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For my very first interview episode with Amazon Web Services (AWS) I was pleased to welcome to the Podcast Dan Kasun, a former colleague, who leads the ISV Strategy for AWS’ Worldwide Public Sector Business.
Dan and I met and discussed how his team is organized, what makes the AWS core value proposition unique for partners, the company’s culture, how he thinks about great partnerships and his career journey.
His team works with solution providers that develop finished applications for government, education, and nonprofits. We discuss how his team engages with these organization on business and technical enablement.
We discuss why partners chose AWS the sheer scale of their infrastructure high availability and redundancy and the vast array of services AWS offers to partners and customers.
Most customers are choosing a multi-cloud strategy today, so this episode should be particularly helpful and interesting to any technology organization or partner considering this approach.
Some highlights from the interview include:
- Dan takes our listeners through how Amazon’s core set of leadership principles guide his business and partner engagement. You can access them HERE.
- How partners select and engage with AWS, how his team recruits partners and why they always need more partners to satisfy the demand for cloud and SAAS based solutions.
- What makes a great AWS partner – leadership, clarity of vision, high-quality technical talent, effective sales and marketing, high bias for action, experience in the industry, trustworthy and credibility – these are some of the traits we discussed.
- How his team facilitates cross partner engagement and is organized to foster it.
- Common myths working with AWS.
- Partners that have failed, why and what he would say to them now.
- Advice for partners looking to work with his organization.
- As with each of my episodes, Dan shares his career journey as a computer programmer and engineer and how that led to this spot in his career.
- Best piece of advice he received when he joined AWS.
- Quote he lives by and thinks of often – “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”, by Margaret Mead
- Book he’s gifted often – “Most likely to succeed“, By Tony Wagner.
- How to reach Dan – dankasun@amazon.com
You can listen to the podcast here or on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Player FM, other Android podcast players.
As with each of my interview and articles, I appreciate your feedback. You can reach me on Linked In or on email at vincem@cloudwavepartners.net. You can also review this podcast by going to iTunes and searching “Ultimate Guide to Partnering” and clicking on the album art and hitting the ratings link. This helps others find the podcast.
I hope you enjoy this episode!
Vince Menzione