re:Invent 2021 in 4 keynotes

re:Invent 2021 was remarkable for many reasons. First, the event celebrated 10 years of re:Invent and 15 years of Amazon Web Services. Second, it was the first with Adam Selipsky as the new AWS CEO. Finally, it was a bold move to return to Vegas after almost 2 years of virtual events.

Loaded with announcements, it's hard to follow everything that took place in Vegas for the last few days. My idea here is to share my perspective of AWS directions with a quick recap of the biggest sessions of the agenda, the 4 keynotes that defined the tone of this re:Invent.

Before the party began

SiliconANGLE published a great article on the eve of re:Invent. You can read it here, but I will summarize the conversation that John Furrier and Dave Vellante had with Adam Selipsky, AWS CEO.

1. Expanding the catalog adding "higher-level abstractions" built on "foundational services".
2. The "tilt" to "vertical" by providing more complete solutions for specific industries such as healthcare and manufacturing.
3. "Superclouds" or "Castle in the clouds", the evolution of a platform market built on AWS.
4. The future is on AI and ML, baked into everything that powers the Cloud and every service offered.
5. Eyes on 5G and the remote Edge. New solutions will enable AWS to empower customers across the entire data lifecycle.
6. Silicon matters and AWS' strategy is a foundation for the success of the company's strategy.

The first keynote: Adam Selipsky

The first keynote of re:Invent and Adam's first keynote as AWS CEO started with a mandatory recap of the 15-year journey of AWS. From Amazon Simple Storage Service, S3, to over 250 Cloud services, AWS has been innovating at an incomparable speed.

Key take-aways of Adam's session:

1. “What does this have to do with selling books?". There wouldn't be AWS without Amazon's vision and culture.
2. “Despite what feels like massive adoption, we’re just getting started”. Cloud's massive growth still means 10-15% of IT spending.
3. Pathfinders, the creators, inventors, and disruptors. Those that changed the world and those that are changing it today, powered by AWS. NASDAQ and GOLDMAN SACHS, and the transformation of Financial Services, DISH and the transformation of Telecommunications, UNITED and the need to innovate in times of crisis, 3M and the transformation of manufacturing.
4. The first wave of announcements matched the vision introduced in the article I previously shared. Among them, Gravitron3 processor, AWS Private 5G, AWS Mainframe Migration, and a suite of Edge and IoT services for Smart Manufacturing.

A final takeaway was Adam's comment on AWS Global Infrastructure's reach, growth, and future. With plans to launch 30 new local zones in 2022, AWS will bring the Cloud closer and closer to where customers are and where they need technology to be.

As exciting as it seems, Werner Vogels would take this vision further...

Watch the full keynote here:

Data-Driven: Swami Sivasubramanian's Keynote

Swami's keynote covered AWS' vision for Machine Learning.

Here are my take-aways:

1. Data fuels business advantage, it's the "survival of the most informed".
2. Why a Data Lake and why purpose-built databases? A combination of flexibility and the right tool for each job in the Analytics pipeline.
3. The Analytics Journey: Store, Access, Analyze, Visualize, Predict.
4. Moving to managed services is key to accelerating time to value. "Serverless" analytics and data management services offload infrastructure operations and help focus on insights and outcomes.
5. More Pathfinders transforming with AWS: BMW, EXPEDIA, ADP, and AURORA. Shout out to ADP's presentation with data of the impact of the pandemic in the workforce, and how COVID-19 destroyed 20 years of gender pay gap advancements in months.

My final takeaway for Swami's keynote is on how AWS plans to tackle the skills gap in the workforce with the announcement of the AWS AI & ML Scholarship Program.

Watch the full keynote here:

Infrastructure Matters: Peter DeSantis' Keynote

I am an infrastructure professional and I can't deny Peter's keynote is my favorite.

Here are my key takeaways from the keynote:

1. With all abstraction today, infrastructure matters more than ever. Performance, efficiency, and availability are key tenets for the Cloud and AWS is innovating in this space faster than ever before.
2. The story of Storage, the deep dive on magnetic hard drives, and solid-state Flash was a much-needed reminder of why it matters, and it led to a conversation on S3 innovation at AWS Science level, and AWS' own Flash chip announcement (AWS Nitro SSD).
3. A deep dive on Gravitron launch, new EC2 instances, and, more importantly, the impact of Gravitron and improving AWS' own services. Services like EMR, DocumentDB, RDS, Lambda, and others are now powered by Gravitron.
4. Infrastructure enables AI and ML innovation. AWS Trainium may sound like a Harry Potter spell but delivers efficiency, performance, and flexibility in the Cloud for training ML models.
5. The Green Cloud: AWS is on the path to 100% renewable energy by 2025 and we help customers realize the impact of the Cloud with a new AWS Customer Carbon Footprint Tool.

Peter DeSantis closed his session putting Sustainability top of mind of the re:Invent audience.

Werner Vogels would take this vision further...

Watch the full keynote here:

What's in Store for Tech in 2022: Werner Vogel's Keynote

Werner Vogels was the last keynote session of re:Invent. He entered the stage as the rockstar he is and showed a preference for Brit Punk Rock, but his message was even more remarkable.

Here are my key take-aways:

1. The "Everywhere Cloud", as 5G, IoT, Edge, and Local Zones continue to accelerate. Connectivity will be truly ubiquitous and "Space, the final frontier" will be a reality, as CAPELLA SPACE showed.
2. AI extends human productivity, entering a new chapter in augmenting software development to help create more reliable and secure code.
3. "It's your fault". AWS catalog continues to expand with now over 250 Cloud services. "We value innovation over coordination", says Werner, as he goes over the principles of APIs.
4. Sustainability gets a pillar on the Well-Architect Framework. This becomes a critical step into enabling more organizations to design and build with sustainability goals in mind.
5. Amazon's New World architecture deep dive: a masterpiece on how to design an immersive universe at scale and efficiently in the Cloud.

As usual, Werner leaves a shout out to all builders: "Now go build".

You can also read Werner's predictions on his personal blog, All Things Distributed. Link is here.

Watch the full keynote here:

Some final comments

15 years ago AWS was born. Since then, the Cloud has been enabling the digital transformation of businesses around the world.

re:Invent 2021 both revisited these accomplishments and set the agenda for the next 15 years.

Have a question about digital transformation and how AWS can help you? Don't hesitate to reach out. Hit me here on LinkedIn or on?Twitter.

Disclaimer:?These comments represent my opinion and not of my employer.