The story of the rise of cloud computing and its impact on the technology industry begins with one word: innovation.

The growth of Amazon Web Services Inc. and its public cloud platform has been accompanied by a wave of innovative new technologies spanning AI, cybersecurity, data management, DevOps and open source. This innovation has fueled a startup community that has continued to expand, generating new solutions for a host of technologies all built on top of the cloud platform.

“Cloud computing is changing the game on what SaaS means, and this is leading to a new trend in the creation of superclouds,” said John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s livestreaming studio. “As digital transformation, machine learning and AI drive rapid change, there are new companies emerging that are poised to take over existing market categories or industry verticals that have been dominated by slow-moving incumbents.”

It is impossible to capture the scope of cloud innovation in one interview or story, which is why theCUBE embarked on a new series last year, in cooperation with AWS, to provide context and insight for the innovation sea change taking place in the public cloud.

In a special series of conversations with founders and thought leaders within the AWS startup ecosystem, theCUBE set out to define a clearer picture of the innovation underway, from breakthroughs in cloud management tools and analytics to new technologies for data lakes, governance and application security. The AWS Startup Showcase Series began last March with a focus on innovation in CloudData and CloudOps. A year later, it now includes more than 50 exclusive interviews with founding CEOs, venture capitalists, AWS executives, and leaders from a wide range of vertical industries that have embraced the enterprise cloud.

Below is the complete Guide to the AWS Startup series, with regular updates as an ongoing project, exclusive to theCUBE.

Join us as we review the startups featured during the AWS Startup Showcases held to date:

Season 1 Episode 1: Innovations with CloudData & CloudOps

As data drives business momentum and technology advancement, it is also growing at a phenomenal rate. Managing data at cloud-scale means developing tools for real-time analytics and insight that can be deployed rapidly and scaled to handle a massive volume of information.

Reltio unified data sources to deliver customer context in real-time

Businesses want a single source of truth and contextual context for data. Reltio Inc. sets out to deliver both, as explained in this interview with co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Manish Sood.

WireWheel turns data privacy and compliance into packaged solution with impact beyond business

Businesses need to protect customer data, but the challenge is finding the right tools to make that happen. Justin Antonipillai, founder and chief executive of WireWheel Inc., described how his startup turned meeting privacy requirements into an integral part of the business.

How a memo from Jeff Bezos catalyzed Kong’s quest to connect APIs for the enterprise

Amazon’s founder recognized early on that APIs would be the future for developing software. He became an investor in Kong Inc., and Kong’s Mike Bilodeau, director of corporate development and operations, explained how his company’s solution helped customers manage API growth.

Watch the complete video interview here:

Cloud, AI and your thermostat: Meet the DERs electric grid of the future

Small-scale distributed energy resources, or DERs, generate local power to the grid. AutoGrid Systems Inc. leveraged the cloud to harness power from the DER, as outlined by Amit Narayan, AutoGrid’s founder and CEO.

BigID brings a new era of data security, privacy and governance to the cloud

BigID Inc. offers a solution to control data sprawl and rapidly scan growing data reserves. William Murphy, vice president of business development and technology alliances at BigID, highlighted the startup’s contribution to data governance.

MontyCloud tackles ongoing complexity of CloudOps with autonomous platform

DevOps is integrating with CloudOps, and automation can provide a seamless feedback loop to fix bugs and guarantee uptime in cloud operations. Venkat Krishnamachari, co-founder and chief executive officer, described how MontyCloud Inc.’s autonomous CloudOps platform streamlined enterprise IT.

Watch the complete video interview here:

Cordial channels data for clients to provide real-time, empathetic messaging

Is it possible to use data with empathy? Christy Parrish, director of client success at Cordial Experience Inc., and Hailey Pettit, CRM manager at Nurx Inc., discussed how data-driven, personally-directed messaging has transformed the customer journey.

Knowledge graphs provide smart database management across hybrid computing environment

As data becomes dispersed, from on-premises out to the edge, businesses need tools that can provide an end-to-end view. Rob Harns, VP of solutions consulting at Stardog Union Inc., revealed how his company unified data across silos using knowledge graphs.

