My AWS re:Invent 2021 Experience

 

The 10^th AWS re:Invent conference was held in Las Vegas, NV, on November 28^th through December 3^rd. 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 10^th 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.