AWS re:Invent 2020: 3 Major Announcements From Day 1

Touted as the biggest cloud computing event of the year, the much-anticipated AWS re:Invent 2020 commenced with the launch of EC2 Mac instances for macOS, a new technology partner for AWS Outposts, and much more. 

As the world gears up for the holidays, Amazon has planned to wrap up 2020 with new releases and in-depth learnings. The company decided to end the year with the launch of its much-awaited event — AWS re:Invent 2020. The biggest cloud computing event of the year, AWS re:Invent 2020Opens a new window is a three-week virtual conference which is being held from November 30 – December 18, 2020. 

The first day of the event started with AWS CEO Andy Jassy’s keynote and ended with a speech by Amazon CTO Werner Vogels. The company announced the product launch of EC2 Mac instances for the macOS operating system. Let’s look at some of the major announcements from the opening day of the event. 

AWS Launched EC2 Mac Instances for macOS

AWS announced the general availabilityOpens a new window of its Amazon elastic compute cloud (EC2) Mac instances for macOS operating systems. AWS holds the lion’s share of the cloud infrastructure market. With this announcement, the company has become the first cloud provider to build, test, and run macOS workloads in the cloud. 

AWS will now provide computing power to developers and enterprises to develop powerful apps on Apple devices, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and Safari app. Previously, the company had offered its cloud computing service to Microsoft Windows and Linux.

The company’s blog sharedOpens a new window , “With EC2 Mac instances, developers are now able to leverage the flexibility, elasticity, and scale of AWS so they can increase their focus on core innovation such as developing creative and useful apps and spend less time on managing infrastructure.”

The instances are powered by Intel-based Mac mini hardware (featuring 8th generation, core i7 processor running at 3.3 GHz) and AWS Nitro System for better performance, security, and faster innovation.

Holger Mueller, a principal analyst at Constellation Research, shared his thoughts on Amazon’s latest announcement.

MyPOV – Will @AppleOpens a new window tries to build services, @AWSCloudOpens a new window goes after the IT load and developer needs with these announcements… there is some software license revenue lost for Apple… the tech vendor with no #cloudOpens a new window . #Reinvent2020Opens a new window

— Holger Mueller (@holgermu) December 1, 2020Opens a new window

At present, AWS customers, including Intuit and Filmic Pro, are leveraging this service. The EC2 mac instances can be purchased on-demand or with savings plans and are available now in the U.S, Europe, and the Asia Pacific regions. AWS also plans to launch EC2 Mac instances with the latest Apple M1 chip in 2021.

Also Read: Google, Microsoft, or Amazon: Who Is Ending 2020 on a Powerful Note?

Informatica Announced New Governed Data Lake Management Solution for AWS

Enterprise cloud data management company Informatica launched a new governed data lake management solution for AWS cloud. The new capabilities include intelligent data cataloging, data policy management and enforcement, data protection and privacy controls, and cloud-native data integration to enable customers to govern, secure, and scale a data lake on Amazon S3 and bolster digital transformation with trusted data.

Rik Tamm-Daniels, VP, strategic ecosystems and technology at Informatica, saidOpens a new window , “With our long-standing relationship with AWS, we are enabling our customers across industries from public to private sector to derive greater value from their data and ultimately drive better business outcomes.”

Talend Achieves AWS Migration Competency Status

Data integration company Talend announced that it had become the advanced technology partner for AWS after adding two new titles to its name. The company has achieved AWS migration competency status and has also become an Outposts partner.

With the AWS migration competency status, Talend will enable customers to shift a large volume of data to AWS cloud service using legacy or on-premises data source easily. As an Outposts partner, it will enable enterprise customers to migrate applications and legacy infrastructure to AWS.

Joshua Burgin, GM, AWS Outposts at AWS, saidOpens a new window , “Many companies are modernizing their application performance monitoring systems by leveraging SaaS-based solutions. We are delighted to welcome Talend to the AWS Outposts Ready Program. Talend Data Fabric can help customers monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize application performance for workloads operating on AWS Outposts, in AWS Regions, and on customer-owned hardware for a truly consistent hybrid experience.”

AWS re:Invent 2020 kicked off on a high note. With the launch of EC2 Mac instances, the company has addressed infrastructure challenges for developers and enterprise customers. Also, EC2 Mac instances further strengthen Amazon’s foothold in the booming cloud infrastructure market. It will be interesting to see what else unfolds during the three-week virtual conference.

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