Amazon Web Services-Only Mission Grows, Despite Potential AWS Layoffs
We caught up with the MSP’s HR lead to ask about the timing of new exec hirings, given tech sector chaos.
![Mission compass Mission compass](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt260912e2a1913b7a/65240fafd49b336a1c4f84c8/Mission.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
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Mission Cloud, an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner, has hired three new top leaders. The Los Angeles-based MSP said on Nov. 15 it has brought on Luanne Tierney as chief marketing officer, Erin Coleman as vice president of cloud services, and Troy Abraham as vice president of consulting services. By the end of last year, Mission Cloud, which is privately held, reported says it now employs more than 300 people across three continents, up from more than 170 at the end of 2021.
In a Nov. 15 press release, the company said it brought on more top leaders “to fuel growth amid market demand for AWS cloud services and consulting.”
CMO Tierney has worked for Cisco, Juniper Networks, Fortinet and Proofpoint, among other tech companies.
Cloud service vice president Coleman has led global teams in IT service management, business intelligence and integration, and customer support. She joined Mission Cloud from Virtustream. Coleman also has worked for Dimension Data and Sprint.
Finally, Abraham, vice president of consulting services, most recently hails from Fivetran. He led the global customer solutions group there. Abraham also has held roles at SAP and Oracle.
Here’s what Mission Cloud’s CEO, Simon Anderson, had to say about the appointments: “Attracting highly experienced and networked talent like Luanne, Erin and Troy is essential to ensuring we can continue to scale and globalize our differentiated services and support for our customers to achieve their goals on AWS. With only 20% of all enterprise software workloads running on the cloud, the demand for cloud services to migrate, manage, optimize and modernize applications — and build out data and analytics solutions for customers — will only accelerate as we come out of the current economic environment.”
Next, we talk with Mission Cloud’s human resources expert about the company’s hiring decisions even as Amazon, and the larger tech sector in general, experiences turmoil.
Channel Futures: What’s making you confident that hiring, rather than pulling back on additions, is the right move with a recession coming and so many layoffs hitting the cloud sector?
Mission’s Karoline Saffi: At Mission, we have always been very data-driven, and we try to look ahead as much as possible to see how external factors will affect our plan and objectives. This has caused us to be cautious and intentional with our hiring decisions in the good times as well as the hard times. We do our best to avoid having to lay off any staff if we can help it, so if that means hiring a little slower, we prefer to do that as we understand the impact those types of decisions can have on affected employees and their families, but also their communities.
Starting around the middle of this year, we decided to slow down hiring to allow time for additional information to become available. That being said, Mission is focused on their mission, which is our core value all about helping our customers achieve their goals, and we feel confident that smart and deliberate investments in key areas will help us continue to deliver.
CF: Do you plan to add more employees throughout the rest of this year and into 2023? Why or why not
KS: We will continue to hire and build out our teams to be able to continue moving forward on key initiatives, but we are being cautious and taking things one day at a time. It is best to be able to quickly pivot as needed in order to avoid negative impacts to our teams as much as possible. We have tons of great projects in the works and exciting new announcements which will be ready for the public soon, so we are pushing forward to continue delivering an exceptional experience for all our customers.
CF: How are Mission’s execs feeling about the recession and keeping the people you have employed? Has anything changed between the release of this announcement and news that Amazon (although not necessarily AWS) is laying off 10,000 staff?
KS: I feel saddened when I hear news of other companies laying off large numbers of employees and hope that for the good of our economy and of all those impacted that things start to improve sooner rather than later.
All companies are looking closely at plans and shifting priorities to prepare for a prolonged challenging period, which is the right thing to do. We will do our best to cautiously move forward and take care of our staff during these challenging times.
CF: How does Mission view the layoffs taking place in tech and its effect on people?
KS: Even seeing that type of news can be stressful to employees and affect their mental health. More than ever, it is important that we take care of ourselves and each other. At Mission, we have been through difficult times in the past and have come out the other end stronger than before because we worked together toward a common goal and took care of each other along the way. We will continue doing that.
CF: How does Mission view the layoffs taking place in tech and its effect on people?
KS: Even seeing that type of news can be stressful to employees and affect their mental health. More than ever, it is important that we take care of ourselves and each other. At Mission, we have been through difficult times in the past and have come out the other end stronger than before because we worked together toward a common goal and took care of each other along the way. We will continue doing that.
Mission Cloud Services is an Amazon Web Services-only partner. Last week, the company contacted us to share an announcement about executive hirings — the same day as news broke that AWS layoffs could lie in the offing alongside thousands of others at parent company Amazon.
That got us thinking. Even though organizations rarely punt their executives amid downturns (Twitter drama notwithstanding), we had to ask Mission Cloud for more insight: How confident is the managed service provider about navigating the downturn now with approximately 10,000 layoffs and contractor reductions in full swing at Amazon? The timing of Mission Cloud’s hiring news struck us as a bit unusual or even bold, especially considering that its Google Cloud-only peer, SADA, just downsized by 11%. In addition, the tech sector as a whole is shedding jobs like it’s once again 1999.
Mission Cloud’s Karoline Saffi, senior vice president of people and culture, agreed to do a Q&A with us. That interview comprises most of the slideshow above. But first, to set the stage, we go a little deeper into the situation at Amazon overall.
Amazon in Chaos
AWS layoffs, if they come to fruition, likely won’t cut as deeply as those within Amazon’s devices and books business (where technologies including Alexa and Luna undergo development). After all, AWS is Amazon’s cash cow. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy finally addressed the rumors of job losses on Nov. 17. Prior to that, Amazon had stayed quiet. Employees reported that they found out about pending layoffs through media, leading to expressions of anger.
“We get news articles on Monday,” one worker wrote, according to Business Insider. “Radio silence from [e]veryone and severance emails late Tuesday night. Very upsetting from our S-team. Lead with empathy, or lead with greed.”
Jassy and team seemed to get the message, responding at last.
AWS’ Andy Jassy
“We are in the middle of our annual operating planning review where we look at each of our businesses and make decisions about what we believe we should change,” Jassy wrote. “Leaders across the company are working with their teams and looking at their workforce levels, investments they want to make in the future, and prioritizing what matters most to customers and the long-term health of our businesses. This year’s review is more difficult due to the fact that the economy remains in a challenging spot and we’ve hired rapidly the last several years.”
Again, the bulk of the cuts appear to be happening outside of AWS. AWS layoffs could hit, though. It’s simply unclear to what extent and to which roles. Last month, Business Insider reported that AWS managers had been tasked with stopping hiring and stack-ranking team members to force out the lowest performers.
More to Come
Regardless, wider Amazon job losses will continue.
“Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments,” Jassy said. “Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023. We haven’t concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted (we know that there will be reductions in our Stores and PXT organizations), but each leader will communicate to their respective teams when we have the details nailed down. And, as has been the case this week, we will prioritize communicating directly with impacted employees before making broad public or internal announcements.”
With all that as background, then, we return to the Q&A with Mission Cloud, a top AWS partner. See the slideshow above for insight.
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