Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Announcing AWS Parallel Computing Service to run HPC workloads at virtually any scale

Today we are announcing AWS Parallel Computing Service (AWS PCS), a new managed service that helps customers set up and manage high performance computing (HPC) clusters so they seamlessly run their simulations at virtually any scale on AWS. Using the Slurm scheduler, they can work in a familiar HPC environment, accelerating their time to results instead of worrying about infrastructure.

In November 2018, we introduced AWS ParallelCluster, an AWS supported open-source cluster management tool that helps you to deploy and manage HPC clusters in the AWS Cloud. With AWS ParallelCluster, customers can also quickly build and deploy proof of concept and production HPC compute environments. They can use AWS ParallelCluster Command-Line interface, API, Python library, and the user interface installed from open source packages. They are responsible for updates, which can include tearing down and redeploying clusters. Many customers, though, have asked us for a fully managed AWS service to eliminate operational jobs in building and operating HPC environments.

AWS PCS simplifies HPC environments managed by AWS and is accessible through the AWS Management Console, AWS SDK, and AWS Command-Line Interface (AWS CLI). Your system administrators can create managed Slurm clusters that use their compute and storage configurations, identity, and job allocation preferences. AWS PCS uses Slurm, a highly scalable, fault-tolerant job scheduler used across a wide range of HPC customers, for scheduling and orchestrating simulations. End users such as scientists, researchers, and engineers can log in to AWS PCS clusters to run and manage HPC jobs, use interactive software on virtual desktops, and access data. You can bring their workloads to AWS PCS quickly, without significant effort to port code.

You can use fully managed NICE DCV remote desktops for remote visualization, and access job telemetry or application logs to enable specialists to manage your HPC workflows in one place.

AWS PCS is designed for a wide range of traditional and emerging, compute or data-intensive, engineering and scientific workloads across areas such as computational fluid dynamics, weather modeling, finite element analysis, electronic design automation, and reservoir simulations using familiar ways of preparing, executing, and analyzing simulations and computations.

Getting started with AWS Parallel Computing Service
To try out AWS PCS, you can use our tutorial for creating a simple cluster in the AWS documentation. First, you create a virtual private cloud (VPC) with an AWS CloudFormation template and shared storage in Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) within your account for the AWS Region where you will try AWS PCS. To learn more, visit Create a VPC and Create shared storage in the AWS documentation.

1. Create a cluster
In the AWS PCS console, choose Create cluster, a persistent resource for managing resources and running workloads.

Next, enter your cluster name and choose the controller size of your Slurm scheduler. You can choose Small (up to 32 nodes and 256 jobs), Medium (up to 512 nodes and 8,192 jobs), or Large (up to 2,048 nodes and 16,384 jobs) for the limits of cluster workloads. In the Networking section, choose your created VPC, subnet to launch the cluster, and security group applied to your cluster.

Optionally, you can set the Slurm configuration such as an idle time before compute nodes will scale down, a Prolog and Epilog scripts directory on launched compute nodes, and a resource selection algorithm parameter used by Slurm.

Choose Create cluster. It takes some time for the cluster to be provisioned.

2. Create compute node groups
After creating your cluster, you can create compute node groups, a virtual collection of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances that AWS PCS uses to provide interactive access to a cluster or run jobs in a cluster. When you define a compute node group, you specify common traits such as EC2 instance types, minimum and maximum instance count, target VPC subnets, Amazon Machine Image (AMI), purchase option, and custom launch configuration. Compute node groups require an instance profile to pass an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role to an EC2 instance and an EC2 launch template that AWS PCS uses to configure EC2 instances it launches. To learn more, visit Create a launch template And Create an instance profile in the AWS documentation.

To create a compute node group in the console, go to your cluster and choose the Compute node groups tab and the Create compute node group button.

You can create two compute node groups: a login node group to be accessed by end users and a job node group to run HPC jobs.

To create a compute node group running HPC jobs, enter a compute node name and select a previously-created EC2 launch template, IAM instance profile, and subnets to launch compute nodes in your cluster VPC.

Next, choose your preferred EC2 instance types to use when launching compute nodes and the minimum and maximum instance count for scaling. I chose the hpc6a.48xlarge instance type and scale limit up to eight instances. For a login node, you can choose a smaller instance, such as one c6i.xlarge instance. You can also choose either the On-demand or Spot EC2 purchase option if the instance type supports. Optionally, you can choose a specific AMI.

