This week is AWS re:Invent, the company’s massive annual customer conference taking place in Las Vegas. It’s typically packed with news about new features and services, and you should be paying attention to what new stuff could benefit your clients as these new tools become available.
Last year at the same conference, the company announced among many other things, a blockchain service, a time series database, and a miniature racing car designed to teach developers how machine learning works.
You can expect a similar flurry of announcements when they reconvene in Vegas. While some of these announcements take time to bake, they give you a good idea of the cloud giant’s road map, and the kinds of tools you can expect to see in the future.
For example, last year at re:Invent, the company announced Outposts, an on-prem server that lets you move the AWS cloud into your data center if you were so inclined. The idea is to be able to manage infrastructure wherever it lives via the AWS management console (or VMware’s management tools). We didn’t hear much about it until September, when the company published a blog post with additional details.
What to expect
The first thing you should do is bookmark the AWS news blog, which is where the company publishes updates about the latest services. Each blog post includes a description of the news, as well as practical how-to information on implementing the new feature within AWS. If you can’t attend the event, it’s a good place to track all of the announcements and follow news that continues unabated throughout the year.
The event is packed full of workshops and networking opportunities, but if you can’t make it, you can watch the live streams online. There are four main keynotes. Starting on Monday night from 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm Pacific Time, Peter DeSantis, VP of AWS Global Infrastructure and Customer Support, delivers news and updates on the state of AWS’s infrastructure.
The most packed news event is Tuesday morning’s keynote with AWS CEO Andy Jassy. He usually shares the stage with a variety of guests offering a flurry of announcements. It runs from 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM (PT) on Tuesday morning. If there is only one event, you take the time to watch, this may be the one.
The partner keynote from Doug Yeum, Head of AWS Worldwide Channels and Alliances goes over partnership news. If your firm is an AWS partner, you may want to check this one out. It runs from 8:30 AM – 10:30 AM (PT), and features a fireside chat with Jassy.
Finally, CTO Werner Vogels delivers his annual technical keynote on Thursday from 8:30 AM – 10:30 AM (PT), where he goes over the technical updates and the underlying AWS architecture.
It’s a packed week, and even if you’re not there, there are ways to keep on top of what’s happening at the event. It’s worth it to tune in and get the latest news. It could help you sort out the tools and technologies that could help your clients now or in the future.
Photo: Michael Vi / Shutterstock
