AWS re:Invent 2023 Sparks a New Era
Tags: aws, ai, community, reinvent
Published: 2023-12-02 22:55:50

After the 12th edition of re:invent, the world's largest AWS event, it is now time to explore, reflect and test with all the technological advances at our disposal.

Right now, the social networks, technology websites and blogs are filled with summaries, recaps and lists of everything that has been revealed during this intense week. With this post I'm going to try to do my bit by sharing how I think they will land in the industry.

## A "framework" to analyze the announcements:

I like to try to classify innovations to sift through them based on how they will affect my day-to-day work with AWS. A while back I read an article on innovation that posited a taxonomy based on the impact of the innovation itself.  This classification divides innovation into three broad groups: incremental, revolutionary and disruptive innovation. I have applied it on several occasions to re:invent innovations and it really allows me to pick and choose which innovations to focus on.

### Sustained or incremental innovation:
This occurs when both the problem and the domain in which it exists are well defined. An example would be services that move from managed to serverless, or are updated implementations of established services.
  - [Announcing the new Amazon S3 Express One Zone high performance storage class](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-amazon-s3-express-one-zone-high-performance-storage-class/)
  - [AWS Lambda functions now scale 12 times faster when handling high-volume requests](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-lambda-functions-now-scale-12-times-faster-when-handling-high-volume-requests/)
  - [Mutual authentication for Application Load Balancer reliably verifies certificate-based client identities](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/mutual-authentication-for-application-load-balancer-to-reliably-verify-certificate-based-client-identities/)
  - [Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus collector provides agentless metric collection for Amazon EKS](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-managed-service-for-prometheus-collector-provides-agentless-metric-collection-for-amazon-eks/)
  - [Join the preview for new memory-optimized, AWS Graviton4-powered Amazon EC2 instances (R8g)](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/join-the-preview-for-new-memory-optimized-aws-graviton4-powered-amazon-ec2-instances-r8g/)
  - [Announcing throughput increase and dead letter queue redrive support for Amazon SQS FIFO queues](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/announcing-throughput-increase-and-dead-letter-queue-redrive-support-for-amazon-sqs-fifo-queues/)
  - [Zonal autoshift automatically shifts your traffic away from Availability Zones when we detect potential issues](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/zonal-autoshift-automatically-shift-your-traffic-away-from-availability-zones-when-we-detect-potential-issues/)

### Breakthrough innovation:
This is a type of radical innovation that occurs when the problem it is trying to solve is well defined, but the domain in which it exists is still only operating at a fraction of its potential. The most immediate example that comes to mind would be the Zero-ETL philosophy, which optimises the way we operate with data between its different data storage systems.
  - [Use natural language to query Amazon CloudWatch logs and metrics (preview)](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/use-natural-language-to-query-amazon-cloudwatch-logs-and-metrics-preview/)
  - [New myApplications in the AWS Management Console simplifies managing your application resources](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-myapplications-in-the-aws-management-console-simplifies-managing-your-application-resources/)
  - [Introducing Amazon SageMaker HyperPod, a purpose-built infrastructure for distributed training at scale](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/introducing-amazon-sagemaker-hyperpod-a-purpose-built-infrastructure-for-distributed-training-at-scale/)
  - [Use natural language to explore and prepare data with a new capability of Amazon SageMaker Canvas](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/use-natural-language-to-explore-and-prepare-data-with-a-new-capability-of-amazon-sagemaker-canvas/)
  - [New Amazon WorkSpaces Thin Client provides cost-effective, secure access to virtual desktops](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-amazon-workspaces-thin-client/)
  - [Upgrade your Java applications with Amazon Q Code Transformation (preview)](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/upgrade-your-java-applications-with-amazon-q-code-transformation-preview/)
  - [New Cost Optimization Hub centralizes recommended actions to save you money](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-cost-optimization-hub-to-find-all-recommended-actions-in-one-place-for-saving-you-money/)
  - [Amazon CloudWatch Logs now offers automated pattern analytics and anomaly detection](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-cloudwatch-logs-now-offers-automated-pattern-analytics-and-anomaly-detection/)
  - [Announcing Amazon OpenSearch Service zero-ETL integration with Amazon S3 (preview)](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-opensearch-service-zero-etl-integration-with-amazon-s3-preview/)
  - [Amazon Redshift adds new AI capabilities, including Amazon Q, to boost efficiency and productivity](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-redshift-adds-new-ai-capabilities-to-boost-efficiency-and-productivity/)

### Disruptive innovation:
This is when a new product or service offering transforms the market it enters. We enter the realm of the game-changer, services or products that totally alter the way things were being done at the time. This edition brings us many improvements around generative AI, but above all a new actor: Amazon Q our new travelling companion.
  - [Introducing Amazon Q, a new generative AI-powered assistant (preview)](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/introducing-amazon-q-a-new-generative-ai-powered-assistant-preview/)
  - [Amazon Q brings generative AI-powered assistance to IT pros and developers (preview)](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-q-brings-generative-ai-powered-assistance-to-it-pros-and-developers-preview/)
  - [Join the preview of Amazon Aurora Limitless Database](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/join-the-preview-amazon-aurora-limitless-database/)
  - [Manage EDI at scale with new AWS B2B Data Interchange](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/introducing-aws-b2b-data-interchange-simplified-connections-with-your-trading-partners/)
  - [Analyze large amounts of graph data to get insights and find trends with Amazon Neptune Analytics](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/introducing-amazon-neptune-analytics-a-high-performance-graph-analytics/)
  - [Reserve quantum computers, get guidance and cutting-edge capabilities with Amazon Braket Direct](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/reserve-quantum-computers-get-expertise-and-cutting-edge-capabilities-with-amazon-braket-direct/)


In a practical way, what I do is to frequently check the official blog ["Top announcements of AWS re:Invent 2023"](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/top-announcements-of-aws-reinvent-2023) (and I refer to it by its proper name because it really is the compass I use to follow) and filter by the categories: [announcements](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/category/post-types/announcements/) and [reinvent](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/category/events/reinvent/). From there, I look for the recordings of the sessions or specific content of the new services. 



## Other interesting ideas:

In addition to my proposed classification, I would like to take this opportunity to mention some other ideas.

1. The public reinforcement of the alliance with Nvidia, publicly reinforces the image of both corporations and leaves us with two really interesting announcements: AWS will have privileged access to new generations of NVIDIA chips, with the consequent competitive advantage for its customers, and the Ceiba project, an initiative to jointly build the fastest AI supercomputer. I find this second announcement particularly interesting.

2. Wernel Vogels' talk and the laws of frugal architecture: in itself I find this an interesting exercise, often in my work I find myself in the situation of accompanying clients on their way to cost optimisation without losing sight of technical excellence. This proposal aligns the design in an elegant way, if cost is from the beginning a non-functional requirement, it will be taken into account in design time and this will allow to put focus on it. Also, emphasising that it is not a single process, but a parallel journey helps to be continuous in this practice. It is also very much in line with the FinOps philosophy to spend time understanding, observing and monitoring systems in all their aspects.

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In conclusion, the new landscape after AWS Re:Invent leaves a lot of room for discussion and creativity, including the proposed innovation classification and how it's applied to the announcements.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this
what do you think? Drop a comment and let's start a conversation!