A while in the past, I wrote to you about our plans to launch a brand new AWS Area in Switzerland. The wait is over. Beginning as we speak, now you can use the AWS Europe (Zurich) Area.
I’ve been considering rather a lot currently about how the cloud, and extra particularly AWS, has advanced since we first launched in 2006. Again then the cloud was a spot. It was a single spot that you possibly can level to on a map. For Amazon, that place was us-east-1 in North Virginia. Now the cloud is all over the place – it’s round us. AWS covers 6 continents, 28 Areas, and 90 Availability Zones. Entry to infrastructure is not a bottleneck for innovation. However this wasn’t all the time the case.
For a very long time, the largest constraint on innovation was the associated fee to buy and function {hardware} at scale. With the cloud, this constraint disappeared virtually in a single day. {Hardware} grew to become a programmable useful resource that you possibly can spin up and spin down at a second’s discover. AWS gave you entry to as a lot capability as you needed, everytime you needed it – and for the primary time, it was inexpensive. In the event you can think about it, again in 2006 we solely had a single EC2 occasion, the m1.small. At the moment, there are properly over 500 cases, every part from huge reminiscence machines to Apple M1s (and for the historical past buffs, here’s a timeline of EC2 releases).
Now we have by no means seemed again. Now we have by no means stopped innovating for our prospects.
One thing that I’ve observed through the years, is that the concepts that dramatically change the best way that we take into consideration or do issues are not often novel. Slightly, they’re usually a mixture of an present idea with a brand new strategy, a brand new know-how, a brand new functionality.
Whereas I used to be in Zurich for Swiss Cloud Day, I had an opportunity to fulfill with Verity, an AWS buyer that’s reimagining warehouse logistics. Now, everyone knows that utilizing robotic programs in warehouses is nothing new – we use them extensively at Amazon. They assist people kind gadgets into bins, decide merchandise off of cabinets, and mechanically bundle them for supply. Nevertheless, Verity is constructing on this.
They’ve created a totally autonomous stock administration system. Self-flying drones outfitted with environmental sensors and cameras can repeatedly monitor a warehouse offering real-time stock monitoring that’s extraordinarily correct. In lots of circumstances, it fully removes the necessity to manually rely inventory and reduces the necessity to run equipment related to it. This frees up workers to carry out extra helpful duties, reduces danger, and saves energy on the similar time. And that is simply the beginning, extra knowledge will reveal further insights and alternatives for patrons. AWS is offering the providers that permit Verity to concentrate on making warehouses greener, safer, and extra environment friendly, not on working and sustaining infrastructure.
If I’m being sincere, that is the kind of innovation I’ve come to anticipate from our Swiss prospects. You’ve been with us from our earliest days and I’m excited to see what you construct subsequent.