Amplitude uses personalization to satisfy Chick-fil-A’s appetite for success

Real-time data analytics create personalization models that enhance the customer experience. This was highlighted in an interview with Justin Bauer, senior VP of product at Amplitude Inc., who described how his company customized a menu for customers of Chick-fil-A.

Dremio offers alternative to data copies and data warehouses through robust lake architecture

Large datasets stored in data lakes present a challenge for organizations seeking meaningful business insight. Robert Maybin, principal architect at Dremio Corp., discussed a solution to run live, interactive queries against stored petabyte-level data.

Watch the complete video interview here:

Free to focus on innovation, AWS Startup ecosystem thrives on data

The market for startup companies in the data management space offers significant opportunity. To level-set expectations for fledgling technology firms, theCUBE interviewed Mike Feinstein, principal business development manager at AWS; Ben Haines, CIO advisor at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; and Michael Skok, founding partner at Underscore VC.

5 key findings you might have missed

TheCUBE’s first Showcase event covered a lot of ground in data innovation and shed new light on a wide range of key topics and trends. This wrap-up captured several additional key elements from numerous interviews, including AWS’ new independent software vendor initiative and the rise of service mesh technology.

Season 1 Episode 2: The Next Big Things in AI, Security & Life Sciences

AI is beginning to play a more significant role in cybersecurity, driven by advances in machine learning for anomaly detection, threat intelligence and malware variant identification. Advanced technologies are also leading to major progress for companies in the life sciences field, as seen through the rollout of effective COVID-19 vaccines in record time. The birth of new companies in these important areas served as the focus for Season 1, Episode 2 of the AWS Startup Showcase Series on theCUBE.

Keynote analysis: AWS Startup Showcase on the future-ready tech gaining enterprise traction

Resources from multiple cloud providers can be leveraged to build large-scale distributed infrastructures, and AI can be applied in cloud-native ways for optimal organization of critical data. These are just a few of the topics covered in an exclusive interview with Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO of Databricks Inc., and separate conversations with Jeff Barr, VP and chief evangelist at AWS, and S. Somasegar, managing director at Madrona Venture Group.

Explorium advises enterprises on improving and speeding up analytical machine learning

Successful training of AI models depends on augmenting internal data with external information. This is a challenging task, and Explorium Inc. has been working on a solution that provides a curated data-source catalog to integrate internal with external material, as explained by Zach Booth, director of global partnerships and channels at Explorium.

Sonrai Security helps World Fuel Services go from 22 to 2 datacenters

A smaller datacenter footprint can reduce security exposure. Avi Boru, director of cloud engineering at World Fuel Services, was joined in his interview by Sandy Bird, co-founder and CTO of Sonrai Security Inc., to describe how his company implemented Sonrai’s security controls and created an operating model that dramatically reduced its datacenter exposure.

Watch the complete video interview here:

Abacus Insights creates innovative data environment to accelerate healthcare analytics journey

Abacus Insights Inc. is on a mission to break down silos of healthcare information locked in legacy systems. Krishna Kottapalli, chief commercial officer at Abacus and Sumant Rao, chief product and operations officer for the company, discussed ways that an interoperability platform can integrate and share data across the healthcare landscape.

ChaosSearch helps BAI apply large-scale log analytics to build transit of the future

The flow of people in and out of urban transit systems in large cities generates a significant amount of useful data for transport operators. The problem is how to rapidly gain insights from this information to move passengers more efficiently. Jeremy Foran, head of data analytics at BAI Communications Pty. Ltd., and Thomas Hazel, founder and chief technology and science officer at ChaosSearch, discussed their collaborative data analytics solution.

Anitian enables SaaS enterprises to take the fastest path to cloud security and compliance

SaaS vendors in the public sector market often have daunting requirements to meet regarding cloud security and compliance. Anitian Inc. has developed a solution that promises to speed this process. Rakesh Narasimhan, president and CEO of Anitian, and Aditya Muppavarapu, global segment leader of DevOps at AWS, discussed a partnership between the two companies to provide automated compliance solutions.

Watch the complete video interview here:

Aizon AI helps drive key pharma manufacturing process and global vaccination

The life science field has confronted significant challenges over the past two years in the wake of a global pandemic. Toni Manzano, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Aizon Inc., described how the firm’s integration of data across manufacturing sites enabled it to gain operational intelligence for pharma companies during a critical time.

