AWS re:Invent Day 2: IoT and Big Data become the key focus

If the announcements on AWS re:Invent Day 1 were not exciting enough already, day 2 saw more big announcements from Amazon. In the keynote by Dr. Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, it was pretty clear that big data and IoT will be a key focus area for the company going forward.

One of the most exciting announcements was about the AWS IoT, a managed cloud platform to connect with cloud applications and other devices. With AWS IoT, devices such as cars, turbines, lightbulbs and sensor grids, among others can easily connect to AWS services to store, manage and process the huge volumes of data. This service can be used to build applications on these devices. This will accelerate the ability to make IoT applications.

On the big data front, Amazon launched Kinesis Analytics, which can perform analytics on streaming data. The service works with Kinesis Streams and even the newly launched Kinesis Firehose.

The other important announcements were geared towards developers. The key announcements were:

• AWS Mobile Hub - A service to build, test, deploy and monitor the apps from a single, integrated console.
• Feature additions to Lambda - AWS Lambda, ‘an event driven computer service for dynamic applications’ launched at re:Invent 2014 was a huge hit. In re:Invent 2015, the company has added several new features such as support for Python programming language and AWS Virtual Cloud Service (VPC). It also offers increased function duration, function versioning and scheduled functions.
• Amazon EC2 Container Registry – The EC2 Container Registry is a new fully managed, secure repository for container images. Microsoft, IBM and Google also have similar services in this area.
• Two new EC2 Instances – Amazon announced two high performing EC2 instances – X1 (SAP HANA) and t2.Nano (Websites). X1 will come with a lot of memory while t2.nano will provide processing power along with bursting capabilities similar to its larger counterparts.

AWS re:Invent 2015 has seen tons of new and exciting announcements by Amazon. The company has rolled out new service offerings, forged new partnerships, introduced new features and made a push towards the IoT. The announcements will strengthen its position in a market where it faces stiff competition from giants such as Microsoft, Google, IBM and Oracle.

Watch the keynote by Dr. Werner Vogels here

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