Despite holding an all-virtual re:Invent in 2020, Amazon Web Services Inc. still rolled out a significant number of announcements. This year’s gathering will be a hybrid version, with in-person attendees in Las Vegas combined with an online-only audience, and the volume of news from the public cloud leader is expected to remain just as strong.

“For over a decade, re:Invent became the most important physical event in enterprise tech. And re:Invent will now become the most important hybrid event in enterprise tech,” said Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, and chief analyst at its sister market research firm Wikibon. “One thing is certain – the next 10 years won’t be like the last 10. I expect a heavy dose of AI, data services, silicon innovation, new horizontal solutions and edge offerings.”

What AWS will announce in these and other key enterprise areas will be the center of attention as attendees gather for re:Invent 2021, Nov. 29 through Dec. 3. TheCUBE will be onsite to cover the event for the full week. Coverage will include interviews with AWS executives, industry partners, customers and analysts as theCUBE offers an in-depth look at one of the tech industry’s signature events of the year. (* Disclosure below.)

Telco role in edge

One of the storylines  worth watching at this year’s re:Invent will be the continued evolution of AWS’ strategy at the telco edge. AWS Wavelength, which can integrate datacenter infrastructure into a telco’s 5G network, is one element of the cloud giant’s approach. Another is AWS Outposts, which provides cloud infrastructure that is installable in a telco’s on-premises datacenter.

Over the past decade, telcos initially sought to expand business opportunities by providing cloud services for the datacenter market. However, as John Dinsdale, chief analyst and managing director at Synergy Research Group, found in a recent report, telcos are getting left in the dust — by hyperscalers such as AWS — in datacenter capex spending growth on IT infrastructure.

“Rather than competing with cloud providers, telcos are now mostly settled into a role of providing onramps to the leading cloud companies,” Dinsdale said during an interview with SiliconANGLE for this story. “As we move into a 5G world, cash-rich growth-oriented cloud providers are in a much better position to benefit from market changes than their cash-strapped telco cousins. AWS, Microsoft and Google are all working on plays to enhance their position in a 5G-, IoT-oriented world.”

Evolution of Nitro and Graviton

During last year’s re:Invent, then CEO Andy Jassy declared that AWS’ future would be built on custom silicon. Jassy’s statement was a prelude to the unveiling of AWS Graviton2 instances and a partnership with Intel Corp.’s Habana Labs on a machine learning training processor.

AWS has also developed a custom hardware and software set, called Nitro. In August, the company announced new EC2 compute instances built on the AWS Nitro system.

The AWS strategy with silicon has been to architect an approach that offloads tasks performed by a central processor, paving the way for shared memory and resources to support workloads from cloud to edge. The company is also making its case for significantly better price/performance as a result, and there will undoubtedly be more chip related news at this year’s re:Invent.

“We’re continuing to build chips,” Jassy told SiliconANGLE’s founder, John Furrier, during an exclusive interview last year. “We have the scale and the number of customers and the input from customers that allow us to be able to optimize for workloads that really matter.”

Focus on AI and machine learning

Following last year’s re:Invent, one technologist captured all of the AWS announcements related to AI and machine learning in one post. There were at least 55, ranging from numerous enhancements for SageMaker to new tools for code quality and application performance detection.

AWS’ focus on AI and machine learning has become even more apparent over the past year through a series of publicized use cases. NXP Semiconductors N.V., which announced earlier this year that it was moving its electronic design workloads to AWS, had already been using Amazon QuickSight’s machine learning intelligence service to increase workflow efficiency. And AWS signed a deal in February with the National Hockey League to provide AI and machine learning infrastructure for channeling video and real-time stats.

“AWS, along with Microsoft, seem to be getting stronger, especially in the all-important categories related to machine intelligence or AI and database,” Vellante said in an analysis published for SiliconANGLE. “To be an essential infrastructure technology player in the data era, it would seem obvious that you must have database and/or data management intellectual property in your portfolio, along with AI, or you’ll be less valuable to customers and investors.”

Livestream of AWS re:Invent 2021

AWS re:Invent 2021 is a livestream event, with additional interviews to be broadcasted on theCUBE. You can register for a full conference pass here or register to attend the conference virtually for free. Plus, you can watch theCUBE’s event coverage here live, as well as on demand after the event.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch the live coverage of AWS re:Invent, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify, which you can enjoy while on the go.

Guests

Guest appearing on theCUBE during AWS re:Invent include General Keith Alexander, founder and co-chief executive officer of IronNet Cybersecurity; Ralph Munsen, chief information officer of Warner Music Group; Ali Zafar, senior director of platform strategy and operations at DropBox; Garrick Linn, architect and in charge of operations at Match Group; and Fred Swaniker, founder and chief curator at The Room.

TheCUBE will also speak with Dave Lehanski, senior vice president of business development and global partnerships at the National Hockey League; Rob Smedley, director of data systems at Formula 1; Linda Jojo, executive vice president of technology and chief digital officer of United Airlines; Marc Rouanne, executive vice president and chief network officer of Dish Network; Sandy Carter,  vice president of worldwide public sector partners and programs at Amazon Web Services; and Sumit Dhawan, president of VMware.

Other guests appearing on theCUBE will be Linda Tong, general manager at AppDynamics; Lisa Lorenzin, senior director for transformation strategy at Zscaler; Rik Tamm-Daniels, VP of strategic ecosystems and technology for Informatica; Jessica Alexander, VP of cloud product sales and alliances at CrowdStrike; and Bob Breitel, VP of strategic partnerships at IBM; and Manu Parbhakar, head of strategic partnerships at AWS.

Plus, theCUBE will interview Stephen Manley, chief technology officer at Druva; John Kodumal, co-founder and chief technology officer of LaunchDarkly; Jonsi Thorgrimur Stefansson, chief technology officer and VP of cloud at NetApp; Ian Buck, GM and VP for Tesla Data Center Business at Nvidia; Rob Lee, chief technology officer of Pure Storage; Joe Fernandes, VP and GM of core cloud platforms at Red Hat; and Danny Allan, chief technology officer at Veeam Software.

For a complete list of guests joining theCUBE, click here.

(TheCUBE is a paid media partner for AWS re:Invent. AWS and other sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage have no editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SilconANGLE