Amazon cuts hundreds of jobs in cloud business; Here's what AWS VP said in an email

Technology giant Amazon has announced job cuts affecting hundreds of staff at its cloud computing business.  Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been growing and now represents 14% of Amazon's total revenue, according to its latest financial report.

Amazon is cutting jobs again. This time, in its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing subsidiary. A GeekWire article claims that Amazon Web Services would eliminate a few hundred positions from its Physical Stores Technology team as well as several hundred positions from its Sales, Marketing, and Global Services division. Through internal emails, executives in Amazon's cloud computing division notified staff members of this information.

It is said that training and certification as well as sales operations have seen the most of the layoffs in the group responsible for sales, marketing, and global services.

The business said that it will now concentrate on self-serve digital training and training initiatives managed by outside partners. Additionally, AWS allegedly mentioned overlap in a few jobs related to sales operations and program management.

"We take these decisions seriously, and I understand that change can be challenging," senior vice president of AWS Matt Garman stated. The official said, "As an organization, we must remain adaptable in the face of our rapidly changing industry."

"We are making these changes to better position the organization for the future, in line with our priorities and strategy, and to cut down on inefficiencies and duplication. I understand the impact this has on each and every person involved," he continued.

Vice President of AWS applications Dilip Kumar stated that the layoffs will also affect the checkout teams and AWS identities inside the Physical Stores Technology division. "The introduction of identity and checkout technologies in our large format Amazon Fresh stores has taught us a lot, and we have positive customer feedback to guide our future plans," Kumar stated.

"We are also growing our third-party locations and extending our identity and checkout technologies in smaller-format 1P [first-party] stores," he added.

In a statement, a spokesperson said AWS “identified a few targeted areas of the organization we need to streamline in order to continue focusing our efforts on the key strategic areas that we believe will deliver maximum impact.”