Networking Normalcy: Nasuni at AWS re:Invent

As I write this, my head is still spinning from AWS re:Invent 2021, but before I get into the exciting news to come out of the conference, let me just say how fantastic it was to be back at a real, live, in-person event. Last year at this time, I wrote about the virtual version of re:Invent. Somehow, AWS managed to make it interesting and stimulating for all of us home-bound, screen-sick cloud geeks.

Yet this year was electric. The conference was a great reminder of the value of face-to-face meetings – how simply passing someone you’d met in the past can lead to high-quality interactions and even new business. One night, I was invited to six different happy hours. I can’t say that’s ever happened before, however I did my best to bounce around to as many as I could before turning in after a long day!

And the news, well, the news was truly exciting from a Nasuni perspective. Here are my four big takeaways from the event.

1. The Cost of Cloud Object Storage is Dropping

The biggest Nasuni-relevant news was AWS’s announcement of a new class of object storage, Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval. Basically, Glacier Instant Retrieval offers milliseconds retrieval for infrequently accessed data at a highly competitive storage price. It’s designed for 99.9% availability and 11 9s of data durability, too. This is a great development for customers who choose AWS as the backend storage for their Nasuni deployments, as it allows them to use a lower-cost object storage tier without sacrificing any of our core benefits. Your file data and backups still scale in the cloud, not on local hardware, and you’ll still be able to quickly access all of your department and project file shares – CAD, office docs, 4D models, videos and more – as if they still resided locally.

Our ability to turn object storage into a durable, cost-effective, and high-performance option for everyday file shares is the reason Nasuni is a featured launch partner in the AWS S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval announcement blog.

2. Data Migrations Will Get Easier

re:Invent made it crystal clear that AWS is keenly interested in doing whatever it can to accelerate and ease the process of migrating data into the cloud. The biggest trend I’m noticing is their focus on offsetting customers’ costs associated with migrations. Public Sector is no exception: AWS is currently offering a very enticing Data-led Migration (DLM) promotion to government, educational, and nonprofit organizations to demonstrate the value of its Analytics tools, which brings me to my next topic…

3. The Buzz Around Cloud AI & ML Tools is Increasing

At one point during the conference, I was talking to a systems integrator who works closely with AWS on behalf of a wide range of clients, especially in the AEC space. He was interested in our standard value propositions, but when I mentioned the Nasuni Analytics Connector, and how it allows teams to apply cloud-based AWS Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tools to enterprise file data, his eyes lit up brighter than the Vegas Strip.
This interest didn’t surprise me, exactly, as it was another persistent theme at the conference. Everyone is excited about AWS’s efforts to accelerate data migration to the cloud, especially in the public sector, but there was significant buzz around what you’ll be able to do with that data once it’s in AWS. Nasuni is making a massive investment in this area, and our Nasuni Analytics Connector in particular, and I’m excited to see what sorts of transformational results this component of our platform yields in 2022 and beyond.

As an example, an AEC firm could use the Nasuni Analytics Connector to put the ML-powered intelligent search service Amazon Kendra (along with Amazon Rekognition) to work. This way, architects could easily search past projects for reference or inspiration, allowing them to produce higher-quality work faster.

4. Long Live the Ecosystem

I often talk about the partner ecosystem, and the importance of both partners and systems integrators, but AWS re:Invent 2022 was a powerful reminder of the value of these relationships. I don’t want to get too misty here, but one of the absolute highlights of the conference, and one of the more memorable meetings of my career, was a luncheon hosted by the incomparable Sandy Carter, the outgoing VP in charge of public sector programs for AWS. She’s inspiring, influential, and one of the more inspiring and dynamic IT leaders I’ve ever come across.

During the conference, she invited a select group of us to a farewell lunch and topped it off with a speech that addressed this tight bond between AWS, ISVs, and partners — comparing us to the famed 12th man of the Seattle Seahawks. I’m sure I’m not the only one who will be sad to see Sandy leave, but we wish her well, and we’re excited to start working with her immensely qualified replacement, Jeffrey Kratz.

Her larger point about the importance of this ecosystem, and the mix of us working together, definitely hit home. As Nasuni moves ahead with this exponential investment in AI and ML, our partners are going to be critical to our success.

Overall, the conference was a huge success and a welcome return to networking normalcy. Oh, and did I mention the swag? There was swag. Fantastic, collectible swag. I’m already itching to return next year.