Fiddler Labs opens AI ‘black box’ to solve bias problem and enable compliance

Concerns about bias in AI training models have led to enterprise interest in explainability for how automated decisions are being made. Fiddler Labs Inc. is tackling the issue of modern AI monitoring and bias detection, as described in an interview with Krishna Gade, founder and CEO of Fiddler, and Amit Paka, chief product officer.

Cequence Security increases visibility to shield APIs from bad traffic

Application programming interfaces or APIs have proven to be powerful tools for integrating applications with the modern web experience. This also makes them highly prized by threat actors. Subbu Iyer, VP of product management at Cequence Security Inc., discussed his firm’s recent work to provide greater API visibility and protection.

Olive bets on humanized, empathetic AI to build the internet of healthcare

While the application of AI tools has shown promise in the delivery of clinical solutions for the healthcare industry, it also offers new opportunities for the administrative side as well. Rohan D’Souza, CPO at Olive AI Inc., explained how his company built AI solutions to improve efficiency, reduce cost and strengthen patient care.

Coralogix reimagines observability as cloud computing accelerates

Analyze everything and only store what matters. This is the approach taken by log analytics startup Coralogix Ltd., which has applied its solution to one of the largest telcos in India. Ariel Assaraf, CEO of Coralogix, explained how his firm reduced digital exhaust using a state-store versus log-store strategy.

Lacework scales up automated security across cloud workloads and containers

Enterprises want to safely innovate in the cloud at the speed of DevOps but have been hampered by security concerns. Adam Leftik, VP of product at Lacework Inc., and Arun Sankaran, chief information security officer at LendingTree Inc., discussed how Lacework built machine learning models for IT protection without requiring users to write rules.

Watch the complete video interview here:

TetraScience empowers pharma industry with R&D Data Cloud to advance life sciences

A full cloud for the pharma vertical may be just what the industry needs for intensive lab research. TetraScience Inc.’s Mike Tarselli, chief scientific officer, and Michelle Bradbury, VP of product, outlined ways that pharma can leverage a data cloud to automate the research and development process.

Securonix powers next-gen SIEM with Ahana Cloud for Presto and open data lake analytics

A partnership between Securonix Inc. and Ahana Cloud Inc. has resulted in a new platform to deliver real-time security insights for business. Securonix CEO Sachin Nayyar and Ahana CEO Steven Mih described how the joint solution offered technology for high-speed searchable data using the distributed SQL query engine Presto.

Orca’s new agentless approach to cybersecurity eliminates cloud blind spots

Understanding risk in the compute environment is key to securing it. Orca Security Ltd. uses a SaaS delivery model to read the block storage of every compute instance and reduce risk. Gil Geron, co-founder and CPO at Orca, highlighted his company’s cloud-focused solution that propelled it to unicorn status in only two years.

Protegrity protects kinetic data by making it worthless in the wrong hands

What if a ransomware attack resulted in theft of customer data that turned out to be useless for the bad guys? This ideal scenario is the solution offered by Protegrity Inc., which used tokenization as a substitute for sensitive data elements. Rick Farnell, Protegrity’s president and CEO, described how his company protected data at rest and in motion.

VC and industry leaders say enterprise climate is promising for startups, but practitioner contact will be key

There’s a modernization movement in the enterprise, and startup companies are cashing in. This was one of the conclusions from a panel of veteran industry leaders who analyzed the state of the startup community. Wing Venture Capital’s Peter Wagner, Madrona Venture Group’s Katie Drucker, and technologist Sarbjeet Johal made their case in an in-depth panel interview.

5 key findings you might have missed

There were several intriguing insights generated from the many interviews as part of theCUBE’s Season 1, Episode 2 Startup Showcase event. These included greater interest in technology for processing data from space exploration, growing influence of cloud regions, increased use of compliance automation, and greenfield opportunities for startups in urban communities.

