. — Goodhart’s law As a developer fresh out of school, the first two service level agreements (SLAs) that I was accountable for were on-time delivery (OTD) and first time right (FTR). While the intention of the first time right measure was to reduce rework […]
AI Explorations of a Former Media CTO (With No Prior Machine Learning Experience)
One of the challenges many enterprise leaders face is how to experiment and quickly create business value from machine learning without establishing large teams with specialized skillsets and infrastructure. As a CTO, I found that having access to Amazon Web Service’s pre-trained AI Services enabled our developers, even those with no prior machine leaning experience, […]
How to Build Data Capabilities
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts—for support rather than for illumination.” —Andrew Lang When it comes to the data, it is culture first and capability second. In my previous post, I talked about how executives can create a data-driven culture in their enterprises. In this post, I am going to dive […]
Time to Rethink Build vs Buy
I believe the fear that led to the deployment of large amounts of resources and budgets to remediate Y2K, followed by the dot-com bubble bust, had an unintended consequence. Many enterprises became extremely conservative when it came to building products, and defaulted to buying off the shelf wherever possible. Today, many enterprise IT teams are […]
How to Create a Data-Driven Culture
“If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.” ― Jim Barksdale Conversations about data-driven enterprises often focus on tools, big data, and the technological advancements that have made storing, processing, and analyzing data faster and cheaper. While these are all important, creating a data-driven culture […]