An AWS journey in Geneva

This week I could go to the AWS re:Invent re:Cap in Geneva. This event, organized by AWS, gives a resume of the biggest announcements made in the famous re:Invent in Las Vegas.

The topics addressed during this event covered various cloud technologies where AWS is investing resources to develop. We had a recap of the news regarding Generative AI, Data and Analytics, App Modernization and Developer Experience or event Management and Governance.

Generative AI

In the generative AI part, we were mainly introduced to Amazon Q, a chat bot made in AWS. As of the features we saw that Q can integrate with more than 40 data sources. It also uses multiple sources for user management like AWS SSO or Entra ID. The main purpose is to answer user queries based on their rights to access documents, so the answers are filtered so users only see what they are allowed to.

Database and Analytics

For the Database and Analytics topic we had an introduction to zero ETL. This topic shows AWS ambitions to reduce the need of pipelines. They want to create trust relationships between databases and redshift to get rid of the pipelines.

Another point presented in this topic was translator to generate SQL query based on the human language. This feature is used by Redshift and will enable people to create SQL queries based on natural phrases. It also uses Amazon Q as a base.

Applications and DevExp

During this session, we mainly learned about CodeCatalyst, which is a unified software development service. It allows us to do a full project management in one tool, with issues as Gitlab/Github. A big point here was the role of Amazon Q. We can directly assign issues to this IA tool and it will do the job to resolve it. Then we just have to commit the code, merge it and that’s it.

We also got an introduction to CodeWhisper, a tool that helps developer to create their code. This service is now compatible with IaC languages, like Terraform and it can be integrated directly into some IDEs like Visual Studio.

Management and Governance

Last but not least, we had an introduction to the newest features in terms of management and governance. In terms of security, we learned that AWS inspector can now be used with CI/CD plugins or that GuardDuty can now look at runtime events in containers.

We also had a talk about the frugal architect way int eh cloud, which are pillars created by Dr Vogel to help people have more sustainable and more performant cloud services by optimizing the costs. We were also introduce to the newest monitoring features for example a new Application panel that shows us all the costs for a specific application deployed in AWS.

Most of the features we saw were only on preview or available in some specific regions (mostly US regions). No doubt that all those features will soon be available globally.