My guide to AWS re:Invent 2021

AWS’ annual re:Invent conference has not only become the much anticipated event for customers and partners, but pretty much anyone interested in cloud computing. After the pandemic forced last year’s pilgrimage to Las Vegas to move to a virtual only format, I am excited pack my chap stick and comfy sneakers to head over and meet folks in person once again. For those attending, we’ve implemented good measures to protect all attendees. For those unable to make the trek, we learned a lot last year on how to make the event engaging as a virtual experience so this year you can catch more sessions than ever from the comfort of your favorite device. ?

Another reason why I’m looking forward to it is this year marks the 10th anniversary, and my 5th attendance of the event that really changed everything in IT. ?It’s amazing to see how much event has grown over the past decade, the week-long event is jammed packed with keynotes, sessions, workshops, breakouts, chalk talks and lots of fun ways to engage and network with folks in the industry. While the agenda has changed a lot, one thing that remains the same is that it is primarily a forum to learn. With so much going on, I thought I’d share you my top picks for this year.

For the Builders

As developers we are always looking at new techniques to reduce bugs, the Boost your bug-bashing skills: Find and fix code faster with AWS BugBust (BGB301) session will give you great ideas on adding some friendly competition amongst your team to improve code quality. You’ll need to pre-register so make sure you do that before you leave. Also the Resilient and well-architected apps with chaos engineering (BOA310) workshop gives you a hands on test drive of using AWS Fault Injection Simulator to teach your how stress your application and simulate disruptive events.

For you Microsoft developers, it's insightful to learn how AWS’ cloud native services and open source projects give you new ways to modernize applications. I recommend attending Managing and governing Microsoft workloads on AWS (WIN302) for a hands on tips for managing manage logging, patching, configuration drift, inventory and licensing. Also Build a PostgreSQL database cluster with Babelfish (OPN315) gives you a great alternative to working with an SQL-server compatible database driver.?

Containers have not only been getting easier to use, but also manage them on AWS so I definitely recommend learning about the latest practices at Containerizing an application with Amazon ECS on AWS Fargate (CON313) which includes a demo of using Copilot, and Deploy production web apps in minutes with AWS App Runner and Amazon ECR (CON207). If you are up for a some workshops, don’t miss the Amazon EKS deep dive for AWS Partners (GPS303) which gets you hands-on with Kubernetes observability, GitOps, security and networking concepts. Also Modernize your applications using AWS App2Container (ENT303) is a good one for modernizing existing application with ECS.

For all you serverless buffs, Modern application integration patterns in a serverless age (API307) not only gives you ideas how build modern microservices but great insider tips on using AWS Step Functions Express Workflows.?There is also Serverless consumers for streaming workloads (SVS316) for and advanced session on using streaking services like Kinesis family and Amazon MSK.

As someone who has been working intimately in the SaaS over the past few years, we have put together some great sessions. For strategies on using digital marketplaces, I recommend attending How to grow your SaaS business and drive revenue with AWS Marketplace (GPS209). If you are up to putting hands to keyboard, Hands-on Amazon EKS SaaS: Building a multi-tenant SaaS solution on AWS (ARC404) will give you an expert deep dive in tenant isolation, routing and data partitioning practices using EKS. Similarly, Hands-on serverless SaaS: Building a serverless SaaS solution on AWS (ARC403) applies those same principles using Amazon’s serverless services. Earlier this year we released AWS SaaS Boost, an open source project to help you accelerate moving your monolithic applications to an as a service model, AWS SaaS Boost vNext: Enabling new patterns for extensibility (OPN309) will give you a sneak peak on its roadmap. You can also visit the development team at the Open Source stand on the Expo floor.

As usual, Werner Vogel’s keynote on Thursday morning will not only share the latest practices for building resilient architectures, but announce exciting new services sure to delight developers. To hear directly from builders, join me at the Twitch Stage on the Expo floor where I will be broadcasting the popular This is my Architecture show live with customers including HBO Max, ADP, SurveyMonkey and more. Subscribe to the @AWSonAir Twitter handle to stay tuned to the scheduling.

