Microsoft Workloads on AWS
Reserve your seat: Microsoft workloads on AWS sessions at re:Invent 2023
AWS re:Invent 2023 is less than six weeks away! Did you know that this is Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) 12th annual re:Invent? With over 2,200 sessions across six venues this year, it is an opportune time to expand your skill set and your network of AWS enthusiasts and builders.
The good news is that the re:Invent team opened up reserved seating today—which means that registered attendees can now log into the Attendee Portal and reserve a seat in their favorite sessions. If you’ve already registered—or you’re planning to go—you don’t want to delay this seat reservation step because seats can go fast.
Reserving a seat is the best way to secure the sessions you most want to participate in. You can reserve a seat in breakout sessions, workshops, chalk talks, code talks, and builders’ sessions.
To help you with your session selection, I want to highlight the sessions focused on Microsoft topics—including Windows Server, SQL Server, Active Directory, .NET, and more. These sessions have been mindfully selected to help you migrate, optimize, and modernize your Microsoft workloads on AWS. Skim through the abstracts below to see what we have lined up. Alternatively, if you want to jump straight to these sessions in the online catalog, here are a few links:
Breakout sessions
Breakout sessions are lecture-style and run 45 to 60 minutes. AWS experts, customers, and partners present these sessions, which often include 10–15 minutes of Q&A.
Top cost optimization recommendations for Microsoft workloads on AWS (ENT211)
After working with thousands of organizations running Microsoft workloads on AWS, solutions architects put together the Microsoft on AWS Cost Optimization (MACO) initiative. In this session, learn about top strategies that have been the most impactful for organizations running Microsoft workloads. Learn about the MACO initiative, AWS’s focus on sustainability, how to get additional help from a MACO subject matter expert, and how to access additional cost optimization recommendations for SQL Server, Amazon FSx, Windows containers, Microsoft Active Directory, and more.
How Carrier Global is saving 40% with Windows containers on AWS (ENT212)
In this session, learn how Carrier Global used AWS technologies to transform legacy .NET code into a modern, event-driven application without refactoring. Learn how Windows containers on Amazon ECS were used to enable the architectural modernization and improve agility for feature delivery. Also learn how Carrier Global used various AWS services and features to reduce costs to run their Windows application by 40% and improve scaling performance by 70%.
Migrating 80K SQL Server databases to AWS: A strategic ISV journey (ENT219)
In 2022, a leading brand for integrated travel, expense, and invoice management migrated over 80 thousand SQL Server databases to AWS. In this session, explore their database migration journey and why they picked AWS. Hear about the considerations and challenges their team faced, as well as best practices for migrating SQL Server databases at scale. Also, learn how they saved millions of dollars across compute, storage, and SQL Server licensing costs. To wrap it up, hear about their ongoing modernization plans for SQL Server on AWS.
What’s new in the AWS modernization tool set for Microsoft workloads (ENT316)
Which modernization pathways make the most sense for your Microsoft workloads? In this session, learn how to assess your workloads using AWS modernization tools, such as AWS Migration Hub Strategy Recommendations and AWS Modernization Calculator for Microsoft Workloads. Discover how to transform your workloads using tools, such as Porting Assistant for .NET and AWS Microservice Extractor for .NET, to realize improvements in performance, scale, and cost efficiency. Learn about product features and how to build an application portfolio modernization strategy for your Microsoft workloads using technologies built for the cloud.
How Oaktree Capital saved 50% by modernizing its Microsoft workloads (ENT318)
In 2022, Oaktree Capital Management started modernizing their traditional Microsoft Windows and SQL Server workloads by using Amazon Redshift and Amazon Athena. In this session, Oaktree will share how data modernization helped them improve their data SLAs by 75% while reducing the cost by 50%. As they continue to build for and innovate in the cloud, Oaktree can now offer better services to their clients while continuing to optimize and ensure predictable costs of running their mission-critical cloud environment.
Build production-ready serverless .NET apps with AWS Lambda (XNT301)
This session explores development and architectural best practices when building serverless applications with .NET and AWS Lambda, including when to run ASP.NET on Lambda, code structure, and using native AOT to massively increase performance. Join this session to learn how to develop, test, and deploy .NET serverless applications and gain a solid understanding of how to build production-ready, high-performance serverless applications.
Boost your productivity with AWS Toolkits and Amazon CodeWhisperer (XNT304)
Learn how AWS can help you be a more productive .NET developer. Software developers are always asked to do more with less. You need to remove impediments that slow down your flow and reduce context switches that hurt your productivity. AWS Toolkits can help you stay focused in your favorite IDE. In this session, learn how you can access AWS services and deploy to AWS to test your project in minutes, without having deep knowledge of infrastructure as code. Also learn how the AWS Toolkits now bring you even more with Amazon CodeWhisperer. Explore how this new AI coding companion can help you get more done faster.