Season 1 Episode 3: New Breakthroughs in DevOps, Data Analytics & Cloud Management Tools

DevOps and the ability to successfully generate insight from data have become key differentiators between success or failure in the modern business. Much of Amazon’s own success can be attributed to its successful implementation of a DevOps model and effective cloud management to drive a thriving bookselling operation in its early days. The evolution of DevOps and  in the cloud was a central topic for Season 1, Episode 3 of the AWS Startup Showcase Series on theCUBE.

AWS Startup Showcase opening session spotlights changing DevOps model and potential challenge for cloud incumbents

The future role of DevOps in the cloud took center stage as theCUBE kicked off its coverage of the third episode in the Startup Series. Technologist Emily Freeman, venture capitalist Jerry Chen, and AWS’ Jeff Barr provided insights.

Bring on the DevOps revolution: AWS’ chief evangelist previews future of cloud computing

The cloud and DevOps have fueled growth in the startup ecosystem, and AWS’ sizable platform has played a central role. Jeff Barr, VP and chief evangelist at AWS, assessed how cloud infrastructure scaled to meet the growing business needs of startup companies.

Startups take advantage of white space to storm the big three ‘cloud castles’

Cloud-native startups are beginning to challenge AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud for cloud supremacy. That was one of the conclusions drawn from a white paper prepared by Greylock Partners. Venture capitalist Jerry Chen explained the white paper’s findings and offered his perspective on a transformed database market.

Watch the complete interview here:

‘DevOps for Dummies’ author Emily Freeman introduces revolutionary model for modern software development

Technologist Emily Freeman is on a mission to create a DevOps model that more accurately reflects the reality of modern cloud-native software development. The author explained how DevOps has evolved and why it needs to change and meet the needs of a fast-moving data-centric world.

Ascend.io partners with Steady Platform to pull DevOps principles into the data world

While working with a customer, Steady Platform Inc., Ascend.io created new products and services based on data processes more suited to the DevOps world. Sean Knapp, founder and CEO of Ascend.io, and Jason Robinson, VP of data science and engineering at Steady Platform, discussed new ways to orchestrate and automate a customer’s entire data and analytics pipeline.

Okera sets sights on data authorization for the enterprise amid heightened regulatory climate

Increased enforcement of privacy regulations has kept data compliance on the front burner for many companies. Nong Li, founder and CTO of Okera Inc., and Sanjeev Mohan, principal at SanjMo, described how Okera’s data authorization solution has adapted to meet compliance needs for the cloud-based enterprise.

Watch the complete interview here:

Governance, security and data access: How Privacera offers a platform to ensure all three

The challenge facing many businesses is how to provide maximum access to critical data while keeping it compliant and secure. Privacera Inc. has tackled the problem through AI-enabled data discovery, centralized data access control, encryption and masking. Co-founder and CEO Balaji Ganesan explained how Privacera built its solution for multicloud and hybrid cloud needs.

Seesaw and Rockset team up to provide data insight, stability for U.S. schools

Two years of a global pandemic has led to significant disruption for U.S. schools. Carl Sjogreen, co-founder and CPO of Seesaw Learning Inc., and Venkat Venkataramani, co-founder and CEO of Rockset Inc., discussed how Seesaw leveraged Rockset’s rapid data analytics capabilities to improve the online learning process.

Building interactive data apps: Inside ThoughtSpot Everywhere’s open developer-centric platform

Customer-facing apps may look pretty, but how useful are they? ThoughtSpot Inc. set out to address this question by creating a self-service, interactive experience for the modern application. Victor Chang, VP of ThoughtSpot Everywhere, described his firm’s approach to improving the experience for both developers and customers.

Watch the complete interview here:

Saint Louis University turns to MontyCloud for automated cloud operations

The monitoring, maintenance and troubleshooting necessary to keep IT infrastructure running smoothly are being transformed by MontyCloud Inc. Venkat Krishnamachari, co-founder and CEO of MontyCloud, and Shruthi Sreenivasa Murthy, solutions architect for Saint Louis University, discussed how the school leveraged the startup’s automation platform to bring data processing down from two weeks to three days.

The arrival of next-gen CloudOps is here, says startup nOps

There are plenty of cloud-based tools and dashboards that generate alerts. The challenge is how to fix potential problems once surfaced. JT Giri, founder and CEO of nOps Inc. described his firm’s approach to managing infrastructure and creating internal accountability for resolving operational issues.

