Amazon’s big AWS cloud event has begun, with a clear focus on using ai to keep its lead intact
Amazon Web Services is live in Las Vegas for its AWS re:Invent event, which kicked off Nov. 27 and runs through Dec. 1. We expect a rapid flow of announcements and reveals of recent things it’s been working on, particularly given the increasing competition for the cloud. providers to address the rise of ai with attractive offers for customers. AWS CEO Adam Selipsky’s keynote speech set the tone for the event, making clear that AWS is positioned to defend its long-standing leadership and is deploying ai tools and services to remain the leading provider of market cloud.
We know you may not have time to look all the thing, so we’ll be on that over the next few days, offering quick access to the biggest news as it’s announced, all in one easy-to-digest, easy-to-read list that includes on-the-ground reports from editors and cloud experts Frederic Lardinois and Ron Miller, along with contributions from the broader TechCrunch team. Here we go!
Stay tuned for more product updates, announcements and reviews.
Wednesday, November 29
Neptune Analysis
Image credits: AWS
Another new tool is Neptune Analytics, which combines the best of both worlds: graphical and vector databases. Ron reports that the new service helps customers analyze data from Neptune graphs or existing data lakes on top of S3 storage, leveraging vector search to find key insights. Read more.
ML Clean Rooms
AWS Clean Rooms ML helps you unlock multiple opportunities to generate insights.
Amazon is launching a privacy-preserving service that allows AWS customers to deploy “lookalike” ai models trained for unique cross-enterprise collaborations called Clean Rooms ML, which Kyle says is an offshoot of AWS’s existing Clean Rooms product and eliminates the need for AWS. Customers can share proprietary data with their external partners to build, train and deploy ai models. Read more.
HiperPod SageMaker
Image credits: AWS
From Amazon’s AWS cloud arm comes SageMaker HyperPod, a new service designed specifically for training and tuning large language models. Frederic spoke with Ankur Mehrotra, AWS General Manager for SageMaker, ahead of today’s announcement, who said: “SageMaker HyperPod gives you the ability to create a distributed cluster with accelerated instances optimized for contention training. It gives you the tools to efficiently distribute models and data across your cluster, and that speeds up your training process.” Read more.
AWS Titan Image Generator
Image credits: AWS
You read that right, Amazon is joining the ranks of other big tech companies to finally launch its own image generator. Kyle reports that Titan Image Generator is now available in preview for AWS customers and can create new images when given a text description or customize existing images. Read more.
Tuesday, November 28
Amazon Q: an ai-powered chatbot
Amazon Q is Amazon’s new chatbot powered by artificial intelligence. Image credits: Amazon
The big announcement of the day was Amazon Q, an ai-powered chatbot for AWS customers. During his keynote, AWS CEO Adam Selipsky described it as being able to “chat, generate content, and take action easily.” “It’s all about understanding your systems, your data warehouses, and your operations.” Kyle reports that Q is trained with 17 years of AWS knowledge and will go beyond simply answering questions – he’ll also do things like understand the nuances of application workloads and suggest AWS solutions and products for applications that only run for a few seconds. Read more.
Railings for Amazon Bedrock
AWS Guardrails for Amazon Bedrock. Image credits: Amazon
The new Guardrails for Amazon Bedrock tool allows companies to define and limit the language types that a model can use. For example, define topics that are outside the boundaries of the model, so you simply don’t answer irrelevant questions, Ron writes. Read more.
New AWS Trainium chips for ai models
AWS Graviton4 and AWS Trainium (prototype). Image credits: Commercial cable
Amazon introduced the latest generation of its chips for model training and inference (i.e., running trained models). Kyle writes that Amazon already talked about AWS Trainium2, designed to deliver up to 4x better performance and 2x better power efficiency than the first-generation Trainium. The second chip announced this morning, called Graviton4, is intended for inference. The fourth generation of Amazon’s Graviton chip family (as implied by the “4” attached to “Graviton”), it is distinct from Amazon’s other inference chip, Inferentia. Read more.
Amazon S3 Express one zone
Amazon has a major update to its S3 object storage service called Amazon S3 Express One Zone, a new level of high performance and low latency for S3. Frederic reports that One Zone will deliver a significant performance boost for data-intensive applications, including ai/ML training, financial modeling, and high-performance computing. Read more.
Three new serverless offerings
Amazon announced three new serverless offerings to make it easier to manage Aurora, ElastiCache, and Redshift serverless services. Ron writes: “Because each of these options is serverless, it means that Amazon manages all the hardware in the background and delivers just the right amount of resources you need, scaling up when necessary without IT having to deal with the entire process. later. -End of management work.” Read more.
Amazon One palm scanning expands from stores to security
Amazon a company. Image credits: Amazon
AWS lifted the lid on a new palm scanning identity service that allows companies to authenticate people when they enter physical facilities. Paul reports that Amazon One Enterprise builds on the company’s existing Amazon One offering, which debuted in 2020 to enable biometric payments in Amazon’s monitored cashierless stores. Visitors to Amazon Go stores can associate their payment card with their palm print, allowing them to enter the store and complete their transaction by placing their hand over a scanner. Read more.
New Thin Client Virtual Desktop Environment Devices
Image credits: Amazon
Amazon launched new $195 devices that allow business users to access virtual desktop environments, such as Amazon WorkSpaces, over the Internet. Sarah writes that the devices are housed in Fire TV Cube hardware, a decision Amazon made to leverage the existing expertise of the retail giant’s arm that makes streaming media players. The company explained that its decision to build new hardware was driven by customer feedback about a desire to reduce IT spending by replacing desktop and laptop computers with less expensive hardware. Read more.
