When the countdown begins for Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent, excitement is everywhere. This year the annual cloud computing conference turns 11, and every year, it’s a show I anxiously await. At re:Invent, thousands of cloud computing users and fans convene to watch leader keynotes, hear new service announcements firsthand, try out new tech, get inspired, and of course, have fun with friends, customers, partners & colleagues new and old! 

This year, the conference featured a mix of both in-person events and virtual sessions for those who couldn’t make it to Las Vegas for fun and excitement. I was fortunate enough to attend in person along with seven team members across Acqueon’s Leadership, Product, Sales, IT & Alliances teams.  

As with many events this year, one of the biggest impressions I got from re:Invent was the significance of being together. Over 50,000 in-person attendees descended on the Las Vegas convention this year to hear all about the latest (and upcoming) innovations from the leading cloud infrastructure, services, and application company. It was powerful to be among so many of my peers—all united under one big umbrella—cloud computing. 

Acqueon decided to try something a little different and fun this year at the show. We hosted a “Dinner & Happy Hour Tour” at different spots on the Strip each night. The re:Invent networking events were a blast as always, but hosting our own dinner tour gave the Acqueon team a unique opportunity: diving deeper into existing relationships and building new ones in a meaningful, personal way. It was a success, and each dinner, each happy hour forged valuable relationships (and even some new opportunities!). This has been a tremendous year for Acqueon’s AWS & Amazon Connect partnerships and we couldn’t be more excited about building upon our joint successes in 2023. 

Now for good stuff: Event takeaways & highlights
 
One of the things that struck me most throughout the conference were the ‘ands’. AWS is big and growing fast. So fast, in fact, that it’s difficult to contain (and explain and tie together) all the products, services, and infrastructure options AWS offers today. Not to mention the constant drumbeat of innovation across them all. Although the parallels drawn between AWS’ scope and the scale of space or the world’s oceans during Adam Selipsky’s Wednesday keynote were a bit over the top, I understand why they went for that kind of symbolism. 

Here are some of my favorite highlights from the vast sea (or universe) of announcements from re:Invent: 

  • Proprietary CPU Improvements
    Amazon continues to evolve its homegrown chips to efficiently power ever larger and more intensive workloads. 
  • Specialized AWS Instances for Heavy AI or Spatial Calculations  
    With these new instances, AWS expands the range of use cases they can support and doubles down on supporting high-demand and high-growth computing segments.
  • Amazon Datazone 
    Highlighting the importance of bringing data together to feed the hungry future of AI, personalization, and analytics, Amazon introduced Datazone to help unify and link data together—whether it’s stored on AWS or another platform.
  • Enhancements to QuickSight Analytics 
    Analytics have always been one of the weaker spots in the growing product AWS tech stack. With these enhancements to QuickSight Analytics, it’ll be easier to measure, manage, and optimize the increasing workflows, AI, and business processes that companies rely on AWS for more and more.   
  • Step By Step Actions in Agent Experience  
    Amazon has always approached technology opportunities from the back end, but its aspirations in markets like Contact Center require additional focus on the last mile between technology and business impact. The addition of a logical Next Best Action-like functionality to the Amazon Connect desktop acknowledges this need and moves to further bolster Amazon’s play to own the agent interface. 

Putting It All Together 

 AWS re:Invent showed off the depth and breadth of capability AWS brings to their full technology stack in the cloud. It also gave us all the chance to share a glimpse across that expanse—which I appreciated greatly. To say that I’m looking forward to the future of AWS and our partnership together would be an understatement. 

With this incredible event in mind, I’m more excited than ever about the opportunity for Acqueon and AWS. If you’re excited too, are curious, or you’re looking for an innovative customer engagement solution for your company or customers (that integrates with the world’s leading contact center solutions such as Amazon Connect, I’d welcome the chance to show you what Acqueon is all about. 

Contact us or send me a message on LinkedIn. I look forward to talking soon!