Choose Create. It takes some time for the compute node group to be provisioned. To learn more, visit Create a compute node group to run jobs and Create a compute node group for login nodes in the AWS documentation.

3. Create and run your HPC jobs
After creating your compute node groups, you submit a job to a queue to run it. The job remains in the queue until AWS PCS schedules it to run on a compute node group, based on available provisioned capacity. Each queue is associated with one or more compute node groups, which provide the necessary EC2 instances to do the processing.

To create a queue in the console, go to your cluster and choose the Queues tab and the Create queue button.

Enter your queue name and choose your compute node groups assigned to your queue.

Choose Create and wait while the queue is being created.

When the login compute node group is active, you can use AWS Systems Manager to connect to the EC2 instance it created. Go to the Amazon EC2 console and choose your EC2 instance of the login compute node group. To learn more, visit Create a queue to submit and manage jobs and Connect to your cluster in the AWS documentation.

To run a job using Slurm, you prepare a submission script that specifies the job requirements and submit it to a queue with the sbatch command. Typically, this is done from a shared directory so the login and compute nodes have a common space for accessing files.

You can also run a message passing interface (MPI) job in AWS PCS using Slurm. To learn more, visit Run a single node job with Slurm or Run a multi-node MPI job with Slurm in the AWS documentation.

You can connect a fully-managed NICE DCV remote desktop for visualization. To get started, use the CloudFormation template from HPC Recipes for AWS GitHub repository.

In this example, I used the OpenFOAM motorBike simulation to calculate the steady flow around a motorcycle and rider. This simulation was run with 288 cores of three hpc6a instances. The output can be visualized in the ParaView session after logging in to the web interface of DCV instance.

Finally, after you are done HPC jobs with the cluster and node groups that you created, you should delete the resources that you created to avoid unnecessary charges. To learn more, visit Delete your AWS resources in the AWS documentation.

Things to know
Here are a couple of things that you should know about this feature:

  • Slurm versions – AWS PCS initially supports Slurm 23.11 and offers mechanisms designed to enable customers to upgrade their Slurm major versions once new versions are added. Additionally, AWS PCS is designed to automatically update the Slurm controller with patch versions. To learn more, visit Slurm versions in the AWS documentation.
  • Capacity Reservations – You can reserve EC2 capacity in a specific Availability Zone and for a specific duration using On-Demand Capacity Reservations to make sure that you have the necessary compute capacity available when you need it. To learn more, visit Capacity Reservations in the AWS documentation.
  • Network file systems – You can attach network storage volumes where data and files can be written and accessed, including Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, Amazon FSx for OpenZFS, and Amazon File Cache as well as Amazon EFS and Amazon FSx for Lustre. You can also use self-managed volumes, such as NFS servers. To learn more, visit Network file systems in the AWS documentation.

Now available
AWS Parallel Computing Service is now available in the US East (N. Virginia), AWS US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (Ireland), Europe (Stockholm) Regions.

AWS PCS launches all resources in your AWS account. You will be billed appropriately for those resources. For more information, see the AWS PCS Pricing page.

Give it a try and send feedback to AWS re:Post or through your usual AWS Support contacts.

Channy

P.S. Special thanks to Matthew Vaughn, a principal developer advocate at AWS for his contribution in creating a HPC testing environment.



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Monday, August 26, 2024

AWS Weekly Roundup: S3 Conditional writes, AWS Lambda, JAWS Pankration, and more (August 26, 2024)

The AWS User Group Japan (JAWS-UG) hosted JAWS PANKRATION 2024 themed ‘No Border’. This is a 24-hour online event where AWS Heroes, AWS Community Builders, AWS User Group leaders, and others from around the world discuss topics ranging from cultural discussions to technical talks. One of the speakers at this event, Kevin Tuei, an AWS Community Builder based in Kenya, highlighted the importance of building in public and sharing your knowledge with others, a very fitting talk for this kind of event.

Last week’s launches
Here are some launches that got my attention during the previous week.

Amazon S3 now supports conditional writes – We’ve added support for conditional writes in Amazon S3 which check for existence of an object before creating it. With this feature, you can now simplify how distributed applications with multiple clients concurrently update data in parallel across shared datasets. Each client can conditionally write objects, making sure that it does not overwrite any objects already written by another client.

