Microsoft Workloads on AWS
Reserve your seat: Microsoft workloads on AWS sessions at re:Invent 2024
AWS re:Invent 2024 is less than 4 weeks away! Did you know that this is Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) 13th annual re:Invent? With over 2,400 sessions across six venues this year, it is an opportune time to expand your skill set and your network of AWS enthusiasts and builders.
Reserved seating is open and available for sessions—which means that registered attendees can 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 sessions that feature one or more speakers presenting on an educational topic. AWS experts, customers, and partners present these sessions, which run 45-60 minutes and often include 10-15 minutes of Q&A.
The art and culture of modernizing a .NET monolith (XNT202)
Learn about Tessitura, a pioneer in integrated software solutions for the arts and culture sector, and its journey to transform a 20-year-old .NET application from a client-server model to a modern, cloud-built architecture. Tessitura kick-started its journey with the Experience-Based Acceleration (EBA) transformation methodology from AWS, which highlighted the technology overhaul and cultural shift needed within Tessitura’s teams to make the project a success. Come learn how to overcome the complexities of legacy systems and foster a culture of experimentation. This session is for anyone looking to modernize .NET applications or enhance cross-team collaboration in tech-driven projects.
Supercharge your SQL Server workloads, featuring Thomson Reuters (XNT203)
Are you facing operational and scaling challenges after migrating SQL Server from on premises to the cloud? How about increasing costs? Thomson Reuters needed a better way to manage its SQL Server deployment for its mission-critical global trade management platform. It wanted the best of both worlds: a managed platform for developers and access to the underlying operating system for database administrators. In this session, learn how Thomson Reuters transformed its SQL Server backend to run its trade management platform at scale on AWS, resulting in a 40% reduction in operating costs and 5 times more operational efficiency.
Licensing commercial software on AWS (XNT204)
AWS provides a variety of migration pathways for your enterprise workloads, but navigating all the licensing options can be confusing. In this session, learn about licensing options for your Microsoft software, including end of support; complementary AWS Optimization and Licensing Assessment (AWS OLA) for your Microsoft, VMware, and Oracle workloads; and how to deal with the high cost of commercial hypervisors like VMware. Prepare for the future and get out of the business of license compliance by replacing your software-licensed products and applications with open source alternatives and technology built specifically for the cloud.
Harness Amazon Q Business power with Microsoft workload data sources (XNT302)
Microsoft workloads—such as SharePoint and File Server—are rich datasets for Amazon Q Business. In this session, learn how to extract the maximum value from these datasets by enabling Amazon Q Business to unleash generative AI power and by implementing data guardrails at the same time. See how Amazon Q Business integrates with SharePoint and Amazon FSx, indexes data, and enforces data guardrails based on Active Directory identities.
Reduce cost for SQL Server workloads on AWS using Optimize CPU feature (XNT303)
SQL Server cost optimization remains a top priority for AWS users. That’s because database workloads typically depend on high memory and IOPS and less on vCPUs. In this session, learn how to reduce the cost of running SQL Server on Amazon EC2 while increasing the price performance by using the Optimize CPU feature on Amazon EC2. This session shares insights obtained through extensive testing including rigorous load testing with HammerDB simulations. Learn best practices you can use to maximize savings without sacrificing performance.
Go codeless and replatform Windows applications on Amazon EKS (XNT311)
Moody’s runs dozens of .NET applications on Amazon EC2 for Windows Server. As part of its modernization strategy, Moody’s replatformed its critical legacy applications to Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) with Windows support, achieving cost reduction, better performance, and more flexibility for its developers. In this session, Moody’s shares key takeaways and best practices from its successful replatform, including how it overcame challenges and maximized its platform engineering investments. Leave this session with concrete examples and techniques to replatform.
Use generative AI to optimize cloud operations for Microsoft workloads (XNT312)
In this session, learn how to use Amazon Q, Amazon Bedrock, and natural language queries to more effectively manage your Windows-based infrastructure at scale. Watch demos on how to build simple and effective solutions for log management, configuration drift, automation scripts, and much more. With generative AI, make these once-daunting operational responsibilities more accessible, time-saving, and achievable.
Unleashing .NET workloads: From data center to multi-region resilience (XNT314)
Expect your .NET workloads to run anywhere, cost less, and achieve regional failover in less than five minutes. This is what Verisk Analytics, a multinational data analytics and risk assessment firm, chose to do with AWS eight years ago as it began its cloud modernization journey. In this session, its technology leaders share the invaluable tips they wish they had known back then, plus lessons learned from server sprawl and Microsoft licensing costs on AWS. Learn how the company is using warm pools to keep costs low and manageable, enabling its .NET workloads to thrive in a highly available, multi-region environment.
Migrate and modernize a Microsoft-based banking solution with AWS (XNT313)
To enhance customer service, risk management, and back-office optimization, 81% of global banks plan to adopt AI/ML by 2026. To adopt these new technologies, many banks need to address a significant challenge: getting their data out of siloed legacy platforms into the cloud. In this session, learn about recommended migration, optimization, and modernization activities to move an on-premises Microsoft-based application stack to AWS. Learn how to evaluate your technical and licensing options to run your Windows Server, SQL Server, .NET, and Active Directory workloads on AWS. Become equipped to help your organization drive better business outcomes with data-driven decision-making.