Opsani champions AI-driven, solution focused approach to cloud app management

Juggling cost, performance and the customer experience in the cloud can be a delicate balancing act for many businesses. Pat Conte, CCO at Opsani, discussed ways that AI and machine learning can optimize a cloud application’s key parameters through a focus on AIOps.

OpsRamp bets on AI, automation to solve critical availability problem for modern business

Service availability and performance issues can still plague even the most robust applications. OpsRamp Inc.’s Michael Fisher, director of product management, and Jordan Sher, VP of corporate marketing, discussed why availability in the modern enterprise is really about enabling the application to serve users in a way that works for the business.

Watch the complete interview here:

HackerOne powers DevOps-security connection to strengthen cloud application protection

Friction between DevOps and security teams can lead to barriers that ultimately put the organization at risk. Alex Rice, founder and CTO at HackerOne Inc., described how his startup relied on a bug bounty model and “ethical hackers” to strengthen cloud application security and break down organizational roadblocks.

Harness tackles ‘hated’ DevOps tasks with its intelligent automated platform

The choice between speed and quality in software delivery is an age-old problem. Software delivery startup Harness Inc. has addressed this issue through the use of automation governance and AI. Nick Durkin, field CTO at Harness, explained how his startup analyzed data and measured the impact of various deployments or code changes.

Lumigo brings ZeroOps to developers with serverless monitoring, troubleshooting platform

As the use of cloud and serverless applications has grown, so has the need for monitoring and debugging as part of the development process. Erez Burkner, co-founder and CEO of Lumigo Ltd., and Kevin O’Neill, CTO of Flexible Finance Inc., highlighted a focus on tracing solutions to find the root cause of an application issue and provide a simple fix.

Sysdig spends unicorn cash as platform expands to solve cloud and container security, visibility challenges

Security for cloud, container and Kubernetes environments has remained a top priority in the enterprise community. To address this need, Sysdig Inc. has built tools from open-source technology for greater protection. Knox Anderson, VP of product management at Sysdig, explained how his firm automated the application lifecycle and integrated security into the DevOps workflow.

WhiteSource helps build developer trust for successful scaling of open-source security

Developers know they need to be mindful of security, but time-to-market pressures might push awareness to the back burner. Susan StClair, director of product management at White Source Ltd., described how her startup automated the scanning and remediation process for software dependencies to make developers’ lives easier.

Watch the complete interview here:

HelloFresh team transitions to data mesh with governance and buy-in from users

Highly decentralized data architecture, known as a data mesh, is being pioneered by the startup HelloFresh SE. Christopher Sawade and Clemence Chee, global senior directors of data at HelloFresh, discussed the German company’s transition to a data mesh model, with a stronger focus on standards and governance.

5 key findings you might have missed

In a look back at the many interviews from the third episode in the AWS Startup Showcase event, several key insights stood out. These included a transition away from traditional DevOps, the rise of CloudOps, and maturation of the API-driven data mesh as important takeaways from the Showcase discussion.

Season 2 Episode 1: Open Cloud Innovations

Interest in cloud-native computing has surged with the popularity of container management tools such as Kubernetes and growing adoption of open source in general. Along with the rise of cloud native has been a fostering of startup companies to facilitate new technologies in the cloud-native space. For Season 2, Episode 1, theCUBE spoke with participating Showcase startups to take a closer look at the firms behind this trend.

It’s still early days for machine learning as AWS works with startup community to foster new technologies

Machine learning has been around for awhile, but a senior executive at AWS believes that the technology is still in its infancy. In the opening session of the Startup Showcase, Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of database, analytics and machine learning at AWS, explained how the cloud provider has fine tuned its machine learning strategy. Also interviewed was Serge Shevchenko, global startup partner development manager of developer tools at AWS.

AWS’ Deepak Singh highlights open-source contributions, Graviton impact, and the key role of startup partners

Open source remains the default option when it comes to building new tools internally or contributing to the tech community at large, according to Deepak Singh, VP of compute services at AWS. The cloud provider’s senior executive delivered keynote remarks during the Startup Series kickoff, during which he discussed key projects of interest to his company. Singh also participated in an in-depth interview with theCUBE.