AWS Lambda introduces recursive loop detection APIs – With the recursive loop detection APIs you can now set recursive loop detection configuration on individual AWS Lambda functions. This allows you to turn off recursive loop detection on functions that intentionally use recursive patterns, avoiding disruption of these workloads. Using these APIs, you can avoid disruption to any intentionally recursive workflows as Lambda expands support of recursive loop detection to other AWS services. Configure recursive loop detection for Lambda functions through the Lambda Console, the AWS command line interface (CLI), or Infrastructure as Code tools like AWS CloudFormation, AWS Serverless Application Model (AWS SAM), or AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK). This new configuration option is supported in AWS SAM CLI version 1.123.0 and CDK v2.153.0.

General availability of Amazon Bedrock batch inference API – You can now use Amazon Bedrock to process prompts in batch to get responses for model evaluation, experimentation, and offline processing. Using the batch API makes it more efficient to run inference with foundation models (FMs). It also allows you to aggregate responses and analyze them in batches. To get started, visit Run batch inference.

Other AWS news
Launched in July 2024, AWS GenAI Lofts is a global tour designed to foster innovation and community in the evolving landscape of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The lofts bring collaborative pop-up spaces to key AI hotspots around the world, offering developers, startups, and AI enthusiasts a platform to learn, build, and connect. The events are ongoing. Find a location near you and be sure to attend soon.

Upcoming AWS events
AWS Summits – These are free online and in-person events that bring the cloud computing community together to connect, collaborate, and learn about AWS. Whether you’re in the Americas, Asia Pacific & Japan, or EMEA region, learn more about future AWS Summit events happening in your area. On a personal note, I look forward to being one of the keynote speakers at the AWS Summit Johannesburg happening this Thursday. Registrations are still open and I look forward to seeing you there if you’ll be attending.

AWS Community Days – Join an AWS Community Day event just like the one I mentioned at the beginning of this post to participate in technical discussions, workshops, and hands-on labs led by expert AWS users and industry leaders from your area. If you’re in New York, there’s an event happening in your area this week.

You can browse all upcoming in-person and virtual events here.

That’s all for this week. Check back next Monday for another Weekly Roundup!

– Veliswa



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Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Now open — AWS Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Region

In March of last year, Jeff Barr announced the plan for an AWS Region in Malaysia. Today, I’m pleased to share the general availability of the AWS Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Region with three Availability Zones and API name ap-southeast-5.

The AWS Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Region is the first infrastructure Region in Malaysia and the thirteenth Region in Asia Pacific, joining the existing Asia Pacific Regions in Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Jakarta, Melbourne, Mumbai, Osaka, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo and the Mainland China Beijing and Ningxia Regions.

The Petronas Twin Towers in the heart of Kuala Lumpur’s central business district.

The new AWS Region in Malaysia will play a pivotal role in supporting the Malaysian government’s strategic Madani Economy Framework. This initiative aims to improve the living standards of all Malaysians by 2030 while supporting innovation in Malaysia and across ASEAN. The construction and operation of the new AWS Region is estimated to add approximately $12.1 billion (MYR 57.3 billion) to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) and will support an average of more than 3,500 full-time equivalent jobs at external businesses annually through 2038.

The AWS Region in Malaysia will help to meet the high demand for cloud services while supporting innovation in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia.

AWS in Malaysia
In 2016, Amazon Web Services (AWS) established a presence with its first AWS office in Malaysia. Since then, AWS has provided continuous investments in infrastructure and technology to help drive digital transformations in Malaysia in support of hundreds of thousands of active customers each month.

Amazon CloudFront – In 2017, AWS announced the launch of the first edge location in Malaysia, which helps improve performance and availability for end users. Today, there are four Amazon CloudFront locations in Malaysia.

AWS Direct Connect – To continue helping our customers in Malaysia improve application performance, secure data, and reduce networking costs, in 2017, AWS announced the opening of additional Direct Connect locations in Malaysia. Today, there are two AWS Direct Connect locations in Malaysia.

AWS Outposts – As a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure and AWS services, AWS Outposts is ideal for applications that need to run on-premises to meet low latency requirements. Since 2020, customers in Malaysia have been able to order AWS Outposts to be installed at their datacenters and on-premises locations.

