The 10th AWS re:Invent conference was held in Las
Vegas, NV, on November 28th through December 3rd. The
conference included keynote announcements, training and certification
opportunities, access to 1,500+ technical sessions, the Expo, and after-hours
events, along with all the entertainment Las Vegas has to offer. This event drew
visitors from all over the world - 60,000 people attended this year. This post
is about my experience at the conference – if you want to read about all of the announcements AWS made at the event
– check out: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/top-announcements-of-aws-reinvent-2021/.
PSI brought a small technical team to the conference, just David Nicholls, Zach Melnick, and myself. We’re both
experienced cloud engineers interested in learning more about AWS so we can
sharpen our skills in cloud operations, security, and development. We spent
hours on the Expo floor connecting, interacting with, and learning from AWS
builders and partners. We also attended several of the Breakout sessions and
Workshops. This event was also a great opportunity to meet with some of our PSI
customers at our “Cloud Convo & Cocktails with PSI” event.
Was it worth the trip? Definitely yes – there were hundreds
of Breakout sessions for all AWS skill levels. AWS categorizes the Breakout
session level as 100 (Introductory), 200 (Intermediate), 300 (Advanced), and 4 (Expert)
depending on your experience working with AWS. You can also choose topics by
learning track (e.g. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Containers,
Serverless, etc. – there are too many to list - around 70 in total) or job role
(e.g. Architect, Developer/Engineer, InfoSec, etc.). The Breakout sessions are
great if you want a chance to ask questions or meet one-on-one with the
presenter; however, these sessions are recorded and available on
demand also on YouTube so the Workshops and Jam Sessions are a
better use of your time. Workshops and Jam Sessions give you the opportunity to
get your hands dirty and build something. AWS also planned many social events
which provided an opportunity to either relax or interact with your peers. David
and I even rode a mechanical bull (which earned us a nice AWS re:Invent 10th
anniversary jacket). On the Expo floor, many vendors gave demos of AI/ML,
ransomware defense, observability, cost management, and other services and
tools that are designed to help you build, deploy, or manage, applications
using AWS services. The AWS Builders' Fair is a fun and interactive way to
learn how to apply AWS services to real-world use cases.
What other tips can I offer to someone who hasn’t been to AWS
re:Invent? Register early if you want to attend in person (this year’s event
sold out) and reserve seats in sessions that interest you most – they fill up
quickly; although I found that I was always able to get into any session that
had a waitlist. The conference is spread out among six hotels so be prepared to
walk or look for the shuttles and manage your time so you can get to and from
any scheduled session. The Casinos are large and like a maze so it’s easy to
get lost. Meals are included in the conference fee so best bet is to remain
inside a venue so as not to spend your lunch hour getting in and out of a
building.
What’s next? As solutions and services provider with over
100 projects among our Health, Federal/Civilian, and National Security Sectors,
PSI helps build, migrate, modernize, and/or secure many cloud applications for
our customers. In order to refine our solutions, train employees, prepare for
code challenges, and demonstrate concepts to our customers, we are deploying a DevSecOps
Platform in AWS, Azure, GCP, and Oracle. Here we’ll apply our best practices,
lessons learned, and innovation from our DoD, DHS, DOS, and VA projects in an
environment that meets the well architected frameworks of the leading cloud
providers and showcases the knowledge, experience, and agile development
capabilities of our employees.
