Amazon Cloud Head Charlie Bell Is Departing Amid AWS Management Makeover

Amazon.com Inc AMZN’s top cloud executive and company veteran Charlie Bell is leaving the company, CNBC reported on Monday, noting that the tech giant confirmed the shakeup.

What Happened: Bell’s departure comes a month after Andy Jassy — who founded Amazon Web Services (AWS), an on-demand cloud computing subsidiary of Amazon — took over as CEO at the e-commerce giant as founder Jeff Bezos stepped down from the role.

Bell, who joined Amazon in 1998, was considered a candidate to replace Jassy and his exit follows a series of high-level moves at AWS, a key business which accounts for half of Amazon’s total operating profit. 

Bell was responsible for development of AWS services including computing, storage and database, and reported to Adam Selipsky who replaced Jassy as the head of AWS.

See Also: Who Is Andy Jassy, The Soon-To-Be CEO Of Amazon?

Other AWS executives that have left since the start of the pandemic include Teresa Carlson — who was vice president of public sector and industries at AWS in her last role at the company, Tim Bray — who worked on several AWS products and resigned last year in objection to Amazon employment practices.

What's Next: Selipsky will get two new executives reporting to him. Peter DeSantis, a senior vice president at Amazon Web Services who has worked on global infrastructure, will become the new leader for utility computing. Prasad Kalyanaraman, a vice president at AWS, will take over responsibility for infrastructure and network services. 

The Seattle, Washington-based company has not announced the changes yet.  

Why It Matters: Amazon continues to maintain its dominant position in the cloud infrastructure market that is worth billions amid growing rivalry with Microsoft Corp MSFT, Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL, and Alibaba Group Holding BABA. 

See Also: Amazon Remains Dominant Player In Cloud, But It's Losing Grip To Rivals

In 2020, Amazon’s revenue of $26.2 billion from cloud infrastructure was more than double that of the No. 2 player Microsoft’s $12.65 billion.

Tech giants are seeing increasing competition in the cloud computing space and it is quickly turning out to be a key profit driver as corporates and businesses rush to support employees working from home during the pandemic.

Price Action: Amazon shares closed marginally down at $3.341.87 on Monday.