This is my third re:Invent, and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to attend all of the major AWS events thus far. It is evident that Amazon is disrupting the IT industry, and some very experienced bloggers in the field have told me that it is just a matter of time before it takes over enterprise IT, as well. Maybe in another 10 years, though. Nonetheless, the change it has established in the industry is extreme, with the cloud’s agility and speed able to reach nearly every place on earth. There were 5K attendees at AWS’ first re:Invent and this year, Amazon is expecting over 12K. Vegas will be filled with geeks and big shot CIOs.

With many IT journalists claiming Amazon is the Apple of the cloud, here are my 5 expectations for this year’s big event:

Lots of Exhibitors

If I recall correctly, there were less than 100 exhibitors at the first re:Invent. Oh, how the times have changed…there are meant to be a whopping 300 this year. The floor plan shows lots of new startups as well as veteran IT vendors, such as Accenture, that were in hiding at last year’s re:Invent, only to make a strong comeback this year with premium sponsorship packages. From my point of view, the industry is starting to bring in the big bucks, and Amazon’s ecosystem is growing as a result of the growing number of cloud consumers.
Lots of People – As mentioned above, even Amazon’s first re:Invent had great vibes with a mere 5K attendees. While Amazon claims to expect 12K this year, every good marketer knows that in events like these, expectations are generally exceeded. We have been witness to this at both the SF and NY events, and believe me, Vegas will be no different. What do you say, 15K? This will be the year that makes re:Invent one of the largest IT conferences in the world.

3 AWS Announcements:

1 – Containers Support

As mentioned in @gigabarb’s last post, @jeffbarr already hinted at the fact that we can expect AWS to support Docker containers. It is no surprise that right after Google made an announcement supporting containers, Amazon, the cloud giant, is going to take it one step (or leap) further. @gigabarb talked about docker-as-a-service, as well, which is a very interesting concept. Check out @gigabarb’s article

2 – The Hybrid Cloud Connection

Following AWS’s new region in Germany and directory services, it seems like Amazon understands the need for local presence in the biggest markets across the globe. It appears that Amazon wants to deeply integrate with the world of traditional IT, making security a non-issue for traditional datacenter leaders.

3 – Price Reductions or Update Reserved Plans

AWS never misses a step when it comes to announcing matters of cost, and what better place to make these types of announcements than at their largest annual event? The only question is, will it be another round of price reductions? Maybe new option plans will be added that remove the upfront fees from Reserved Instances. Worldwide AWS MSPs already act like brokers, leveraging their reduced prices in order to provide attractive packages to their customers. However, I would not be surprised if AWS announces another family of instances, either.
All in all, I am happy to be a part of the AWS community. Amazon has truly proved that their approach to cloud computing simply makes sense.
So, let’s get ready to cloud in Vegas!
Ofir