AWS customers in Malaysia
Cloud adoption in Malaysia has been steadily gaining momentum in recent years. Here are some examples of AWS customers in Malaysia and how they are using AWS for various workloads:

PayNet – PayNet is Malaysia’s national payments network and shared central infrastructure for the financial market in Malaysia. PayNet uses AWS to run critical national payment workloads, including the MyDebit online cashless payments system and e-payment reporting.

Pos Malaysia Berhad (Pos Malaysia) – Pos Malaysia is the national post and parcel service provider, holding the sole mandate to deliver services under the universal postal service obligation for Malaysia. They migrated critical applications to AWS, which increased their business agility and ability to deliver enhanced customer experiences. Also, they scaled their compute capacity to handle deliveries to more than 11 million addresses and a network of more than 3,500 retail touchpoints using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS), ensuring disruption-free services.

Deriv Deriv, one of the world’s largest online brokers, is using Amazon Q Business to increase productivity, efficiency, and innovation in its operations across customer support, marketing, and recruiting departments. With Amazon Q Business, Deriv has been able to boost productivity and reduce onboarding time by 45 percent.

Asia Pacific University – As one of the leading tech universities in Malaysia, Asia Pacific University (APU) uses AWS serverless technology such as Lambda to reduce operational costs. The automated scalability of AWS services has led to high availability and faster deployment that ensure APU’s applications and services are accessible to the students and staff at all times, enhancing the overall user experience. 

Aerodyne – Aerodyne Group is a DT3 (Drone Tech, Data Tech, and Digital Transformation) solutions provider of drone-based enterprise solutions. They’re running their DRONOS software as a service (SaaS) platform on AWS to help drone operators worldwide grow their businesses.

Building cloud skills together
AWS and various organizations in Malaysia have been working closely to build necessary cloud skills for builders in Malaysia. Here are some of the initiatives:

Program AKAR powered by AWS re/Start – Program AKAR is the first financial services-aligned cloud skills program initiated by AWS and PayNet. This new program aims to bridge the growing skills gap in Malaysia’s digital economy by equipping university students with transferrable skills for careers in the sector. As part of this initial collaboration, PayNet, AWS re/Start, and WEPS have committed to starting the program with 100 students in 2024, with the first 50 from Asia Pacific University serving as a pilot. 

AWS Academy — AWS Academy aims to bridge the gap between industry and academia by preparing students for industry-recognized certifications and careers in the cloud with a free and ready-to-teach cloud computing curriculum. AWS Academy currently runs courses in 48 Malaysian universities, covering various domains. Since 2018, 23,000 students have been trained through this program.

AWS Skills Guild at PETRONAS – PETRONAS, a global energy and solutions provider with a presence in over 50 countries, has been an AWS customer since 2014. AWS is also collaborating with PETRONAS to train their employees using the AWS Skills Guild program.

AWS’s contribution to sustainability in Malaysia
With The Climate Pledge, Amazon is committed to reaching net-zero carbon across its business by 2040 and is on a path to powering its operations with 100 percent renewable energy by 2025.

In September 2023, AWS announced its collaboration with Petronas and Gentari, a global clean energy company, to accelerate sustainability and decarbonization efforts in the global energy transition. Shortly after, in December 2023, AWS customer PKT Logistics Group became the first Malaysian company to join over 300 global companies in The Climate Pledge to accelerate the world’s path to net-zero carbon.

In July 2024, AWS and Zero Waste Management collaborated on the first-ever AWS InCommunities Malaysia initiative, Green Wira Programme, to train educators to build sustainability initiatives in schools to advance Malaysia’s sustainable future.

Amazon is committed to investing and innovating across its businesses to help create a more sustainable future.

Things to know
AWS Community in Malaysia – Malaysia is also home to one AWS Hero, nine AWS Community Builders and about 9,000 community members of three AWS User Groups in various cities in Malaysia. If you’re interested in joining AWS User Groups Malaysia, visit their Meetup and Facebook pages.

AWS Global footprint – With this launch, AWS now spans 108 Availability Zones within 34 geographic Regions around the world. We have also announced plans for 18 more Availability Zones and six more AWS Regions in Mexico, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.

Available now – The new Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Region is ready to support your business, and you can find a detailed list of the services available in this Region on the AWS Services by Region page.

To learn more, please visit the AWS Global Infrastructure page, and start building on ap-southeast-5!

