AWS Storage Blog
AWS re:Invent 2020-2021: data transfer, hybrid cloud, and edge computing sessions
The biggest cloud computing event of the year has begun! As you’re most likely aware of by now, re:Invent 2020-2021 is a FREE, 3-week virtual conference taking place from Nov 30 – Dec 18 and Jan 12 – 14. We wanted to make sure we ended 2020 offering you a ton of educational AWS content and find it important to start next year off strong with even more valuable content to help you best tackle your technology initiatives in the new year. If you haven’t done so already, register for re:Invent today so that you can view the session schedules and gain access to 5 keynotes, 18 leadership sessions, and over 500(!) breakout sessions. Remember to sign-up for and bookmark the AWS Storage sessions most interesting to you. This year you have online access to hours of sessions led by AWS experts, hear from cloud leaders, be the first to learn what’s next and new from AWS, and get technical questions answered on the spot.
AWS offers you the most complete cloud storage portfolio including the broadest and deepest data transfer, hybrid cloud storage, and edge processing capabilities. In this blog, learn about the key data transfer, hybrid cloud storage, and edge computing sessions you should attend to help you better plan and prepare for this year’s 3-week event. These sessions focus on AWS Storage Gateway, AWS DataSync, AWS Transfer Family, and AWS Snow Family (including AWS Snowcone and AWS Snowball).
Here is a high-level overview on each of these services:
- AWS Storage Gateway – AWS Storage Gateway is a hybrid cloud storage service that gives you on-premises access to virtually unlimited cloud storage.
- AWS DataSync – AWS DataSync is an online data transfer service that simplifies, automates, and accelerates moving data between on-premises storage systems and AWS Storage services, as well as between AWS Storage services.
- AWS Transfer Family – The AWS Transfer Family provides fully managed support for file transfers directly into and out of Amazon S3. With support for Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), File Transfer Protocol over SSL (FTPS), and File Transfer Protocol (FTP), the AWS Transfer Family helps you seamlessly migrate your file transfer workflows to AWS by integrating with existing authentication systems, and providing DNS routing with Amazon Route 53 so nothing changes for your customers and partners, or their applications.
- AWS Snow Family – The AWS Snow Family helps customers that need to run operations in austere, non-data center environments, and in locations where there’s lack of consistent network connectivity. The Snow Family, comprised of AWS Snowcone, AWS Snowball, and AWS Snowmobile, offers a number of physical devices and capacity points, most with built-in computing capabilities. These services help physically transport up to exabytes of data into and out of AWS.
Not even a month ago we had our 2nd annual AWS Storage Day launch event where 9 of the 20 launch announcements were aligned to the services mentioned above. To get up to speed on what we launched on Storage Day as you prepare to join these re:Invent sessions, I recommend reading Jeff Barr’s AWS News blog as well as watching the What’s new in hybrid cloud, edge computing, and data transfer video on our on-demand Storage Day page.
Now, let’s dive into the re:Invent sessions!
Leadership session – Storage
INNOVATE FASTER WITH APPLICATIONS ON AWS STORAGE
Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec – VP, Block and Object Storage
Leadership session – Edge
THE EXTENDED CLOUD: AWS POWERS EDGE-TO-CLOUD APPLICATIONS
Bill Vass – VP, Technology
AWS edge computing solutions provide infrastructure and software that move data processing and analysis as close to the endpoint where data is generated as required by customers. In this session, learn about new edge computing capabilities announced at re:Invent and how customers are using purpose-built edge solutions to extend the cloud to the edge.
Data Transfer, Hybrid Cloud Storage, and Edge Computing Breakout Sessions
Breakout sessions are where builders go to learn what is next, understand architecting best practices from experts, and uncover advanced tips and tricks to make the difference between months and hours. Storage experts have designed and incorporated the latest product capabilities, research findings, and customer feedback into condensed yet consumable learning sessions. Rather than making hard decisions to choose and commute between sessions, you can now comfortably consume all the content you are interested in, as sessions will be broadcasted multiple times in a “follow-the-sun” fashion.
* Reader note: The re:Invent session catalog does not currently list the session ID or speaker names, but this will change soon. In the meantime, I have provided the session ID, speaker name, and the broadcast times of each session.
STG212 – Optimize your data migration with AWS Snowcone & AWS Snowball Edge
In this session, learn the considerations and best practices for optimizing your data migration of up to dozens of terabytes using AWS Snowcone as well as using AWS Snowball Edge for your large data migrations. The session will cover tooling and methodologies to transfer and migrate data from intermittently connected environments to the AWS Cloud.
Featured speaker: Ramesh Kumar, Sr. Manager of Product Management, AWS Snow Family
STG215 – Migrate your data to AWS quickly and securely using AWS DataSync
Do you need to move TBs or PBs of unstructured data to AWS? Are you looking to move your data quickly and easily, without the hassle of do-it-yourself scripting, error handling, and monitoring? Do you need encryption, end-to-end data validation, and automatic recovery from network issues? In this session, learn how AWS DataSync enables you to quickly, easily, and securely migrate your on-premises NAS or object data to Amazon S3, Amazon EFS, or Amazon FSx for Windows File Server.