Modernizing a spin-off in the cloud: Allspring’s journey with AWS (XNT315)
When the asset management unit at Wells Fargo spun off to form a new company, Allspring Global Investments, it faced a tight timeline to move its financial data from Wells Fargo’s on-premises data center. Allspring’s IT leadership identified its path forward with AWS, using Amazon EC2 and Amazon Elastic Blockstore (Amazon EBS) as a foundation, while creating operational efficiency with managed services like Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for its SQL Server and Oracle data. Allspring is now focused on modernizing its Microsoft- and Oracle-based applications and databases to speed up innovation by using open source and AWS cloud-native services.
From Azure to AWS: One organization’s all-in journey with AWS (XNT316)
Bonterra Inc., an industry-leading social good technology provider, believes that placing a few high-impact, “all-in” bets on a highly selective group of technology partners will drive a marked acceleration in the pace of innovation. In this session, hear from this provider’s senior executives about the technical reasons it chose AWS for its all-in bet over Azure, how it rapidly migrated from Azure, and how it’s now working with AWS to cocreate next-generation solutions for global good. Attend this session to learn from the technology decisions this provider has made to support its mission to provide purpose-built software for the greatest social good.
How Mindbody migrated 60,000 SQL Server databases to AWS (XNT317)
Mindbody’s complex monolithic application, built with Windows Server and over 60,000 SQL Server databases, underwent a multi-phased migration journey from its data centers to AWS Local Zones and Regions. During its migration testing, Mindbody needed to use the elasticity and capacity of the AWS Cloud, but they experienced application latency issues. In this session, technical leaders from Mindbody and AWS share Mindbody’s migration journey: the challenges; architecture designs; technical, licensing, and cost considerations; lessons learned; and successful outcomes. Learn how Mindbody’s journey created new opportunities, improved application reliability, reduced costs, and unleashed innovation.
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.
Unlock your data: Build AI applications with .NET and Amazon Bedrock (XNT307)
Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) is revolutionizing the field of natural language processing, enabling models to generate more accurate and contextually relevant responses by using enterprises’ private knowledge repositories. Amazon Bedrock Knowledge Bases provides you with a fully managed and secure experience for implementing RAG. In this hands-on session, learn how to enhance your generative AI applications with your private data sources by implementing RAG in a .NET application using Amazon Bedrock Knowledge Bases. Leave this session well-prepared to build generative AI applications that unlock the full potential of your data. You must bring your laptop to participate.
Boost .NET developer productivity with Amazon Q Developer (XNT318)
Developers spend a significant amount of time writing undifferentiated code. Amazon Q Developer radically improves productivity by generating code suggestions in real time to alleviate this burden. In this builders’ session, learn how to use Amazon Q Developer to boost your .NET productivity and streamline your development workflow. With Amazon Q Developer, deliver high-quality applications faster by automatically generating boilerplate code, accelerating iterative prototyping, improving code comprehension, and translating natural language to application features. Learn how Amazon Q Developer optimizes application performance, enhances code quality and security, and seamlessly integrates with your existing .NET tooling. You must bring your laptop to participate.
Chalk talks
Chalk talks are highly interactive whiteboarding sessions with AWS experts. They begin with a short lecture, followed by an open-format Q&A session using a whiteboard to encourage discussion from attendees. Chalk talks foster technical discussions about real-world architecture challenges. These sessions run for 60 minutes.
AWS fundamentals for the accidental SQL Server database administrator (XNT201)
With over 200 fully featured services on AWS, it can be challenging for any database administrator trying to ramp up. In this chalk talk, learn how to map basic database administrator tasks to the role of a cloud architect. Learn about networking and security and how to implement high availability and disaster recovery for SQL Server. Discover how to use generative AI services like Amazon Q Business and Amazon Q Developer with your deployments and queries. Finally, learn how to choose the right services for your deployment and how to secure and cost-optimize these workloads. Come prepared with your questions.
How to navigate your SQL Server migration journey with AWS (XNT304)
In this chalk talk, discover the spectrum of migration strategies for SQL Server on AWS. Whether you have a single database or thousands, learn the difference between using AWS Migration Hub, AWS Application Migration Service, and AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS). Learn about native SQL Server methods, including replication, Always On availability groups, and log shipping. Gain insights from real-world migrations and best practices tailored for diverse migration needs. Come prepared with your questions.
Code talks
Code talks are engaging, code-focused sessions with a small audience. AWS experts lead an interactive discussion featuring live coding and/or code samples as they explain the “why” behind AWS solutions. Attendees are encouraged to ask questions and follow along. These sessions run for 60 minutes.
