In the third and final session of our three-part re:Imagine Series in tandem with AWS re:Invent, Enterprise Architect, Ryan Shultz, moderated a panel full of our exceptional team members as they discussed their key takeaways from the AWS re:Invent conference.
For those unfamiliar with AWS re:Invent, it is an educational conference hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for the global cloud computing community. The event for developers, engineers, system administrators and architects, and technical decision makers features keynote announcements, new product launches, and informative sessions.
The Key Takeaways
1. Cloud shell and its impact on organizational security. Perhaps the most exciting aspect with cloud shell is that the credentials you logged into the console with will follow you into your shell session, so you’re not worrying about static access keys, configuring your CLI, or other pain points that you can have. Even with password complexity, federation with the console, and/or MFA, there is still a static access key sitting on somebody’s laptop, or potentially an event where it gets dropped into a public GitHub repository, and all of a sudden your account is owned. Not having those static credentials on an endpoint is a huge security leap forward.
2. Babelfish for AWS. Babelfish is a new service that AWS announced to help organizations on a Microsoft SQL Server migrate onto a more cost-effective platform. This gives you the ability to migrate to PostgreSQL. You’ll still be paying AWS consumption fees, but you won’t be paying database license costs, which can have a big impact on overall budget.
3. Unified Search feedback and its impact on the regular consumer. For many people who spend time in the console, time is of the essence. For example, a simple three-key search previously for “EC2”, would lead to the correct page. Now, with Unified Search, typing “EC2” will serve up different options, including a slower response time, a message telling them about the EC2 features, or point them to documentation. There have been mixed reviews thus far, consumers who have worked in the console for a while have noted slowness compared to the anticipated great reviews from brand new users to AWS and their services.
4. Outpost Small Form Factor announcement. The beauty of AWS isn’t their ability to run a VM, it’s that ecosystem of AWS services that make it really attractive. In the past, Outpost was only available to large organizations with a massive budget, as the service cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, it’s available to smaller organizations with a lesser budget. We see a 1U and 2U form factor and expect it to be very competitive for those that are looking for a hybrid option but still want the same AWS functionality control plane.
5. The release of the new version of Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS). Simple directive from our team – go make the change! Principal Cloud Architect Chad Smale had fun with the numbers and shares a great slide detailing the cost comparison between EBS GP3, GP2, and IO1 and IO2.
In today’s market, the advancements in IT are incredible, so it’s essential to learn and know which ones will have the greatest impact on your business. Let our team help you Get There.
Watch the full webcast, or tune into the previous sessions via the Involta blog, to hear more about our team’s takeaways from the AWS re:Invent conference.
