Reliving AWS re:Invent 2024: A Marathon Event with Gold Medal Quality

In many ways, AWS re:Invent 2024 is like a marathon.

Firstly, there are the crowds. Over 75,000 people descend on Las Vegas for AWS’s five day extravaganza of all things generative AI, analytics, and cloud ops.

Then there’s the electric atmosphere. Developers, heads of IT, business leaders, and PMs all come together to learn about the latest launches, partner updates, and tech advances.

There’s the quality. Countless happy hours, sold out events, and exclusive parties are thrown all week long at illustrious venues around the city.

And there’s the pace. With a non-stop itinerary of talks, receptions, and dinners, team Nasuni was “on” from the very first breakfast meeting to the final awards party.

Believe me when I say, this marathon was not a sprint. We had to pace ourselves strategically to go the distance. Here is a round up of the key milestones from an ultra week.

Off to a flying start: Nasuni’s welcome party

Nasuni kicked off the week in style with a welcome event at Las Vegas institution the Venetian Hotel. It was our second year hosting on the Sunday, and being one of just a handful of functions on the opening night worked out in our favour. We got over 1,000 registrations for the event and there was a steady flow of people dropping by throughout the evening. We chatted all things AI data strategy, modern file workloads, cutting edge ransomware protection and more, building on solid foundations with key customers, partners, and potential future collaborators.

A New Personal Best: AWS announce advanced “Nova” capabilities

On Tuesday morning, joined by Andy Jassy, Matt Garman (CEO, AWS) took to the panoramic re:Invent stage to make the biggest announcement of the week, introducing an impressive list of AI product updates.

Foremost of these, were a series of state-of-the-art AI foundation models under the “Nova” brand. This enhanced suite is multi-modal and proud of it. The new Nova Canvas enables image generation and editing with natural language, offering control over colour schemes and layouts, while Nova Reel provides 360 degree camera motion control and zoom for generating 6-second videos, with a 2-minute capability soon to follow. All models are now generally available through the Amazon Bedrock model library on AWS.

Garman (along with Jassy) also teased future AI developments, announcing that speech-to-speech generation will land in Q1 and fully fledged any-to-any multi-modal output will be available by midyear.

For me this marks a turning point for AWS. The new models are faster, more detailed, more reliable, and more cost efficient than the previous generation. AWS has lived up to their event’s name and transformed their AI offering for the better over the past five months.

Training Buddies: ‘Buy with AWS’ is big news for our customers

In the partner realm, there was big news that will directly benefit Nasuni’s customers. As part of her keynote on Wednesday, Dr. Ruba Borno, VP of Global Specialists and Partners, officially launched ‘Buy with AWS’. This is an integration automation which makes AWS seamlessly available on any partner website, letting customers request a private offer with just one click.

Nasuni participated as a pilot partner with this release and is among just 50 launch partners. ‘Buy with AWS’ significantly streamlines the purchase process, giving customers fast access to demos, free trials, and inquiries for custom pricing, directly from our website.

Being included in this select group of launch partners is a great vote of confidence in Nasuni and we look forward to simplifying the buying experience for even more customers with AWS Marketplace.

Digging Deep: Building a collaborative culture between AWS and Nasuni

Nasuni left AWS re:Invent 2024 with an exciting new way of collaborating with AWS on new opportunities. Using AWS’s Partner Portal, we can now connect directly with the AWS sales teams via Slack. This ability will pave the way for simpler, speedier, and more engaged communication between our organisations. To me, sharing this common culture of collaboration is a solid indication of the increasing strength of our partnership.

On the Podium: Nasuni chosen as Storage Partner of the Year Finalist

Another standout moment for Nasuni was being chosen as one of the three finalists for Storage Partner of the Year. Every year, AWS spotlights companies from within their global Partner Network who have excelled at helping customers innovate and build specialized solutions on their platform. Being shortlisted by a panel of AWS experts is a great accomplishment for us. Even though we were pipped to the top spot by worthy winners Veritas/Cohesity, everyone in camp Nasuni was thrilled to receive this recognition for growth, innovation, and collaboration.

The Recovery: It might take us all year!

Just like that, we were at the finish line, exhausted but exhilarated. It felt like we all deserved a medal for making it through the week without injury! Against the odds, we had managed to pace it just right with the team spirit carrying us all the way to the end.

For me, it was this spirit of collaboration that made AWS re:Invent 2024 uniquely memorable. AWS managed to make the biggest event in the global IT calendar feel personal and intimate. And not by accident. Every aspect of the conference was thoughtfully managed to promote engagement and cooperation.

And that collaborative energy will extend far beyond the conference venues on Las Vegas’ Boulevard. It never ceases to impress me how often conversations that happen at re:Invent turn into meaningful partnerships down the line. The team spirit that AWS cultivated last week only fuelled those possibilities.

Now, excuse me while I get in training for next year.