Some time in the past, I wrote to you about our plans to launch a brand new AWS Region in Switzerland. The wait is over. Starting right this moment, now you can use the AWS Europe (Zurich) Region.
I’ve been considering quite a bit these days about how the cloud, and extra particularly AWS, has developed since we first launched in 2006. Back then the cloud was a spot. It was a single spot that you can 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 Regions, and 90 Availability Zones. Access to infrastructure is now not a bottleneck for innovation. But this wasn’t all the time 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 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 reasonably priced. If you’ll be able to think about it, again in 2006 we solely had a single EC2 occasion, the m1.small. Today, there are properly over 500 situations, all the pieces from huge reminiscence machines to Apple M1s (and for the historical past buffs, here’s a timeline of EC2 releases).
We have by no means appeared again. We have by no means stopped innovating for our clients.
Something that I’ve observed through the years, is that the concepts that dramatically change the way in which that we take into consideration or do issues are not often novel. Rather, they’re typically a mixture of an present idea with a brand new method, a brand new know-how, a brand new functionality.
While I used to be in Zurich for Swiss Cloud Day, I had an opportunity to satisfy with Verity, an AWS buyer that’s reimagining warehouse logistics. Now, everyone knows that utilizing robotic methods in warehouses is nothing new – we use them extensively at Amazon. They assist people kind objects into bins, decide merchandise off of cabinets, and routinely package deal them for supply. However, Verity is constructing on this.
They have created a completely autonomous stock administration system. Self-flying drones geared up with environmental sensors and cameras can constantly monitor a warehouse offering real-time stock monitoring that’s extraordinarily correct. In many circumstances, it utterly removes the necessity to manually depend inventory and reduces the necessity to run equipment related to it. This frees up employees to carry out extra worthwhile duties, reduces danger, and saves energy on the similar time. And that is simply the beginning, extra information will reveal further insights and alternatives for patrons. AWS is offering the providers that permit 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 anticipate from our Swiss clients. You’ve been with us from our earliest days and I’m excited to see what you construct subsequent.