Amazon Web Services has called on companies to leave behind on-premise servers in favor of a cloud-only model that supports a more rapid pace of innovation.
Speaking during a keynote session at AWS Summit London, the company’s VP Analytics, BI and ML, Matt Wood, highlighted the speed with which developers can now build and deploy new services and applications, courtesy of the public cloud.
“It’s easy to forget, but it hasn’t always been this way. Life was painful before the cloud,” he said. “[The complexities of on-prem means] all the excitement around an idea would dissipate before developers get the chance to execute – and there’s nothing more demoralizing.”
“But now, so many companies are taking elastic infrastructure, delivered as a service, and developing and deploying extraordinary services at speed.”
An engine for driving ideas
The core objective at AWS is to give as broad a range of customers (from the largest enterprises to the smallest development teams) the ability to execute on as broad a range of ideas as possible, Wood explained.
“AWS is an engine for driving new ideas and satisfying your curiosity,” he told the Summit audience. “We want to help you follow your nose.”
To ensure developers have access to all the tooling they could possibly need, AWS is eager to expand its already sprawling service portfolio. In 2021, AWS is said to have shipped upwards of 3,000 “major new capabilities”, with a similar number set to follow this year.
“Over the last decade, the conversation has moved from why we should move to the cloud, to how we can move to the cloud. And customers are basing their selection of cloud platform on which has the broadest and deepest service capabilities,” said Wood.
“Once you’re in the door, you don’t want barriers between your idea and the delivery, prototyping and scaling of that idea – no matter what it is.”
