Re:Invent keynote speeches unlock big Twitter reaction

The biggest attractions at Amazon Web Services' annual cloud conference were neither the blackjack tables nor the buffets. AWS users flock to re:Invent for a variety of reasons, and one main reason is to hear what the cloud provider's leadership will announce in its re:Invent keynote speeches.

This year's AWS re:Invent keynote spotlighted new capabilities for Amazon Kinesis, a variety of cloud migration tools, security and compliance, the Internet of Things, containers, mobile app development, new instances and AWS Lambda.

The AWS audience devoured the news and speculated almost immediately on the possibilities. Using the hashtag "#reInvent," hordes of cloud computing professionals took to Twitter to express their thoughts on the most recent string of services.

Farewell Oracle - new schema conversion tool and database migration service from @awscloud should remove proprietary db lock in #reInvent

— James Valentine (@jamesvnz) October 7, 2015

AWS Database Migration Service stirred up buzz from several Twitter users, who saw AWS' first re:Invent keynote of the week as a challenge to several traditional enterprise vendors. AWS claims the tool is quick to set up, and the announcement also included AWS Schema Conversion Tool and MariaDB to further ease database transitions to the cloud.

RDS now supports mariadb. Not a very big announcement, but cool! #reinvent

— Laurent Bernaille (@lbernail) October 7, 2015

AWS added support for MariaDB -- an SQL database growing in popularity -- that admins can run from the AWS Management Console, command-line interface, Relational Database Service API or a CloudFormation template.

#aws wants you off oracle like now, and they are building the lifeboats #reinvent pic.twitter.com/Q3hvaVe7sF

— Brandon Rich (@BrandonRich) October 7, 2015

Several tweeters speculated that the announcements from AWS Senior Vice President Andy Jassy came as a direct shot at legacy technology and software makers, including Oracle.

#AWS Snowball. The world's heaviest Kindle case. #reInvent

— J P (@JPoForenso) October 7, 2015

For the most skeptical and data-intensive cloud migrators, AWS unveiled a new petabyte-scale tool to help integrate data with the cloud. AWS Snowball is a physical storage device similar in size to a desktop computer that Amazon ships to customers. IT teams can then plug it in and transfer up to 100 TB of data to the appliance. This method could be useful for companies in remote areas with poor bandwidth or huge amounts of data that would take days to transfer to the cloud. Snowball also comes with a built-in Amazon Kindle that doubles as a UPS shipping label. The Snowball is durable -- as AWS was proud to demonstrate -- but its physical quirks made for some snarky comments.

Firehose, snowball & now database migration service. #aws is making is easier, faster, cheaper to migrate to their platform #reInvent

— Anand (@anand_kuliza) October 7, 2015

Amazon Kinesis Firehose introduces a fully managed service for streaming data. AWS customers can collect data from sensors and other sources, removing the need for developers to build applications to handle that data. Instead, enterprises can use Kinesis Firehose as a service to implement data from the Internet of Things or elsewhere.

Amazon Kinesis Firehose. love the encryption & KMS integration #reinvent

— Mark Nunnikhoven (@marknca) October 7, 2015

Kinesis Firehouse has some intriguing capabilities, allowing users to batch, compress and encrypt data to reduce the amount of storage needed. Data can be encrypted using an AWS Key Management Service (KMS) after it is delivered to an Amazon Simple Storage Service bucket.

Auditors all over the world got a little happy.. AWS Config Rules .. #reInvent pic.twitter.com/yG8HbGJNAI

— A Cloud Guru (@acloudguru) October 7, 2015

The cloud administrator crowd got a tool to rave about, as Amazon unveiled AWS Config Rules. With the tool, rules can be placed on specific resources to make sure all resources are secure and being used efficiently. Each custom rule is established as an AWS Lambda function, which makes the necessary calls to other AWS APIs to keep resources in check. The product could help prevent unauthorized cloud use and sprawl.

#Amazon #Inspector Essentially a vuln scanner for #AWS. Potentially a big value add for folks running on #AWS

— W. David Winslow (@wdwinslow) October 7, 2015

Amazon rolled right into another security announcement after Config Rules, revealing Amazon Inspector. The product holds a metaphorical magnifying glass to applications, assessing weaknesses in security settings according to best practices. Inspector provides a detailed report and proper steps to alleviate vulnerabilities.

Sweet, #docker compose support for #aws ECS! #reinvent

— Steve Sloka (@stevesloka) October 8, 2015

ECS is looking more complete, including a native registry. I’ll be more interested when it’s containers-only, no EC2 fleet. #reinvent

— Jeff Waugh (@jdub) October 8, 2015

As expected, containerization was a big topic of conversation. AWS unveiled several new levels of functionality for Docker containers within Amazon EC2 Container Service (ECS). The Amazon EC2 Container Registry (ECR) manages containers to allow developers to store, manage and deploy Docker images as needed.

Further easing container usage in AWS, the cloud provider released AZ-Aware Scheduler, Docker integration with Compose to help define multi-container apps in AWS and a new ECS command-line interface. The container evolution pleased several members of the Twitter universe.

AWS lambda gets a huge shot in the arm: scheduled, long running functions with retry logic and Python support #aws #reinvent

— kefabean (@kefabean) October 8, 2015

My hallelujah moment: lambda in python! #reInvent

— Mency Woo (@mencywoo) October 8, 2015

Serverless computing is seeing a big charge of its own, and Amazon obliged customers looking for greater functionality within AWS Lambda. Lambda announcements included new VPC support, longer-running functions and custom retry logic. But the largest positive reaction came when AWS CTO and VP Werner Vogels announced support for the Python programming language.

How can one company be the biggest startup killer and enabler at the same time #aws #reinvent #reinvent2015 #innovate

— Habeeb Rahman (@habi_pk) October 8, 2015

Not all attendees see the rapid evolution of AWS' products and services as a treat. While AWS reiterated its desire to evolve as quickly as possible, some AWS users and third-party tool vendors expressed concern -- tongue-in-cheek or otherwise -- about how AWS' rapid expansion often makes those smaller third-party tool companies obsolete.