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 immediately, now you can use the AWS Europe (Zurich) Area.
I’ve been considering quite a bit recently about how the cloud, and extra particularly AWS, has developed since we first launched in 2006. Again then the cloud was a spot. It was a single spot that you may level to on a map. For Amazon, that place was us-east-1 in North Virginia. Now the cloud is in all places – it’s round us. AWS covers 6 continents, 28 Areas, and 90 Availability Zones. Entry to infrastructure is now not a bottleneck for innovation. However this wasn’t at all times the case.
For a very long time, the largest constraint on innovation was the price to buy and function {hardware} at scale. With the cloud, this constraint disappeared nearly in a single day. {Hardware} grew to become a programmable useful resource that you may spin up and spin down at a second’s discover. AWS gave you entry to as a lot capability as you wished, everytime you wished it – and for the primary time, it was reasonably priced. In case you can think about it, again in 2006 we solely had a single EC2 occasion, the m1.small. Right this moment, there are effectively over 500 cases, all the pieces from large reminiscence machines to Apple M1s (and for the historical past buffs, here is a timeline of EC2 releases).
We’ve got by no means seemed again. We’ve got by no means stopped innovating for our clients.
One thing that I’ve observed over time, is that the concepts that dramatically change the best way that we take into consideration or do issues are not often novel. Reasonably, they’re usually a mix of an present idea with a brand new method, 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 techniques in warehouses is nothing new – we use them extensively at Amazon. They assist people kind gadgets into bins, decide merchandise off of cabinets, and routinely package deal them for supply. Nonetheless, Verity is constructing on this.
They’ve created a totally autonomous stock administration system. Self-flying drones outfitted with environmental sensors and cameras can constantly monitor a warehouse offering real-time stock monitoring that’s extraordinarily correct. In lots of instances, it utterly removes the necessity to manually depend inventory and reduces the necessity to run equipment related to it. This frees up workers to carry out extra worthwhile duties, reduces threat, and saves energy on the identical time. And that is simply the beginning, extra knowledge will reveal extra insights and alternatives for purchasers. AWS is offering the providers that enable Verity to deal with 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 count on from our Swiss clients. You’ve been with us from our earliest days and I’m excited to see what you construct subsequent.