Happy building!
— Donnie



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Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Mastering Amazon Warehousing and Distribution: A Comprehensive Guide for Sellers

Go Faster With Amazon Warehousing and Distribution

Unraveling AWD: Key Features and Benefits for Amazon Seller Central

Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) significantly advances Seller supply chain management solutions.

Launched in 2022, AWD is Amazon’s answer to the growing complexities and challenges sellers face in managing their inventory across multiple sales channels.

This service is designed to revolutionize how businesses handle their upstream inventory, offering a seamless integration with Amazon’s vast logistics network.

What is Amazon Warehousing and Distribution?

AWD is a low-cost bulk inventory storage and distribution solution engineered explicitly for long-term inventory storage and efficient distribution to Amazon fulfillment centers and other non-Amazon channels.

Its primary purpose is to address critical supply chain challenges that sellers face, particularly in areas of storage capacity, cost management, and inventory replenishment.

Key aspects of AWD’s purpose include:

  1. Solving storage dilemmas: AWD provides a solution to the common problem of insufficient storage capacity, allowing sellers to store large quantities of inventory without the need for their own warehousing facilities.
  2. Cost optimization: By offering competitive storage rates, AWD aims to reduce the overall operational costs associated with inventory management.
  3. Streamlining logistics: The service simplifies moving inventory from upstream facilities to Amazon fulfillment centers, making inventory management more efficient and less time-consuming.
  4. Enhancing inventory visibility: AWD gives sellers a centralized view of their inventory across multiple channels, improving overall supply chain transparency.
  5. Supporting multi-channel selling: The service is designed to support sellers who operate across various sales platforms, not just on Amazon.

Part of the Supply Chain by Amazon

AWD is a crucial component of the broader “Supply Chain by Amazon” initiative. This comprehensive suite of services brings Amazon’s advanced capabilities to the entire seller supply chain, offering an end-to-end solution that gets products from manufacturers to customers worldwide.

Within the Supply Chain of the Amazon ecosystem, AWD works in conjunction with:

  1. Amazon Global Logistics (AGL): Handles international shipping and customs clearance.
  2. Partnered Carrier Program (PCP): Provides domestic transportation solutions.
  3. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA): Manages order fulfillment for Amazon store sales.
  4. Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF): Handles order fulfillment for non-Amazon sales channels.
  5. Buy with Prime: Extends Prime benefits to sellers’ own websites.

This integration allows sellers to leverage Amazon’s logistics expertise across their entire supply chain, from sourcing to last-mile delivery.

Key features and benefits

AWD offers a range of features and benefits designed to address the most pressing needs of e-commerce sellers:

  1. Low-cost bulk storage: AWD provides cost-effective storage solutions, with rates particularly competitive during peak seasons compared to FBA storage fees.
  2. Auto-replenishment: The service automatically replenishes FBA inventory, ensuring products remain in stock and available for fast delivery.
  3. Multi-channel distribution: AWD supports inventory distribution not just to Amazon fulfillment centers, but also to other sales channels, including wholesalers and brick-and-mortar stores.
  4. Improved inventory management: Sellers can view and manage their global inventory through Seller Central, providing a unified inventory management experience.
  5. Increased sales potential: By keeping products in stock and Prime-eligible, AWD can help drive a 15% increase in unit sales on average.
  6. Cost savings: Using AWD can lead to significant cost reductions, including savings on FBA storage fees and elimination of certain FBA-related charges like inbound placement fees.
  7. Streamlined operations: AWD simplifies the entire inventory management process, from receipt to distribution, reducing the complexity of supply chain operations.
  8. Enhanced visibility: The service provides real-time tracking of inventory at every milestone, improving overall supply chain transparency.
  9. Flexibility: AWD allows sellers to store inventory for as long as needed, providing flexibility in managing seasonal fluctuations and long-tail products.
  10. Integration with Amazon’s logistics network: By leveraging Amazon’s advanced logistics capabilities, AWD ensures faster and more reliable movement of products from manufacturers to customers.

Amazon Warehousing and Distribution represents a significant step forward in Amazon’s efforts to provide comprehensive supply chain solutions. It addresses key pain points for sellers, offers substantial cost savings, and enhances overall operational efficiency, making it a valuable tool for businesses looking to optimize their e-commerce operations.

Amazon Warehousing and Distribution Program Comparison with Traditional 3PL Solutions

Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) offers a compelling alternative to traditional third-party logistics (3PL) providers. Let’s explore how AWD compares to traditional 3PL solutions and why it might be a game-changer for many sellers.

