GE opens up on how its move to the AWS public cloud is progressing

General Electric (GE) has opened up about how its multi-year push to adopt a cloud-first application deployment strategy is progressing with the help of Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The technology conglomerate kicked off an enterprise-wide push to adopt cloud in 2014 across its various business units, and claims to have migrated more than 2,000 business applications to the AWS cloud as a result.

This has prompted GE to declare AWS as its preferred cloud provider, as it continues on its quest to free its IT department and teams from having to operate datacentres.

Chris Drumgoole, CTO and corporate vice-president of GE, said the company’s portfolio of cloud services is helping the firm push the boundaries of its own digital transformation.

“Adopting a cloud-first strategy with AWS is helping our IT teams get out of the business of building and running datacentres, and refocus our resources on innovation as we undergo one of the largest and most important transformations in GE’s history,” he said.

“We chose AWS as the preferred cloud provider for GE because AWS’s industry-leading cloud services have allowed us to push the boundaries, think big and deliver better outcomes for GE.”

Mike Clayville, vice-president of worldwide commercial sales at AWS, added: “GE has been at the forefront of cloud adoption, and we’ve been impressed with the pace, scope and innovative approach GE has taken in its journey to AWS.”

GE’s public reinforcement of its commitment to AWS comes at a time when the cloud giant’s hold on the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) space is coming under increased competitive pressure, with Microsoft, Google and Alibaba all reporting strong enterprise adoption of their services.

While AWS remains by far and away the IaaS market leader, market watcher Gartner recently highlighted a slowdown in the revenue growth reported by the firm, compared with the other aforementioned cloud providers.

Either way, Clayville said the company continues to see strong new customer adoption of its cloud services, with particular emphasis on the enterprise market.

“Enterprises across industries are migrating to AWS in droves, and in the process are discovering the wealth of new opportunities that open up when they have the most comprehensive menu of cloud capabilities – which is growing daily – at their fingertips,” he added.