Our Journey through AWS re:Invent 2023 Highlights — Recap and Wrap-up

AWS re:Invent 2023 captivated attendees with a symphony of groundbreaking announcements, thought-provoking keynotes and immersive experiences. The Rackspace Technology team was a proud platinum sponsor and actively participated in this grand celebration of cloud innovation!

Let’s explore highlights from this year’s annual cloud-focused event, including recapping the many keynotes, reviewing the interactive experiences and remembering other exciting aspects of AWS re:Invent 2023.

Keynote: Peter DeSantis’s visionary prelude

AWS Senior Vice President, Peter DeSantis, delivered a keynote about reshaping cloud computing, unveiling three major revelations.

• Amazon Aurora Limitless Database: This new service stole the spotlight with automatic scaling, petabyte-scale storage and serverless operation, offering developers unmatched flexibility.
• Amazon ElastiCache Serverless: Another significant announcement was this service for seamless cache management and instant scalability.
• Amazon Redshift Serverless: DeSantis overviewed this next generation service that has AI-driven scaling, showcasing AWS’s commitment to optimal performance.
• Quantum computing: DeSantis touched on this transformative field, promising regular updates on AWS's hardware-enabled quantum error correction journey.

Read more about Peter Desantis’s keynote here.

Keynote: Adam Selipsky’s dive into generative AI

AWS CEO, Adam Selipsky’s keynote surpassed expectations, unveiling the transformative power of AWS for business. For example, the launch of Amazon S3 Express One Zone and the advanced capabilities of R8g Instances demonstrated AWS’s dedication to enhanced performance and revolutionary GPU applications for generative AI.

Shifting focus to practical applications, Selipsky introduced diverse generative AI models, including:

• Overviewing the impact of Claude 2.1 and Llama 2 70B.
• Showcasing real-world use cases that highlighted AI’s role in healthcare R&D.
• Demonstrating how developers leverage generative AI for code generation with tools, like Amazon CodeWhisperer.
• Introducing the groundbreaking Amazon Q, a generative AI-powered work assistant that accelerates Java upgrades from months to mere days.

Read more about Adam Selipsky’s keynote here.

For more AI highlights from AWS re:Invent, read here.

Keynote: Swami Sivasubramanian’s Symbolic AI journey

Vice President of Database, Analytics, and Machine Learning at AWS, Swami Sivasubramanian, brought a unique perspective to AWS re:Invent 2023. Drawing a symbolic analogy between humans and AI to remoras and manta rays, he emphasized the symbiotic relationship and showcased AWS’s support for the latest models from Ai21 Jurassic-2, Anthropic, Cohere, Meta, Stability AI and Amazon Titan models.

Five key highlights claimed the limelight, including:

• Amazon Titan image generation in Amazon Bedrock
• Anthropic’s Claude 2.1
• Meta’s Llama 2 70B models
• The introduction of Amazon SageMaker HyperPod for faster foundation model (FM) training.
• The evolution of AI in agriculture and law enforcement, reflecting the positive impacts of AI applications.

Read more about Swami Sivasubramanian’s keynote here.

Keynote: Dr. Ruba Borno’s partner-centric vision

Vice President of AWS Worldwide Channels and Alliances, Dr. Ruba Borno, highlighted the critical role of partners in the AWS business model. Underscoring AWS’s commitment to advancing customer applications of generative AI, she announced the launch of the Generative AI Center of Excellence for AWS Partners.

New AWS partner services were also introduced, demonstrating AWS’s commitment to enhancing partner support and capabilities. Dr. Borno emphasized the importance of AWS partners in helping customers respond to rapid AI-driven technology changes, making the transition from proof-of-concept to production environments seamless.

Read more about Dr. Ruba Borno’s keynote here.

Keynote: Dr. Werner Vogels’ Frugal Architect and AI in action

AWS CTO, Dr. Werner Vogels, revisited the concept of the Frugal Architect, emphasizing cost-consciousness in architectural decisions. He explored the intriguing relationship between costs and sustainability, drawing parallels to AWS’s own experiences in developing services, like Amazon S3 and Amazon DynamoDB.

