Back To The Future

Today is my last day at Amazon Web Services.

I have accepted a position as Director of Cloud Operations at Scopely. Scopely is an L.A.-based startup focusing on multiplayer mobile games. They have had a number of very successful games and have a clear vision of where they want to go. And they are all-in on AWS. So, I will be using boto and the AWS CLI and a host of other tools to help them achieve their goals and use AWS efficiently and effectively. They are a great group of people and I'm really excited and grateful for the opportunity. I originally created boto so I could use it to build cool things on AWS and I'm looking forward to doing that again.

Leaving AWS is difficult. I've been a customer since the beginning but being part of AWS as an employee has been a fantastic experience. The things that really stand out for me are:

• People - Over the past two years I've been gobsmacked by the consistently high quality of the people I've worked with at AWS. It's remarkable.
• Innovate and Iterate - People talk about the pace of innovation at AWS and it is very impressive. But innovation is just the fun part, the sexy part. What utltimately leads to success is the patient, persistent, customer-focused iteration that occurs after the initial "A ha!" moment. I've never seen anyone do it better.
• Support for Open Source - When I joined AWS, I brought with me a mature and vibrant open source project. There were innumerable ways things could have gone pear-shaped. But they didn't. We worked together to build a partnership that allowed AWS to contribute while also allowing the boto community to contribute as they always have. In addition to boto, all of the other AWS SDK's are released as open source and welcome contributions. In my experience, AWS has shown a real respect and appreciation for open source software and the communities that emerge around it.

Boto has been immeasurably improved by AWS's participation and I am glad to know it will continue in the future.