Choose the right AI service for your .NET use case (XNT305)
With AWS AI services, you can enrich your .NET applications with capabilities like natural language processing, translation, and image analysis. And with generative AI, you can add powerful capabilities like text summarization, content generation, and visual reasoning. In this demo-heavy coding session, explore when and how to use AWS AI services and generative AI services with AWS SDK for .NET. Learn how to build a sample intelligent document processing application with both AI and generative AI capabilities using a generative AI–powered assistant to help write the code.
Automate and troubleshoot AD using Amazon Bedrock (XNT309)
Active Directory (AD) administration often involves repetitive tasks and time-consuming troubleshooting. Come discover the future of smarter, more efficient AD management, powered by the remarkable capabilities of generative AI. Learn how to use AI-driven Amazon Bedrock Agents to simplify employee onboarding, automate repetitive administration tasks, and provide root cause analysis with remediation recommendations in natural language for common AD issues like account lockouts and Kerberos problems. Watch live demos showcasing how these agents analyze log files, event logs, and diagnostic data to identify and resolve AD-related issues efficiently. It’s time to boost your AD management skills with AI.
Accelerate .NET development with Amazon Q Developer (XNT310)
With Amazon Q Developer, a generative AI-powered assistant, you can write, debug, test, optimize, secure, and upgrade your .NET code faster and more efficiently. In this code talk, learn how to set up Amazon Q Developer with multiple integrated development environments (IDEs) and use it to generate C# code to solve real-world problems. Learn how Amazon Q Developer explains undocumented code, scans for issues, and answers complex technical questions to help you deliver code faster. This talk also includes a discussion of the built-in privacy, security, and enterprise features of Amazon Q Developer.
Build an image search engine with .NET and Amazon Bedrock (XNT402)
In this code talk, learn how to build a smart, semantic image search engine for a .NET application using Amazon Bedrock and Amazon OpenSearch Service. The implementation will include preprocessing images using Amazon Bedrock, indexing and storing data with OpenSearch Service, and developing a .NET application for user interaction. Leave this talk knowing how to use these tools to make your own powerful image search engine.
Workshops
Workshops are 2-hour interactive sessions where attendees work in small groups to build a solution to a problem using AWS. Workshops encourage interaction and provide attendees with an opportunity to learn from and teach each other. Don’t forget to bring your laptop to these workshops.
From diagram to code: Automate IaC code generation with Amazon Bedrock (XNT306)
Learn how to use generative AI to automate code generation, reduce manual effort, and increase development speed. In this workshop, get hands-on experience developing an end-to-end .NET 8 application using Amazon Bedrock, AWS Lambda, and Amazon API Gateway. Use Amazon Bedrock to generate infrastructure as code (IaC) directly from architecture diagrams and then, with agents, use the code to automatically create the infrastructure. Learn security best practices and how to use Amazon Bedrock within your .NET applications to enable seamless integration with generative AI models. You must bring your laptop to participate.
Modernize Windows applications on your own terms (XNT308)
Do you have applications that need to be modernized, but aren’t sure about how to get started? If so, this workshop is for you. You will be given a mandate to modernize a set of applications. First, learn about your applications and their dependencies. Then, decide which application you want to modernize and the path you want to take; for example, containerize your application and run it on Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) or Amazon EKS, or refactor your .NET code to run on Linux. The choice is yours. You must bring your laptop to participate.
Easily port .NET Framework applications to Linux with Amazon Q (XNT401)
In this workshop, gain hands-on experience porting a .NET Framework application to cross-platform .NET. Use Amazon Q Code Transformation for .NET, a modernization tool powered by generative AI that significantly reduces the time to migrate applications from Windows Server to Linux. Learn how migrating to Linux helps you avoid additional licensing fees and gain performance and security benefits. You must bring your laptop to participate.
Securing AWS Managed Microsoft AD the AWS Well-Architected way (XNT403)
Safeguarding your identity on AWS is paramount, and securing AWS Managed Microsoft AD is crucial. This workshop guides you through the AWS Well-Architected Framework’s security pillar design principles to help you fortify your managed AD environment. Explore how to use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), AWS CloudTrail, Amazon VPC settings, and more to achieve defense in depth and compliance with AWS security best practices. Walk away with practical strategies to enhance the security posture of your AWS Managed Microsoft AD design and deployment. You must bring your laptop to participate.
Migrate to an open source database on AWS using .NET and PostgreSQL (XNT404)
Many .NET applications use SQL Server as a backend database. However, moving to an open source database can reduce your costs and unlock new capabilities in your applications. In this workshop, learn how to move a .NET application database from SQL Server to open source using Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL and AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS). Leave this workshop with an understanding of what refactoring is needed in both the code and database and how to overcome common challenges with repeatable and scalable techniques and solutions. 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 December 2nd to 6th 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.
We also invite you to stop by the Windows, SQL Server, and .NET kiosk at the AWS Village in the Expo. Meet AWS experts and interact firsthand with the latest products, services, and solutions, including generative AI. Plus, get your questions answered by the AWS teams who work with new customers day in and day out, and strengthen your existing knowledge by diving deep with experts that build the services you use.
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.