Dr. Vogels’s keynote included:

• Introducing myApplications and Amazon CloudWatch Application Signals, offering enhanced monitoring and management capabilities.
• Exploring the philosophical perspectives of Plato and Aristotle, leading to a discussion on Symbolic AI and Embodied AI.
• Showcasing the positive impacts of AI, especially in fields like agriculture and law enforcement, exemplifying the theme that “There’s never been a better time to be a builder.”

Read more about Werner Vogels’ keynote here.

Live experience: F.A.I.R. Adventure Quest

As part of the event’s immersive experience, the Rackspace Technology team hosted the F.A.I.R. Adventure Quest. Participants, equipped with personalized generative AI avatars, embarked on an intergalactic mission, seamlessly combining serverless computing, AI and VR technologies.

The quest, which challenged participants to find missing AWS services, proved to be a crowd-pleaser. To add a sustainable green touch to the adventure, Rackspace is planting a tree in honor of each participant who completed their quest.

Learn more about Foundry of AI by Rackspace (FAIR™) and how you can accelerate your adoption of AI, quickly and responsibly. 

Breakout session: JobTarget success story

An engaging breakout session took center stage — JobTarget’s public cloud success story. Featured presenters included Travis Runty, CTO, Public Cloud of Rackspace Technology; Mark Oreta, CTO of JobTarget; and Vikram Reddy Kosanam, Sr. Director of Data, Analytics and ML at Rackspace Technology.

The presenters shared JobTarget’s collaboration with Rackspace Technology, illustrating the recruitment solutions company’s transformational journey — from handling one million job postings a month to an astonishing 800,000 a day. The session also offered valuable insights into harnessing the boundless potentials of AI.

In case you missed the session, you can view it on-demand here.

Exclusive event: re:Ception 2023

To wrap up an inspiring event, Rackspace Technology hosted an exclusive, invite-only event, re:Ception 2023, at Drai’s Nightclub on The Cromwell rooftop. Attendees, including customers and partners, enjoyed great conversation, craft cocktails and delectable bites in one of Las Vegas’s glamorous settings.

Engagement: Cloud Talk Live on LinkedIn

Adding another layer of engagement, Rackspace Technology filmed live Cloud Talk Live episodes from AWS re:Invent 2023 on LinkedIn. The episodes provided a platform for in-depth discussions, insights and real-time updates, creating a dynamic channel for connecting with a broader audience.

View the on-demand replay of our Live reactions to the keynotes here and here.

Watch the Foundry of AI by Rackspace (FAIR™) live here to recap on AI announcements.

Awards: AWS Partner of the Year

Amid the exhilarating events, we were thrilled to announce that Rackspace Technology received prestigious accolades. We proudly accepted three AWS awards:

• SI Partner of the Year – North America
• Sustainability Partner of the Year – North America
• Education Partner of the Year – EMEA

Rackspace Technology was also named a finalist for four awards:

• SI Partner of the Year – Global
• Migration Partner of the Year – Global
• AI/ML Partner of the Year – Global
• State or Local Government Partner of the Year – LATAM

These honors from one of our partners not only recognize our commitment to innovation and service excellence, but also our dedication to sustainability and advancing educational initiatives. We are grateful for the recognition from AWS — and excited about the continued impact we strive to make in all these areas every year.

Conclusion

AWS re:Invent 2023 was more than just an event. It was a celebration of innovation, collaboration and the limitless possibilities of cloud technology. The Rackspace Technology team’s active participation and engagement showcased not only our commitment to staying at the forefront of cloud innovation, but also our dedication to empowering businesses with transformative solutions.

As we reflect on the keynotes, interactive experiences and the palpable excitement that permeated the event, one thing becomes clear — the future of technology is brighter and more dynamic than ever before.

See you at re:Invent 2024!