Former AWS Leader Vaishali Kasture Joins Microsoft As SMC Head For India & South Asia

Vaishali Kasture, who previously served as the interim country head of Amazon Web Services (AWS) until December last year, is set to join Microsoft as the lead for its Small, Medium & Corporate (SMC) business in India and South Asia.

This marks the second significant executive move from AWS to Microsoft within a year, highlighting the fierce competition between the two tech giants for dominance in India's cloud market. Kasture follows in the footsteps of her predecessor at AWS, Puneet Chandok, who assumed the role of Microsoft India and South Asia head in September last year.

In a LinkedIn post, Kasture confirmed her new position, stating, "I couldn’t be more excited to take on the role of General Manager for the SMC business in India and South Asia. At a time when both corporations and SMBs are leveraging technology across the board—from Cloud to AI, data to security, and enhancing every process with Gen AI—Microsoft stands out as a comprehensive technology provider with a focus on the entire technology stack."

Kasture also echoed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's sentiments, describing the company as the "United Nations of Software," dedicated to empowering people and organisations to achieve more.