What to expect from a virtual AWS re:Invent

The Big Story

Reinventing re:Invent

It's going to be a weird Thanksgiving for everyone, perhaps unless you're an AWS employee. For the first time in years, those people will get to spend the holiday at home instead of in Las Vegas, frantically rehearsing for the cloud leader's biggest event of the year.

Thanks to the unchecked pandemic, AWS re:Invent will join the long list of major events on the enterprise tech calendar this year that have gone virtual. While AWS will take a page from Google Cloud and spread its event sessions across several weeks, the main event is AWS CEO Andy Jassy's keynote next Tuesday morning, traditionally a three-hour affair packed with new product announcements and an extremely loud cover band.

So what can we expect from a virtual re:Invent? First, let's revisit the biggest AWS announcements from November, which tend to be the new things that didn't make the final cut for the keynotes.

• AWS added support for code signing, a method for certifying that code has not been altered since it was first written, within its serverless Lambda service.
• Amazon S3, the original AWS cloud service, now has a new dashboard that aims to increase visibility into how objects are being stored in S3, in hopes of preventing those infamous open-bucket leaks.
• Companies that set up virtual private clouds on AWS now have a new firewall option for protecting those resources across a network.
• Amazon Lightsail, which is more or less a starter cloud service, added support for Docker containers.

That leaves a few likely themes for the first week of re:Invent.

• The Information reported earlier this month that AWS is planning to introduce new services that support multicloud strategies, a concept essentially banned from discussion at past re:Invents. But multicloud is increasingly important to customers, as well as an area in which AWS trails its rivals Microsoft and Google Cloud.
• Two years ago, AWS introduced its Arm-based Graviton server processor, and last year followed up with a second-generation product that has impressed several companies testing it for their applications. A roadmap update seems likely.
• Last year, AWS devoted a huge chunk of Jassy's keynote to a single service, its SageMaker managed machine-learning service. Expect to hear about additional AI and ML services, which AWS is keen to promote given those services enjoy profitable margins.
• Databases are usually a big part of Jassy's keynote, and last year he announced a few improvements to Amazon Redshift, which competes with Snowflake's flagship cloud data warehouse to some extent. Given Snowflake's success this year, expect to see clearer lines drawn between the two products.

Perhaps inspired by the virtual format, AWS is also planning to highlight a deeper bench of executives across the company than in years past through prerecorded talks called "Leadership Sessions."

• Usually those folks make short appearances during the major keynotes that seem mostly designed as a chance to give the big shots a moment to catch their breath and pound some water.
• But this year will feature hour-long talks across technologies like storage, security, containers and serverless computing that will shine more of the spotlight on lesser-known AWS executives.
• Virtual events lack some of the best parts of real-life events, such as the "hallway track" and the after-hours parties where deeper conversations take place. But there's no denying that virtual events greatly expand the number of people who can take part, both on the presentation side and the attendee side.

Still, given the way this year has gone, it's almost enough to make you miss the cold dry air, jostling crowds and incessant noise of Las Vegas in December. Almost.

A MESSAGE FROM JUNIPER NETWORKS

Juniper Networks, driven by Mist AI, has been named a leader across the board by analysts because our solutions improve customer experiences. IT teams in all industries need to manage increasing demands, including work-from-home, and analysts agree that Juniper's AI-Driven Enterprise delivers secure and assured experiences from Client to Cloud.

Learn more about Juniper here.

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Five Questionsfor...

Marcel Weekes, director of engineering, Slack

What was your first tech job?

In college, I interned at a hardware company making network circuit boards. As an electrical engineering student this was super interesting to me, as it was basically a summer-long lab. However, the following summer I interned at Oracle and got to see how quickly ideas could come to fruition in software (as opposed to hardware). I was hooked and returned to Oracle the next year as a software engineer working on workplace productivity tools.

What's the best piece of advice you could give to someone starting their first tech job?

Build your personal network. Try to surround yourself with the smartest people you can find and ask questions of everyone. All sorts of questions.

What was the first computer that made you realize the power of computing and connectivity?

The Apple iBook. It was the first "laptop" computer I used and it coincided with me having consistent internet access. It was great: I could work on school projects without having to go to the "computer lab." (Those were real things that existed in the '90s.)

What was the biggest reason for the success of cloud computing over the past decade?

The ability for all companies to have access to horizontal scaling. This meant that more startups could spend their precious time working on product-market fit, rather than setting up data centers for expansion that relied on that same product-market fit.

What will be the biggest challenge for cloud computing over the coming decade?

The quick "add more servers" scaling is the easy part. Building and managing the right cloud operations for a given environment and product is something that requires a unique skill set and attitude. As an industry, we are still learning to build this muscle.

Around the Cloud

• The CIA is going multicloud:It signed a new contract — which Nextgov estimated to be worth "tens of billions of dollars" — with AWS, Microsoft, Google, Oracle and IBM to provide a variety of cloud services over the next decade.
• Splunk acquired Flowmill, a startup working on bringing observability principles to networking, for an undisclosed amount to build new services beyond its monitoring roots.
• Enterprise tech is getting in on the SPAC craze, as AvePoint agreed to merge with Apex Technology in a $2 billion deal.
• A virtual version of KubeCon North America took place last week, and Torsten Volk put together some nice visualizations outlining the hottest topics during the conference.
• Speaking of visualizations, remember that new population-weighted map of the U.S. that went around Twitter explaining electoral vote results? It was made using tools from an enterprise startup called Observable.
• The Foxconn boondoggle in Wisconsin has an actual customer: Google Cloud has contracted with Foxconn to build components for cloud servers at the facility, according to Bloomberg.
• The enterprise division of Dell Technologies reported a 4% decline in revenue during the last quarter, although the fact that so many people bought new PCs this year offset that number.
• Nutanix now considers "average contract value"to be its most significant financial metric, as hardware firms continue to embrace a subscription mentality.
• Workday topped analyst estimates for revenue and profit but investors were a little skittish about its guidance, which warned that customers are jittery about the second wave of the pandemic.
• It's been quite a run for AMD CEO Lisa Su over the last several years, and she can add another honor to her resume: Su was named the 2020 winner of the Robert Noyce award, the first time the prestigious microelectronics award has ever been given to a woman.

A MESSAGE FROM JUNIPER NETWORKS

Juniper Networks, driven by Mist AI, has been named a leader across the board by analysts because our solutions improve customer experiences. IT teams in all industries need to manage increasing demands, including work-from-home, and analysts agree that Juniper's AI-Driven Enterprise delivers secure and assured experiences from Client to Cloud.

Learn more about Juniper here.