Jacob Marks

AWS announced Multi-Region Keys in AWS Payment Cryptography. You can read the official post here: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/multi-region-keys-a-new-approach-to-key-replication-in-aws-payment-cryptography/ This was a meaningful launch because it crossed one of the boundaries AWS takes very seriously: Region isolation. Replicating payment cryptographic keys across Regions meant moving highly sensitive customer material across a boundary that is normally treated as a hard line. That required a lot of design review, security scrutiny, and approvals. Moving critical customer data across Regions is not something anyone treats casually. One of my engineers handled much of the implementation while I drove execution, launch readiness, and stakeholder alignment. Because the launch was time-sensitive, I had to stay deeply involved in approvals, resolving concerns, and making sure decisions were happening fast enough to keep the work moving. A lot of the real work was not writing c...

The cloud market continues to get more competitive. AWS built its early success by winning developers first. Startups and builders were willing to take risks, move fast, and trust new platforms if those platforms made their jobs easier. AWS became the default choice because it gave developers access to infrastructure and services that previously required enormous capital, time, and operational overhead. That advantage should not be taken for granted. As the market matures, competitors are closing the gap. Microsoft in particular understands something important: developers and operations professionals are often the real catalyst for cloud adoption inside an enterprise. CIOs, CTOs, and procurement teams may approve the decision, but developers and operators heavily influence which technologies ever make it that far. If AWS wants to maintain its leadership position, we cannot rely only on top-down executive relationships. We must continue to win the people who actually build and operate s...