One of Amazon Web Services Inc.’s key priorities is to put the customer first, starting by finding out what they want and need and working backwards from there. No customer comment or opinion is unimportant at AWS, to the point where the attentiveness crosses into an obsession.

“Amazon is very methodical in the way that we innovate, and what we do is we really try to understand the customer. … It’s not customer focus; it really is customer obsession,” said Sandy Carter (pictured), vice president at Amazon Web Services Inc. The customer-centric attitude at Amazon goes as far as naming a building Lowflyinghawk after an early AWS user known for his frequent comments on forums.

Carter spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at the AWS Summit in San Francisco. They discussed AWS’ customer-centric culture, cloud-migration strategies and training programs. (* Disclosure below.)

Evacuate the data center!

AWS’ latest cloud migration innovations are about getting enterprise migrated to the cloud not only in the best way possible, but as fast as possible. Windows on AWS and VMware Cloud on AWS allow businesses to continue leveraging their existing support and applications, making the transition to cloud a more gradual process.

“Scribd’s network just talked about how they’re using it for disaster recovery. … One CIO migrated 143 workloads in a weekend using [VMware Cloud on AWS]. So, it just helps them to get to that hybrid state before they go all-in on the cloud,” Carter said.

Continuing the theme of simplifying change, AWS’ .NET Development Center helps businesses retrain their employees, transitioning their existing skills into cloud skills. “If you’re a large enterprise, one of your big challenges is how do I get my people trained, how do I get them up to speed. … We’ve got a full .NET stack that runs on AWS, so their people don’t even have to learn a new language. They can develop in Visual Studio and use PowerShell but work on AWS and bring that over,” Carter explained.

Simplifying implementation of machine learning is the natural progression, and Amazon’s new machine learning AMIs and Amazon SageMaker remove the barriers to deployment of machine learning models.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Summit San Francisco event. (* Disclosure: Amazon Web Services Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither AWS nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE