Thoughtworks

Day 1 of AWS re:Invent 2024 has officially kicked off, and the scale of this year’s event is awe-inspiring. Monday was packed with sessions, networking opportunities, community recognition, and some exciting new service releases. Andy Jassy opened the day with reflections on AWS’s journey to creating re:Invent, setting the stage for a day filled with energy and innovation. Later, Peter Desantis took us on a deep dive into the future of compute, AI, and networking in his “keynote eve.”

It’s Sunday, December 1st, and I’ve officially been in Las Vegas for just 24 hours. It’s AWS re:Invent week—a time for innovation, community, and the kind of energy that can only come from thousands of cloud enthusiasts gathering in one place.

It’s that time of year again, the turkey has been pardoned, people are gathering, not only around a family feast for thanks giving, but also preparing to descend up the Mojave desert. This can mean only one thing! Increased sales in chapstick and pre:Invent is upon us. This annual prelude to AWS re:Invent has become synonymous with an avalanche of announcements, features, and updates that leave us equal parts excited and scrambling to catch up. If you thought last year’s pre:Invent was jam-packed, 2024 has dialed it up several notches. So, grab your coffee (or energy drink) and let’s dive into what pre:Invent 2024 has brought to the table.

In the first part of this series, we looked at how AWS Marketplace has become a cornerstone for SaaS vendors reaching cloud-first customers worldwide. Recognized as a leader in the Forrester New Wave™: SaaS Marketplaces report, multiple years running, AWS Marketplace has established itself as the go-to platform for vendors, offering a powerful, streamlined way to reach new audiences and simplify transactions. In this post, we’ll go deeper into the specific tools and support AWS Marketplace offers SaaS vendors, from flexible billing options to seamless deployment, all designed to make growth simpler and faster.

The cloud world moves fast, and if you’ve been selling software for a while, you know that staying ahead of customer demands is crucial. AWS Marketplace has become a key player in helping vendors get their products in front of the right people. Since its launch, AWS Marketplace has grown into a global service, sporting the following statistics:

• Over 300,000 active customers
• 4,000 vendors
• More than 15,000 listings.

From basic AMI listings to sophisticated SaaS solutions, containers, and machine learning models, it’s come a long way, and it’s not slowing down any time soon.

So, where did it all begin, and how did we get here? Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane, and I’ll give you a sneak peek into what’s coming next. Spoiler: 2025 is shaping up to be a game-changer, but you’ll have to stick around for future posts to get all the details.

As developers, we’ve all encountered it: the dreaded task of writing documentation. Whether it’s explaining your own code or trying to understand someone else’s, a lack of clear documentation can be a major headache. Often, we spend hours deciphering code when we could be writing new features or fixing bugs.

In today’s tech-driven world, integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a game-changer for businesses aiming to boost efficiency, streamline operations, and uncover new opportunities. But for those just dipping their toes into the AI waters – whether they’re newbie engineers, CEOs, or startup founders – there’s a common dilemma: “What kind of AI fits my needs?” By the end of this I hope to unravel the AI maze, with a special focus on AWS services, offering insights to help you pick the perfect tools tailored to your goals.

If you’re into your Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence/Generative AI and have been living under a rock, it may be news to you that Anthropic have now released their latest version of the Claude Large Language Model (LLM), which they have predictively named, Claude 3. But what’s not so predictable is that not only is this the third generation of Claude, but there are also three different variations of Claude.

In this post, we’re going to explore the creation of a basic, serverless, image cataloguing application using Claude 3 and explore how it enhances the functionality of our AI photo album application. Powered by Amazon Bedrock, this application leverages the poetic prowess of Claude 3 Haiku to provide insightful summaries of uploaded images.

Today, I want to dive into a topic that’s been buzzing around lately: security in AWS environments. As we kick off the year with new intentions and goals, it’s crucial to ensure that our AWS setups are fortified against potential threats. So, let’s delve into some fundamental steps you can take to bolster security within your AWS infrastructure.

A lot of customers have been talking about security recently. It’s the start of the year, new intentions means they want to get involved with different standards, etc. But the first place to start is with some basic foundations in security or as I call it, Well-Architected Security.

Start with the basic foundations of security before you go big. Otherwise, you’re going to find there’s a lot of work to do later.

Let’s go through my top 10 steps for securing your AWS Environment

Over the last 2 weeks, we’ve seen a lot of AWS announcements. Yes, that’s right, it’s AWS pre:invent season ahead of AWS re:invent in Las Vegas.

I’ve reviewed 228 different announcements and come up with, in my opinion, the Top 5 announcements, some honourable mentions and some observations.

(Before we dive into this, I’ll also make it known that I’d never give an opinion of a service I was not experienced with, so some announcements may not have been included in my list)