Technology Magazine January 2024 | Page 56

AWS
the customer is so integral to every aspect of the business . “ Customer obsession drives everything to such an extent that , in some of our senior offices for executive meetings , we have an empty chair in the room representing the person that ’ s not there , which is the customer ,” Blood continues .
With the sound of sustainability issues reverberating around boardrooms , Blood is adamant the customer should always be properly listened to . He feels the views of customers around the world are now aligning , and they are all demanding action on environmental issues .
“ Customers are very clearly telling us – especially in Europe , but also increasingly in Asia and North America – that they care about the environment and about sustainability ,” Blood adds . “ So we want to do what ’ s good for our customers . We will do what we can to meet that need and meet that demand .”
How the cloud meets sustainability Blood feels the scale of AWS ’ operations means the organisation is able to make a big impact , helping businesses around the world to accelerate sustainability progress through its cloud services . The parallel between the cloud and sustainability may not be immediately obvious , but he thinks they are inextricably linke , because of how technology can remove so many limitations and blockers to progress . “ Sustainability is a global challenge and we have to solve it at scale ,” Blood goes on . “ That ’ s the first parallel . AWS is global . We ’ re trying to solve global challenges .”
He also believes the reverse is true , as many of the best solutions can be on a much smaller scale . “ We always solve things locally , right ? What ’ s the local specific issue that we can double click on and help ?
56 January 2024