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Top AWS re:Invent 2018 sessions to pencil in for Vegas
Unsure which re:Invent 2018 sessions to attend? Check out this day-by-day guide for suggestions and options on a range of AWS topics, including migration, security and costs.
At AWS re:Invent 2018, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about a range of cloud technologies via sessions, demos and workshops that are dispersed across the Vegas strip.
But with over 2,000 different session options, it can be tough to know where to start. That's why the SearchAWS staff pared down the list to create this short guide on AWS re:Invent 2018 sessions that look especially geared toward enterprise users.
Peruse this list to plan ahead for your re:Invent 2018 itinerary, and get the most from your time at the show.*
Monday, November 26
Securing Your Virtual Data Center in the Cloud
Attendees will get an introductory-level breakdown of how to secure resources for common AWS workloads, including EC2 and some serverless offerings. Speakers will review best practices to secure these workloads, with a focus on identity management, access controls and network permissions.
Speakers: Becky Weiss, senior principal engineer at AWS, and Alan Halachmi, senior manager of solutions architecture at AWS
Optimizing Costs as You Scale on AWS
For a cost-effective cloud environment, users need to plan and monitor cloud spending and implement optimization procedures. The speakers in this session will break down some simple ways to keep AWS cloud costs in check. They'll also talk about how to explore new services without breaking the bank.
Speakers: Keith Jarrett, worldwide business development lead for cost optimization at AWS; Megan Kennedy, program manager at The Vanguard Group; and Timothy Treston, cloud economist at The Vanguard Group
Executing a Large-Scale Migration to AWS
If your enterprise is considering a high-volume data migration to AWS, this session will explore some potential pitfalls and challenges you might face along the way. The speakers will also dive into successful migration patterns, citing examples from AWS customers who have already made the move.
Speakers: Jonathan Allen, enterprise strategist and evangelist at AWS; Joe Chung, director of enterprise strategy at AWS; and Mike Wittig, vice president of infrastructure engineering at Nike
Build, Train, and Deploy ML Models Quickly and Easily with Amazon SageMaker
With SageMaker, users can more easily build, train and deploy machine learning models at scale. Attendees in this session can expect a general overview of the platform, a deeper dive into its technical details and real-world examples of SageMaker deployments.
Speakers: Leo Dirac, principal engineer of AI platforms at AWS, and Lluis Canet, vice president at 21st Century Fox
Tuesday, November 27
Optimize Amazon EC2 Instance, AWS Fargate Container & Lambda Function
The right instance type can make all the difference, but sometimes, it's difficult to know which to choose. This session will explain how different EC2 instance families work, or don't work, for various workload types and when Fargate or Lambda functions might be a better compute choice.
Speakers: Letian Feng, senior product manager at AWS, and Brent Eubanks, vice president of technology optimization at Ticketmaster
What's New with AWS CloudFormation
This session will review recent CloudFormation updates, including cross-region and cross-account automation, along with additional integrations with other AWS offerings.
Speakers: Manu Suresh, software development engineer at AWS; Luis Colon, senior developer advocate for CloudFormation at AWS; and Anil Kumar, senior product manager at AWS
Mastering Kubernetes on AWS
Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes debuted at last year's re:Invent, and this session will provide insight into how to start with the service, with a focus on security, networking and logging.
Speakers: Yaniv Donenfeld, business development manager at AWS
Wednesday, November 28
Amazon Aurora Multi-Master: Scaling out Database Write Performance
Aurora Multi-Master offers the ability to scale write performance with continuous read/write availability. In this session, attendees will learn how they can use it to create highly available workloads in Aurora.
Speaker: Szymon Komendera, principal database engineer at AWS
Serverless Stream Processing with AWS Lambda
A partnership between AWS Lambda and Amazon Kinesis can open the door for real-time analysis and better insight into your data. This session will explain how to build a serverless environment with Lambda and Kinesis and how the combination can provide data analysis without server management.
Speaker: Allan MacInnis, solutions architect at AWS
Running Production Workloads in VMware Cloud on AWS
While there are several AWS re:Invent 2018 sessions on hybrid cloud, this one specifically dives into the details of a migration to VMware Cloud on AWS. It will review the technical specifications of the platform and the steps an enterprise can take to move production workloads to it.
Speakers: Alex Jauch, director of product management at VMware, and Matt Dreyer, director of product management at VMware
Manage Objects & Optimize for Cost at Scale with Amazon S3 & Amazon Glacier
Amazon Glacier, the cloud provider's low-cost storage option, enables data backup and archiving. Attendees at this session will learn best practices to optimize storage costs and data retrieval times, without opening the door to potential risks.
Speakers: James Kirschner, senior manager of software development at AWS; Rob Czarnecki, principal product manager at AWS; and Paul Franklin, principal engineer at AWS
Thursday, November 29
Meeting Enterprise Security Requirements with AWS Native Security Services
Attendees in this session will hear firsthand stories of how General Electric addressed its security needs during the replacement of its on-premises infrastructure with AWS offerings. The speakers will discuss how native tools, such as Amazon GuardDuty, AWS CloudTrail and others, play a role in enterprise security.
Speakers: Saurabh Saxena, principal technical account manager for Enterprise Support at AWS; Joe Soricelli, principal global solutions architect at AWS; David Strum, senior staff incident responder at General Electric; and Thomas Wold, principal AWS architect at General Electric
Network Foundations on AWS
This session will provide a general overview of basic AWS network architecture, along with a more in-depth look at native networking technologies, such as transit Virtual Private Clouds. The speaker will also explore networking best practices specifically for hybrid clouds.
Speaker: Matt Lehwess, principal solutions architect at AWS
Friday, November 30
Microsoft Licensing: Choose Your Own Adventure
Changes to Microsoft licensing on AWS can affect how users manage their cloud services. The session will feature an open Q&A discussion with users about Microsoft-licensed products on AWS.
Speakers: Aaron Levine, Microsoft platform sales enablement lead at AWS, and Lance Spratt, Windows licensing lead at AWS
*Editor's note: Details of these sessions, including speakers and date, are subject to change. Refer to this page for any potential changes and a full list of AWS re:Invent 2018 sessions.