Watch the complete Keynote video here:

AWS Heroes Panel spotlights open-source community, security and funding

Leaders who share AWS knowledge and facilitate peer-to-peer learning within the developer community are part of the firm’s Heroes program. Erica Windisch, Liz Rice, Brian LeRoux and Casey Lee discussed their various roles in the open-source ecosystem, as well as the current status for a number of key projects of keen interest to developers.

In wake of Log4j crisis, Tidelift’s open-source solution eliminates hidden code vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities in the Apache Log4j Java logging tool recently exposed millions of systems around the world to attack. Donald Fischer, co-founder and CEO of Tidelift Inc., explained how his company provided security support for Log4j-like components and tracked third-party open source flowing into applications. Find out more in theCUBE’s pre-event interview with Tidelift.

Runtime security receives major boost from Sysdig’s open-source Falco

Open-source Falco provides continuous risk and threat detection across containers, Kubernetes and the cloud. Loris Degioanni, founder and CTO of Sysdig, discussed Falco’s role as an enterprise “security camera” to monitor anomalous behavior and protect workloads. Find out more in theCUBE’s pre-event interview with Sysdig.

Watch the complete video interview here:

Instaclustr unlocks open-cloud innovations through managed services

SaaS provider Instaclustr Pty. Ltd. is providing a convenient on-ramp for users interested in open source. Instacluster’s Ben Bromhead, co-founder and CTO, and CEO Pete Lille, described the company’s focus on building a ready-to-use database of open-source tools that were unencumbered for developer use. Find out more in theCUBE’s pre-event interview with Instaclustr.

How open-source Kubecost is eliminating container overspend

Container management costs money, and Kubecost Inc. has built its business around expense monitoring and management solutions for Kubernetes and cloud-native applications. Alex Thilen, head of business development at Kubecost, joined company CEO Webb Brown to discuss how the startup provides container cost management in the enterprise. Find out more in theCUBE’s pre-event interview with Kubecost.

From open-source to proprietary code, Snyk helps secure development environments

Ensuring the security of open-source code can be a challenge when contributors number in the thousands. Ravi Maira, head of product and partner marketing at Snyk Ltd., explained how his company leverages developer expertise to resolve potential issues. Find out more in theCUBE’s pre-event interview with Snyk.

Watch the complete video interview here:

Patreon achieves enterprise-scale DevOps mastery with Armory + Spinnaker

When an outage slowed Patreon Inc.’s payment processing operation, the IT staff turned to open-source tool Spinnaker and Armory Inc. to solve the issue. Patreon’s Ian Delahorne, staff site reliability engineer, joined Andrew Backes, head of engineering at Armory, to discuss Spinnaker’s role and Armory’s pipelines-as-code module. Find out more in theCUBE’s pre-event interview with Armory and Patreon.

Weaveworks empowers developers to build software faster with GitOps model

Automation can now manage applications in production, thanks to a solution developed by Weaveworks Inc. The company’s chief operating officer, Steve George, and technical marketing manager, Steve Waterworth, explained how Weaveworks leveraged the technology behind Git repositories to provide an automated solution. Find out more in theCUBE’s pre-event interview with Weaveworks.

Watch the complete video interview here:

Codefresh conquers DevOps with visible ‘code to cloud’ journey on single dashboard

As containers have become more prevalent in enterprise IT, so has the need for a single view into operations. Codefresh Inc. uses Argo open source to provide a dashboard capability for application workflows. Codefresh’s Raziel Tabib, co-founder and CEO, and Dan Garfield, co-founder and chief open-source officer, discussed how the firm streamlined cloud-native application deployment.

3 insights you might have missed from the AWS Startup Showcase: Open Cloud Innovations

An open-source project for software supply chain security is gaining traction with developers, and startups are building innovative solutions on top of Kubernetes. These are two of the insights gathered from the AWS Startup Showcase, as theCUBE takes a glimpse back at a few key points viewers might have overlooked.

Make sure to check out all of the AWS Startup Showcases aired in Season 1, as well as the start of Season 2.

Image: lassedesignen