Advantages of AWD

  • Transparent pricing: AWD offers a simple, volume-based pricing structure without hidden fees or long-term contracts.
  • Consistent rates: Unlike many 3PLs that increase during peak seasons, AWD maintains consistent pricing year-round.
  • Economies of scale: Leveraging Amazon’s vast network often results in lower overall costs than traditional 3PLs.
  • Flexible storage: AWD can easily accommodate fluctuations in inventory levels without penalties.
  • Global reach: Access to Amazon’s worldwide logistics network allows for easier international expansion.
  • Multi-channel support: AWD facilitates inventory management across various sales channels, a feature not always available with traditional 3PLs.
  • Advanced inventory management: AWD’s systems provide real-time visibility and predictive analytics.
  • Auto-replenishment: Automated inventory replenishment to FBA reduces the risk of stockouts.
  • Integration with seller tools: Seamless connection with Seller Central for streamlined operations.
  • Fast processing: Inventory typically becomes visible in AWD within 2–4 days of arrival.
  • Rapid distribution: Quick movement of goods to FBA centers (usually 10–14 days) ensures products are available for fast shipping.
  • Established network: Amazon’s extensive logistics network often outperforms traditional 3PLs in terms of speed and reliability.
  • One-stop solution: AWD combines storage, distribution, and fulfillment in a single service.
  • Reduced complexity: Sellers deal with one provider instead of multiple 3PLs for different services.
  • Standardized processes: Amazon’s established procedures can simplify inventory management.
  • Prime eligibility: AWD ensures products remain Prime-eligible, potentially boosting sales.
  • Consistent delivery: Amazon’s reputation for reliable shipping can improve customer satisfaction.
  • Multi-channel fulfillment: Ability to offer fast shipping across various sales channels.
  • Advanced analytics: Access to Amazon’s data analytics can provide valuable insights for inventory optimization.
  • Demand forecasting: Better prediction of inventory needs based on Amazon’s vast data resources.
  • Performance metrics: Detailed reporting on storage, distribution, and fulfillment performance.
  • No long-term commitments: Pay-as-you-go model allows for more flexibility compared to traditional 3PL contracts.
  • Easy entry and exit: Simpler process to start using the service or discontinue if needed.
  • Customizable services: Ability to choose which supply chain components to leverage through Amazon.

Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) Challenges and Considerations

While Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) offers numerous benefits, it’s crucial for sellers to be aware of potential challenges and carefully consider various factors before fully committing to the service.

Understanding these aspects will help sellers make informed decisions and develop strategies to maximize the benefits of AWD while mitigating risks.

A. Potential pitfalls

1. Over-reliance on Amazon’s ecosystem:

- Risk: Becoming too dependent on Amazon’s services may limit flexibility and control over your supply chain.

- Consideration: Maintain relationships with alternative logistics providers and consider a hybrid approach to preserve some independence.

2. Inventory forecasting challenges:

- Risk: Inaccurate forecasting can lead to overstocking or stockouts, especially with AWD’s auto-replenishment feature.

- Consideration: Regularly review and adjust forecasting models, considering factors like seasonality, promotions, and market trends.

3. Cost management complexities:

- Risk: While AWD can offer cost savings, mismanagement of inventory levels or frequent movements between AWD and FBA can increase costs.

- Consideration: Implement robust inventory management strategies and carefully monitor all associated costs.

4. Limited customization options:

- Risk: AWD’s standardized processes may not accommodate all unique product or business requirements.

- Consideration: Evaluate whether your products or business model require specialized handling that AWD might not provide.

5. Potential for commingled inventory:

- Risk: If opting for commingled inventory in FBA, counterfeit products can be mixed with genuine items.

- Consideration: Choose the “sticker-free, label-free” option if concerned about commingling, although this may increase costs.

6. Changes in Amazon’s policies:

- Risk: Amazon may modify AWD terms, pricing, or features, potentially impacting your business model.

- Consideration: Stay informed about Amazon’s policy updates and maintain flexibility in your logistics strategy.

7. Data privacy and competitive concerns:

- Risk: Sharing detailed inventory and sales data with Amazon could potentially be used to Amazon’s advantage.

- Consideration: Understand Amazon’s data usage policies and consider the trade-offs between data sharing and service benefits.

