Seven things I’m watching for at AWS re:Invent 2019

Contributed by Frank Days

Hello from AWS re:Invent! This year, I’ve set my sights on gaining a better understanding about how the discussion around the cloud has evolved this year among enterprise users, especially those looking at their database options. Certainly, AWS re:Invent is one of the biggest tech events of the year, so what’s discussed here will have a significant impact in the months ahead.

While here, I’m interested in exploring seven key questions (outlined below), and I’d like to hear your views on them. If you’re attending re:Invent, stop by our booth--1135. It would be great to discuss your thoughts in person.

Seven questions for AWS re:Invent

1.   How many more enterprises are beyond the “we’re still testing” phase of cloud adoption?

Clearly, cloud adoption is growing dramatically, but a significant milestone will be when enterprises start putting a majority of their mission critical workloads into the cloud. The trends and projections from analysts are compelling, but last year, many of my conversations started with cloud and then veered back to solving today’s on-premise problems. 

2.   What will AWS contribute to the Postgres community?

It’s great to see the increasing involvement of AWS in the Postgres community through event sponsorships. If you’re interested in learning more about what the community is doing, I recommend checking out the Postgres Community Q&A Meetup and Cocktail Hour (sponsored by AWS) at the Venetian Palazzo on Thursday 5^th 2019 from 3pm to 6pm. My colleague Bruce Momjian, who co-founded the Postgres community group, will be among the speakers.

3.   What will the big container news be?

Already a huge topic in the enterprise IT market, it will be interesting to hear what announcements AWS and its partners will make in relation to containers. Obviously, containers enable users to spin up instances quickly, and to easily port applications between cloud service providers. So, what approach will AWS take at the conference? We’ll find out. 

4.   Will Andy Jassy needle Oracle in his keynote?

I can’t believe Andy won’t mention that AWS has now successfully completed its migration from the Oracle Database – something Larry Ellison said they could never do! However, there’s much more going on here than entertainment value. The AWS migration reflects what we’re seeing around the world as more and more businesses are looking to move away from Oracle to Postgres. If you want to find out how you can switch, check out our Oracle migration page.

5.   Where is RDS on-premises via the partnership with VMware heading?

AWS has a long-established relationship with VMWare, but having announced Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) on VMware last year, the company confirmed general availability at the end of October 2019. This moves AWS into the on-premise space and backs up its focus on the hybrid cloud with VMWare. It will be good to hear more about the functionality this service offers and how it will be priced. 

6.   Will this be the year we have that conversation about the hybrid cloud enterprise at re:Invent?

Depending on who you talk to in the enterprise technology world, you will always get a different answer when it comes to how users should deploy their database applications moving forward. Some suggest staying put, on-premise. This makes sense if you have a highly sensitive database that you must protect at all costs. Others see value in a hybrid model, splitting applications across on-premise, private and public cloud environments.  What will be interesting to see this year is how often hybrid cloud is mentioned, as many customers are telling us they want the freedom to run the same Postgres everywhere.

7.   Who will have the best swag?  

Clearly I’m biased, but I’d definitely recommend dropping by our booth, 1135, to see what swag we have to offer and to chat with the EDB team.