Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently achieved a momentous feat with the novel launch of its infrastructure in Capetown, South Africa on the 22nd, April 2020. In view of this, the leading cloud solutions provider organized a Virtual Day to provide insights to technical decision-makers and to enable developers to easily transition into cloud computing. This article should provide an exciting recap and a high-level overview of the event.
WELCOME ADDRESS BY WERNER VOGELS( CTO & VP AMAZON)
If you've watched any of the previous Amazon Summit Series, then Werner Vogels should be a household name. The Vice President and CTO of Amazon who is in charge of driving innovations in the company set the ball rolling with his Welcome address. He expressed his excitement at the landmark achievement and describes how AWS already serves thousands of African clients. He then gave an extensive description of the global AWS infrastructure including the Regions, Availability Zones, Security and Compliance protocols, and data protection.
Vogels further explained initiatives that Amazon had planned for clients and developers including the AWS Activate which provides credit facilities and resources for startups to leverage and scale and AWS Educate which provides access to a plethora of learning and training resources for developers. These initiatives are to ensure that end-users are able to take full advantage of the AWS cloud.
He rounded up by stating the future of Africa is bright and AWS is here to help usher it in and then drew his address to a close with the phrase
Go learn and go be awesome!
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY MICHAEL KOGELER, GM SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
This address followed the CTO's welcome speech and was aimed at giving a comprehensive examination of the AWS Africa region. The key points from the speech include:
Historical recap of the AWS growth in sub-Saharan Africa
Over 18 Amazon Web services are active in the region including AWS Xray, Cloudfront, EC2, etc.
In-depth analysis of AWS security policies and the impact on user data
Availability and reliable performance of AWS
Reviews of big companies using AWS to scale their solutions including Vodacom, Dataprophet, etc
After the address, Kogeler and Vogels attended to various questions of attendees and some of the notable ones included:
What's the difference between AWS and other providers?
Is AWS creating new jobs or will it cause a loss of existing jobs?
Would there be more AWS regions in Africa?
Following the keynote, the fun moment for most attendees began with 14 breakout sessions across 3 tracks including, a business executive track and 2 technical tracks which covered getting started, building advanced architectures, modern app development, DevOps and more. All sessions are available in English.
Technical Track 1
Technical Track 2
It should be noted that all sessions would be available on the platform for the next 3 months and if you're interested in taking part and experiencing the event, you can register here whilst the registrations are still open.
I'd definitely be writing on my experience in some of the technical tracks, so be sure to follow me and stay tuned. Feel free to share your AWS adventures, experiences, and challenges. 😊