Enrich your .NET applications with AI capabilities (XNT305)
Discover how you can supercharge your .NET applications with AWS AI services. In this demo-heavy session, learn how you can enrich your .NET applications with AI capabilities like natural language processing, language detection, and translation all using an AI-assisted code generator. You can also see how to build an end-to-end intelligent document processing application with .NET using AWS AI services.
Lessons in modernizing monolithic .NET applications to microservices (XNT306)
You inherit a 10-plus-year-old .NET application with retrofitted features, and your mission is to rearchitect it to cloud-native services. Where do you start? How do you assess source code to understand the level of effort? How do you experiment while minimizing risks? In this session, explore modernization pathways to go from monolith to microservices on AWS. Avionté, a platform for staffing and recruiting, is transforming their single-tenant legacy .NET Framework application into a multi-tenant SaaS solution on AWS. See how they are adopting cloud-native architectures by decoupling large monoliths to reduce costs, improve service uptime, and accelerate feature deliveries.
Modernize .NET apps at scale: DraftKings principles for success (XNT307)
In this session, discover how DraftKings safely made major changes in infrastructure and software in their fast-paced, growing organization, moving from .NET Framework on Windows to .NET Core on Linux and Kubernetes. Then, dive deep into how they utilized .NET Core’s “async all the way” combined with HPA on Kubernetes to make huge improvements in throughput at game day load. Learn about some of the key best practices DraftKings has implemented and how these technologies have helped simplify and standardize their CI/CD and developer experience for on-premises and Amazon EKS workloads.
Test automation for .NET applications running on AWS (XNT308)
Software developers are required to rapidly develop new features without sacrificing quality. As software grows, building and deploying an increasingly complex codebase becomes difficult and error-prone. In addition, developers use cloud-based services as well as microservice and serverless applications that cannot be tested on their development machines. In this session, discover the different types of automated tests and tools you can use to test your .NET microservice and serverless applications. Also learn how to apply automated tests to create consistent and effective tests that support your project’s success.
Getting the most performance for your .NET apps from AWS SDK for .NET (XNT401)
The AWS SDK for .NET is critical for .NET developers building their applications using AWS services. This session goes beyond the simple examples of making requests to services and shows the advanced methods of using the SDK for .NET to maximize performance and reliability. In this session, learn about the many subtle features and tuning options that are not widely known and can have dramatic effects. These include features for tuning retries, timeouts, and HTTP client handling as well as features to customize the HTTP requests made by the SDK.
Builders’ sessions
These one-hour hands-on sessions have ten attendees and one AWS expert per table. Each builders’ session begins with a short explanation or demo of what you are going to build. There is no formal presentation. It’s just you, your laptop, and the AWS expert.
Build a high availability SQL Server failover cluster with Amazon EBS (ENT401)
In this builders’ session, learn how to construct highly resilient SQL Server failover clusters with Amazon EBS to improve your data availability and system stability. Walk through the process of using Amazon EBS Multi-Attach with persistent reservations to build a robust SQL Server failover cluster. Learn techniques to elevate your database management to a new level of reliability. You must bring your laptop to participate.
Chalk talks
Chalk talks are highly interactive whiteboarding sessions with AWS experts. Expect a lively technical discussion, centered around real-world architecture challenges, with a small group of experts and peers. These sessions run for 60 minutes.
AWS fundamentals for the accidental SQL Server DBA (ENT314)
With over 200 fully featured services, it can be challenging for any database administrator (DBA) trying to ramp up on AWS. In this chalk talk, learn how to map basic DBA tasks to the role of a cloud architect. Learn about networking and security, and how to implement high availability and disaster recovery for your SQL Server workloads. Finally, learn how to choose the right SQL Server-related services for your deployment, how to secure them, and cost-optimization techniques.
Choose the right Microsoft directory service on AWS (ENT315)
Whether you’re migrating an existing Microsoft Active Directory (AD) or starting from scratch on AWS, this chalk talk will help you choose the right Microsoft directory service for your needs. Learn about AWS Managed Microsoft AD, AD Connector, Simple AD, and AD Domain Services on Amazon EC2. Learn about the features, scalability, security, and cost implications of these services to help you make informed decisions about how to seamlessly integrate and manage your directory services on AWS.
Microsoft migration paths with Amazon EC2 and VMware Cloud on AWS (ENT317)
If you’re running Microsoft workloads on premises, you have several options for migrating them to AWS. In this chalk talk, learn about the technical and business advantages of using popular migration destinations, such as Amazon EC2, VMware Cloud on AWS, and other managed services. Discover ways to optimize as you migrate and learn about common modernization paths organizations take. There will be an opportunity to ask questions about your migration.