Featured speaker: Jeff Bartley, Principal Solutions Architect, AWS Hybrid Cloud Storage & Data Transfer Services
STG216 – Choosing the right storage for your on-premises file-based workloads
In this session, learn about AWS storage for on-premises file use cases. Workloads relying on the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, such as home directories, cloud file shares, content repositories, and business applications can benefit from the scalability, durability, and reliability of AWS storage solutions. During this session, gain an understanding of which service to use in various scenarios, learn from examples, and discover fast and easy ways to accelerate your file migration journey.
Featured speaker: Everett Dolgner, Manager of Storage Specialist Solutions Architects, AWS Storage
STG218 – Accelerate your migration to Amazon S3
AWS offers a wide variety of services and partner tools to help you migrate your data to Amazon S3 and Amazon S3 Glacier. Learn how AWS Storage Gateway and AWS DataSync can remove the friction out of the data migration process as you dive into the solutions and architectural considerations for accelerating data migration to the cloud from on-premises systems.
Featured speaker: Avi Drabkin, Solution Architect, AWS Storage
STG219 – Edge computing innovation with AWS Snowcone & AWS Snowball Edge
In this session, learn how the AWS Snow Family can help you run operations in harsh, non-data center environments and in locations where there is a lack of consistent network connectivity. The AWS Snow Family, comprised of AWS Snowcone and AWS Snowball Edge, offers a number of physical devices and capacity points with built-in computing capabilities. This session covers how organizations are using AWS Snowcone and AWS Snowball Edge to address edge computing workloads in rugged, mobile, and portable environments across industries such as industrial, healthcare, public sector, media, and telecommunication.
Featured speaker: Ramesh Kumar, Sr. Manager of Product Management, AWS Snow Family
STG220 – Get on-premises access to cloud storage in minutes with AWS Storage Gateway
AWS Storage Gateway provides a fast and easy path to using cloud storage while optimizing your current business workflows and storage experience. Storage Gateway enables hybrid cloud storage use cases, such as backup and archiving, cloud-backed on-premises file shares, and cloud data processing. In this session, learn how Storage Gateway enables you to build your own hybrid cloud storage architecture in minutes. Also, see how you can use Storage Gateway to overcome your on-premises storage challenges, learn how others are using the service, and chart a path forward to using the cloud for storage and data processing.
Featured speaker: Bhavin Patel, Product Manager, AWS Storage Gateway
Additional re:Invent Sessions Jan 12-14
As I mentioned in the intro of this blog, we’re also offering even more re:Invent sessions for you Jan 12-14. Below are two additional sessions that I recommend you attend. These sessions are not yet reflected in the re:Invent session catalog, but will be very soon.
STG217 – Secure your file transfers to Amazon S3 over SFTP, FTPS, and FTP
In this session you will learn about how the AWS Transfer Family provides fully managed support for file transfers directly into and out of Amazon S3. With support for SFTP, FTPS, and FTP, the AWS Transfer Family helps you seamlessly migrate your file transfer workflows to AWS by integrating with existing authentication systems, and provides DNS routing with Amazon Route 53 so nothing changes for your customers and partners, or their applications. With your data in Amazon S3, you can use it with AWS services for processing, analytics, machine learning, and archiving.
Featured speaker: Smitha Sriram, Product Manager, AWS Transfer Family
STG211 – Extend Amazon S3 to on-premises environments with AWS Outposts
AWS Outposts extends Amazon S3 to your on-premises and connected edge environments to support applications with data residency requirements. Learn how you can use Amazon S3 on AWS Outposts to create and manage object storage running on premises. AWS Outposts brings native AWS services, infrastructure, and operating models to virtually any data center, co-location space, or on-premises facility. We cover how you can use the same S3 capabilities that you use today in the cloud to easily set up, operate, scale, and manage storage running on AWS Outposts in your data centers. Attend this session to learn more about how S3 on Outposts works and key use cases.
Featured speaker: Paul Reed, Principal Product Manager, AWS
Summary
In this blog, I featured some of the key data transfer, hybrid cloud storage, and edge computing sessions you should attend at re:Invent this year. The beauty is that you have the flexibility to view all of these sessions during 1 of 3 broadcast times, and if none of those times work for your schedule, then you can always watch the sessions on-demand at a more suitable time for you during re:Invent. At it’s core, re:Invent is a learning conference and we’ve worked tirelessly over the last few months with our Amazonian colleagues to build quality content to equip you with the tools and knowledge that you can can use to address your organization’s key technology and business initiatives. We hope you learn and grow over the course of re:Invent and will be right here with you every step of the way to make sure you get the most out of the event. I hope to see you online at re:Invent very soon. And as always, keep on building!