Amazon’s AWS Honeycode app-building software is facing challenges as it is being phased out. While Amazon’s cloud infrastructure offerings remain strong, its business application team has been struggling. The company is currently in a major cost-cutting campaign.
AWS Honeycode, a cloud-based app-building service launched by Amazon in 2020, was designed to provide a “low-code” development solution that allows users to easily build apps without advanced software engineering skills. However, it seems that Amazon is now providing minimal support for Honeycode, with no active promotions or sales activities for the app.
Internally, employees refer to such products as “KTLO,” or “keep the lights on,” as they are only kept live to serve the remaining customers. Other AWS business applications, like WorkDocs and WorkMail, are also facing similar situations.
It’s worth noting that Honeycode is still in its beta phase and the official final product has not been launched yet. The internal product page for Honeycode has not been updated in the past five months.
The struggles faced by Honeycode highlight the broader challenges Amazon is experiencing in the business application space, also known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Despite making multiple entries in the industry and launching competing products for services like Dropbox, Slack, and Tableau, Amazon has seen limited success in this area.
Amazon is currently in a cost-cutting mode and has shut down several products and initiatives over the past year. In addition to Honeycode, Amazon has discontinued the Halo health band, the Scout delivery robot, and several long-term projects from its Grand Challenge moonshot lab.
While Amazon’s spokesperson declined to comment specifically on Honeycode, they mentioned that “millions of people” use SaaS apps built by or hosted on AWS. The spokesperson highlighted that AWS continues to invest in both the applications it builds itself and popular services hosted by partners.
Despite its current challenges, Honeycode was initially a high-profile project at Amazon. The company had hired Adam Bosworth, an experienced executive from Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce, to run the project. However, there were already rumors about Amazon’s plan to phase out Honeycode by the time AWS’s annual re:Invent conference took place in 2021. Adam Seligman, formerly Mozilla’s chief operating officer, replaced Bosworth and is now leading the Honeycode team as part of the new generative AI-focused “Next Generation Developer Experience” team at AWS.
If you are an Amazon Web Services employee or have insights to share, you can contact reporter Eugene Kim via encrypted-messaging apps Signal or Telegram (+1-650-942-3061) or email (ekim@insider.com). Remember to reach out using a non-work device for security purposes. You can also contact reporter Ashley Stewart via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email (astewart@insider.com).