Architecting resilient and highly available .NET workloads (XNT303)
Companies need to architect their workloads for high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) to meet the application resilience expectations of their customers. In this chalk talk, explore resilient architectures, how to design for RPO/RTO, and AWS tools and services to help you optimize your Microsoft .NET workloads. Regardless of where you are in your modernization journey, join this talk for strategies to make your applications more resilient while optimizing for cost.
Managing .NET dependencies: Strategies for migration and modernization (XNT309)
Explore effective approaches for managing .NET dependencies during the migration and modernization of .NET workloads. Discover best practices for hosting, upgrading, and automating dependencies to help ensure a smooth transition and maximize the benefits of modernization. Learn about dependency management tools and techniques, including package managers, versioning strategies, and automated dependency analysis. Gain insights into strategies for handling compatibility challenges, integrating with cloud services, and optimizing performance. Whether you are migrating to a new platform, upgrading to the latest .NET, or automating dependency management workflows, this chalk talk equips you with practical guidance to successfully manage .NET dependencies and streamline your application modernization journey.
Modern observability tooling for .NET applications on AWS (XNT310)
The architecture patterns used for building software systems have changed significantly over the last decade. Systems were easier to monitor when everything was a monolith running on workstations updating a single database. With modern applications, you are required to monitor hundreds of microservices running across different platforms containing virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions. This significantly increases your monitoring needs to avoid lost time and revenue that are critical for businesses to function. This chalk talk presents observability tooling you can use to monitor your .NET applications on AWS to reduce costly downtime and improve end user experience.
Workshops
Workshops are two-hour interactive sessions where you work in small teams to solve real problems using AWS services. Each workshop starts with a short lecture (10 to 15 minutes) by the main speaker, and the rest of the time is spent working as a group. Don’t forget to bring your laptop to these workshops.
Containerize a Windows application and go serverless with AWS Fargate (ENT304)
Organizations are looking for ways to migrate their on-premises, Windows-based applications to an optimized architecture on AWS. In this workshop, learn about key concepts, such as images, containers, and Dockerfiles, and then explore how to use the AWS App2Container to containerize and migrate Windows applications to AWS. Learn how to build an image with Amazon EC2 Image Builder, store it on Amazon ECR, and then run it serverless on AWS Fargate. You must bring your laptop to participate.
How to optimize SQL Server on AWS to speed up performance (ENT305)
To optimize SQL Server performance on AWS, the order of optimization is server level, instance level, database level, and then statement level. In this workshop, learn server- and instance-level performance-tuning techniques using native T-SQL with Amazon RDS for SQL Server and Amazon EC2 for SQL Server. You must bring your laptop to participate.
Migrate, optimize, and modernize a Microsoft application in 2 hours (ENT306)
A fictitious charity organization is looking to make life better for all and is ready to modernize its Microsoft-based web application. They want to eliminate licensing costs, reduce the burden on their builders, and reach out to more people in need. In this workshop, you are a builder for this charity organization. Learn how to migrate from traditional servers to modern cloud-based technologies and optimize to increase availability while reducing monthly spend. You must bring your laptop to participate.
The Microsoft on AWS adventure game (ENT307)
Brave adventurers, join this noble quest to build a web application on AWS using Microsoft technologies. In this workshop, embark on this epic adventure to pull together the powers of Amazon EC2 for Microsoft Windows Server, AWS Managed Microsoft AD, Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, and Amazon RDS for SQL Server. Use the AWS Management Console to bring this adventure to life! You must bring your laptop to participate.
Modernize and optimize an ASP.NET app in 2 hours (XNT302)
A fictitious book store organization is looking to make life better for all and is ready to modernize its Microsoft-based web application. They want to eliminate licensing costs, reduce the burden on their builders, and reach out to more people in need. In this workshop, you are a builder at this book store organization. Learn how to use AWS modernization tools and AI-powered recommendations to identify domains and group classes together as microservice extraction targets. Use automation to extract the microservices, upgrade legacy .NET code into .NET 6+, and generate a CI/CD pipeline to deploy to Linux containers. You must bring your laptop to participate.
Join us in Las Vegas
If you haven’t registered for re:Invent yet, please join us in Las Vegas November 27th to December 1st to experience everything AWS re:Invent has to offer. And if you have registered, you know what you need to do now: reserve your seat in all your favorite sessions. Log into the Attendee Portal to get started.
See you in Las Vegas!
AWS has significantly more services, and more features within those services, than any other cloud provider, making it faster, easier, and more cost effective to move your existing applications to the cloud and build nearly anything you can imagine. Give your Microsoft applications the infrastructure they need to drive the business outcomes you want. Visit our .NET on AWS and AWS Database blogs for additional guidance and options for your Microsoft workloads. Contact us to start your migration and modernization journey today.