What You Need To Know About Amazon's 'Devastating' AWS Layoffs

Hello, and welcome back to CRN Weekly, where we highlight the latest news and insights impacting the channel and technology industry over the past week.

In this edition, we take a look at Amazon's latest round of layoffs announced this week and what Amazon Web Services employees, partners and customers need to know; IBM's top compensated executives in 2022; a tweet from Palo Alto Networks' CEO on loyalty following an unnamed employee's exit from the company and more.

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Amazon's AWS Layoffs: 5 Things To Know About The Job Cuts

The world leader in cloud computing, Amazon Web Services, is going to be impacted by a new round of 9,000 layoffs at Amazon, CEO Andy Jassy shared in a message to employees earlier this week.

The news follows Amazon's announcement in January that it would lay off 18,000 employees, which CRN learned at the time would not greatly affect AWS.

"This could be the biggest layoff round ever at AWS. That's somewhat scary for us as a partner and could be devastating for AWS from an innovation or even a competitive perspective," a CEO from a national solution provider who did not want to be identified said.

Here's what AWS employees, partners and customers need to know about Amazon's newest layoff round that will hit AWS.

Related:

• Amazon: AWS Layoffs Driven By 'Reprioritization Decisions' (Read)
• Why Accenture Is Laying Off 19,000 Employees: 5 Things To Know (Read)

IBM's Most Highly Compensated Executives In 2022

IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna received about $16.6 million in total compensation in 2022, down about 5 percent year over year.

His pay was published in IBM's annual proxy statement. The company will hold its annual meeting of stockholders on April 25.

"In the past year, we took decisive steps to build a stronger IBM and helped our clients turn business challenges into opportunities," Krishna wrote in a letter accompanying the proxy statement. "I am proud of the progress we have made as a company and I am especially proud of the IBMers who have made it possible."

Find out how IBM's chief financial officer, senior vice president/senior advisor, vice chairman, and senior vice president, Legal, Regulatory Affairs, General Counsel were also compensated in 2022.

Palo Alto Networks CEO Takes To Twitter, Blasts Unnamed Senior Employee For Exit

Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, recently called out an unnamed senior employee on Twitter for leaving the cybersecurity highflier and promoting a competitor, saying that the worker sent "long promises of loyalty and integrity out of the window in a week."

Bob Venero , president and CEO of Future Tech Enterprise, Inc. , a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Palo Alto Networks partner, said he would have preferred that Arora singled out who exactly he was referring to in the tweet.

"If you are going to call somebody out, don't be ambiguous about who it is," he said. "Now you have the Twitter community wondering who it is Nikesh is talking about. We all know people make assumptions about who it might be. You don't want people making assumptions about the wrong person because they left the company."

With all of the layoffs in the technology industry, Venero said there is an "abundance of qualified candidates" for both vendors and solution providers looking to drive growth.

Learn more about Arora's "loyalty" tweet and the executives that recently left Palo Alto Networks.

Everything Channel Madness

Round 2 of CRN's annual Tournament of Chiefs is underway! Here's everything you need to know so far:

• Round 1 Results: Nutanix Beats Kaseya, Veeam Software Ousts AWS (Read)
• Where To Vote: CRN.com/madness

Round 2 ends next Tuesday, March 28, at noon ET, so make sure you support your favorite chief in the Solutions 16!

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