Data lakes helped turn object storage into one of the most important layers in modern data infrastructure.

As AWS approaches the 20th anniversary of Amazon S3 on March 14 — a date known as Pi Day because 3/14 corresponds to the mathematical constant π — theCUBE analysts will reflect on how a simple storage service grew into the backbone for analytics platforms, enterprise workflows and AI pipelines. During the “AWS Pi Day 20th Year Celebration,” theCUBE Research’s Rob Strechay spoke with AWS Vice President and Distinguished Engineer Andy Warfield about S3’s role in enabling data lakes, as well as theCUBE’s Dave Vellante as part of a special AnalystANGLE segment.

“Twenty years later, S3 holds over 500 trillion objects, serves more than a quadrillion requests per year, powers over a million data lakes and underpins AI workloads all over the place,” Strechay said. “During the event, we’ll unpack how a service that started as cloud storage has become foundational infrastructure for the internet and now for the AI era.”

Join theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, on March 14 for Strechay’s exclusive interview with Warfield. Plus, don’t miss his analyst discussion with Vellante. Up for discussion is how Amazon S3 evolved from object storage into a foundation for analytics, applications and AI data infrastructure. (* Disclosure below.)

How data lakes reshaped the role of cloud storage

The rise of data lakes changed how organizations think about storage architecture. Instead of isolated repositories, companies increasingly rely on a shared data foundation where analytics engines, applications and research workflows can operate against the same datasets, according to Vellante.

“Now, two decades later, S3 has evolved beyond the allure of simple GET/PUT syntax for object storage,” he said. “S3 has become a foundational data layer for analytics, security, compliance and, more recently, AI-era workloads.”

That shift has also expanded the types of workloads built on top of object storage. Media processing pipelines, scientific research and large-scale analytics increasingly treat S3 not as a storage endpoint, but as a core component of application architecture, Strechay explained.

“If you look at how many data lakes are built on top of S3, there are over a million in there right now,” he said. “When you start to look at things like the Hadoop S3A connector, which allowed Hadoop to actually utilize S3 as the underlying storage, that was a big change in how it became more than just storage and started to serve as the underlying fabric for these other data applications.”

TheCUBE event livestream

Don’t miss theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Pi Day 20th Year Celebration on March 14. Plus, you can watch theCUBE’s event coverage on demand after the live event.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer various ways to watch theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Pi Day 20th Year Celebration, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s event on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE podcasts

SiliconANGLE’s “theCUBE Pod” is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, which you can enjoy while on the go. During each podcast, SiliconANGLE’s John Furrier and Dave Vellante unpack the biggest trends in enterprise tech — from AI and cloud to regulation and workplace culture — with exclusive context and analysis.

SiliconANGLE also produces our weekly “Breaking Analysis” program, where Dave Vellante examines the top stories in enterprise tech, combining insights from theCUBE with spending data from Enterprise Technology Research, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Guests

During theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Pi Day 20th Year Celebration, the conversations will reflect how Amazon S3 became the backbone of the data architectures driving analytics and AI. Stay tuned for more insights and analysis from the event.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the AWS Pi Day 20th Year Celebration. Neither AWS, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Image: SiliconANGLE