Werner Vogels

Chief Technology Officer, Amazon

Search every verified Werner Vogels interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a recent podcast marking the 20th anniversary of Amazon Web Services, Werner Vogels, Chief Technology Officer at Amazon, discussed the origins of the cloud computing platform and his early skepticism about the company. Vogels recounted initially ignoring a phone call from Amazon because he thought it was "just an online bookstore." He described his frustration with the traditional enterprise software model, stating that vendors were "always in charge" and that he "hated" the prepaid model. Vogels said AWS was created to "radically change the economic model" to a pay-as-you-go system, which he compared to paying for gas or electricity based on usage. Vogels also discussed AWS's approach to technology and sustainability. He stated that the predecessor to DynamoDB was driven by a desire to avoid using a "relational database for a problem that it was absolutely not built for." Regarding energy use, Vogels said that AWS matches 100% of its energy consumption with investments in renewable energy, adding that the company does this "because it's better for the world" rather than purely for shareholders. He emphasized that while AI can help write code, it cannot replace human qualities such as curiosity and the ability to understand the bigger picture.