For the Migrators

Cloud migration best practices and tooling continue to evolve at a fast clip on AWS, so there are a ton of great sessions to stay in tune with the latest. If you are looking for a hands on experience, AWS Partner: Advanced migrating to AWS (TNC010) will guide you though converting legacy applications with AWS App2Container. For NetApp users, I recommend Getting started with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP (STG340) for a deep dive of the new native AWS service.

Beyond lift-and-shift migrations, a big theme you will hear this year is how to leap over and modernize workloads on AWS. There are some great customer case studies from Johnson & Johnson (ENT208), JPMogran Chase (FSI202) and Vanguard (ENT233). For enterprise Java applications, the Modernize Java enterprise applications with AWS services (ENT304) chalk talk will give you some great ideas those J2EE workloads. For all you Martin Fowler followers, another good one is Modernize faster using the Strangler Fig pattern on AWS (ENT401). Legacy databases are often the hardest things to modernize, Migrate legacy relational databases to Amazon RDS or Amazon Aurora (DAT326) is a great hands on session on our to use Schema Conversion Tool and Database Migration Service to accomplish it.?

AWS and our partners have really been innovating in the Mainframe space over the past year, I recommend attending A pragmatic guide to modernizing your mainframe from Atos (ENT221-S) for how to build your business case. And for a hands on experience, Mainframe migration of a COBOL application to AWS (ENT308) will show you how to migrate VSAM data to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL. Also, pay close attention to the Global Partner Summit (KYN001-AM) and Adam Selipsky (KYN002-AM) keynotes for some interesting announcements.

For the innovators

If you are looking for your next big idea, there is a lot on offer to get you inspired.?If you want to learn how Amazon’s customer obsession leads to great innovation, you definitely want to attend Introduction to Working Backwards (INO203) which walks through the mechanisms we follow to invent.?For the techies, listening to our engineering leaders like David Brown and Peter DeSantis to learn how AWS builds its technology from the ground up is always insightful, so I recommend attending Building on 15 years of compute innovation (ENT221-S) and Peter’s Keynote (KYN004-AM).?There is also a breakout with Jeff Barr (BOA201) who reflects on two services that changed everything, EC2 and S3, and goes back to the future to demo what AWS looked like in 2007.

There are also some great hands-on sessions to get you building. The Building cloud-connected robots (ROB202) working will how you how to create a dancing robot using the NVIDIA JetBot development kit and ROS. If you are looking up to the stars, the Event-driven data processing with AWS Ground Station (WPS301) workshop will give you a hands on look of how to process satellite data.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) has become a key use case for AI-driven applications, Using Hugging Face models on Amazon SageMaker (AIM416) is a cool workshop for introducing you to this this algorithm in SageMaker to train you your data and use it in just a few lines of code.

One of my favorite things to do at re:Invent is walk the Builders Fair, this is where Amazonian's build homegrown inventions and prototypes using AWS for real-world use cases. Over the years we've had all kinds of inventive ideas like aircraft simulators, speech recognition for the deaf and even lunar rovers. If you want to get inspired for your next project or startup, make sure you check out out in the Expo Hall.

For the players

All work and no play…. well you know how the saying goes. re:Invent is well known for its quirky activities like the tatonka chicken wing eating competition and guitar idol at Midnight Madness, however if these don’t take your fancy I recommend a few others.

The Build a multiplayer game launch simulator powered by AWS (GAM301) workshop will test your skills to solve real world scaling challenges of game developers. If you are up for all-day coding and care about the planet, we have a brand new Game Day called Code Green (HJS304) to solve a sustainability-related technical challenge using Amazon’s Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI) and AWS Data Exchange.

Finally, I recommend getting away from strip and heading down to explore the old Las Vegas downtown area. Not only will you find the classic neon signs of Vegas’ original past, but walking over to the east side you discover the Fremont East Entertainment District. The Downtown Project was founded by Zappos founder, Tony Hsieh in January 2012 to accelerate the revitalization of the area which today it’s home to a vibrant community bringing together arts, food and culture. I recommend going to Container Park and Fergusson’s to check out locally produced products that supports small business, having a bite to eat from the food trucks, and hanging out at one of the many bars that line Fremont Street.

I look forward to meeting as many as I can of you there!