Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will step down as the e-commerce giant's CEO this summer after 27 years. Andy Jassy, Amazon's cloud computing division's chief will take over from Bezos.
Once the brains behind Amazon Web Services (AWS), Jassy transitions into the overall CEO role Bezos, who in recent years had already "stepped back from much of the day-to-day business," will take on the role of executive chairman.
In a statement to employees Bezos said: “Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition" and he says he will now focus more on "new products and early initiatives."
Long-term Amazon employee Jassy founded AWS in 2003 and was named CEO of the cloud vendor in 2016. AWS commands 45% of worldwide IaaS revenue, generating double the revenue of its next closest competitor in the cloud space, Microsoft.
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This year, AWS accounted for 59% of Amazon's total operating income. Tech site CIO Dive states that AWS certifications are profitable for those credentialed and more four-year colleges are turning to Amazon to establish cloud computing degrees.
Amazon has landed record quarterly sales from soaring online holiday shopping driven by a largely housebound customer base due to lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, The WSJ writes.
No replacement has been announced yet for Jassy's CEO position at AWS, but the company will task the new leader with keeping the cloud competition at bay and extending further into the vertical-specific cloud markets.