8. Integration challenges:

- Risk: Difficulties in integrating AWD with existing systems or other sales channels could lead to operational inefficiencies.

- Consideration: Invest in proper integration and training to ensure smooth platform operations.

9. Inventory aging and long-term storage:

- Risk: While AWD offers long-term storage, keeping slow-moving inventory can accumulate costs over time.

- Consideration: Regularly review inventory performance and implement strategies to manage slow-moving stock.

10. Geographical limitations:

- Risk: AWD’s effectiveness might vary depending on your target markets and product types.

- Consideration: Evaluate AWD’s network coverage in relation to your key markets and consider supplementary solutions if needed.

B. Balancing inventory across channels

1. Multi-channel inventory allocation:

- Challenge: Determining optimal inventory levels for each sales channel while using a centralized AWD inventory pool.

- Strategy: Implement advanced inventory management software that can dynamically allocate stock based on real-time demand across channels.

2. Maintaining consistent stock levels:

- Challenge: Ensuring adequate stock levels across all channels without overstocking.

- Strategy: Utilize AWD’s auto-replenishment feature in combination with channel-specific reorder points to maintain optimal inventory levels.

3. Handling channel-specific promotions:

- Challenge: Managing inventory for promotions on specific channels without disrupting stock levels for other channels.

- Strategy: Create separate inventory allocations for promotional events and adjust AWD replenishment thresholds accordingly.

4. Seasonal demand variations:

- Challenge: Adapting to different seasonal patterns across various sales channels.

- Strategy: Develop channel-specific forecasting models and use AWD’s flexible storage to manage seasonal inventory efficiently.

5. Product lifecycle management:

- Challenge: Managing inventory for products at different stages of their lifecycle across multiple channels.

- Strategy: Implement a product lifecycle management system integrated with AWD to optimize inventory levels based on each product’s performance across channels.

6. Returns and refurbishment:

- Challenge: Handling returns from multiple channels and reintegrating refurbished items into inventory.

- Strategy: Establish a centralized returns process through AWD and develop clear protocols for restocking refurbished items across channels.

7. Cross-channel fulfillment:

- Challenge: Deciding when to fulfill orders for one channel using inventory allocated for another.

- Strategy: Set up rules in your inventory management system for cross-channel fulfillment, considering factors like shipping speeds and costs.

8. Inventory visibility:

- Challenge: Maintaining real-time visibility of inventory across all channels and AWD.

- Strategy: Invest in an integrated inventory management system that provides a unified view of stock levels across AWD, FBA, and other sales channels.

9. Buffer stock management:

- Challenge: Determining appropriate safety stock levels for each channel while minimizing overall inventory costs.

- Strategy: Use AWD’s storage capacity to maintain centralized buffer stock, adjusting levels based on aggregated demand across all channels.

10. New product introductions:

- Challenge: Allocating inventory for new product launches across multiple channels.

- Strategy: Utilize AWD for initial stock holding and implement a phased rollout strategy across channels based on performance data.

While AWD offers powerful tools for inventory management and distribution, sellers must approach it with a clear understanding of potential challenges. By carefully considering these pitfalls and implementing strategies to balance inventory across channels, sellers can leverage AWD to its full potential.

The key lies in maintaining flexibility, continuously monitoring performance, and being prepared to adjust strategies as needed. With the right approach, AWD can be valuable in creating a robust, multi-channel e-commerce operation.

Amazon Warehousing and Distribution Fees, Costs and Pricing Structure

Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) offers a transparent and competitive pricing structure to provide cost-effective solutions for sellers’ storage and distribution needs. Understanding this pricing structure is crucial for sellers to maximize their cost savings and optimize inventory management strategies.

AWD storage costs are based on the physical volume of inventory and are calculated per cubic foot per month. The pricing is divided into two main periods:

1. Non-holiday period (January through September):

- Base rate: $0.48 per cubic foot per month

- Integrated rate (using AGL or PCP): $0.36 per cubic foot per month (25% discount)

2. Holiday period (October through December):

- Base rate: $0.48 per cubic foot per month (remains the same as non-holiday)

- Integrated rate (using AGL or PCP): $0.36 per cubic foot per month (25% discount)

Key points about AWD storage costs:

- Consistent pricing throughout the year, including during peak holiday seasons

- Significant savings compared to FBA storage, especially during Q4

- No long-term contracts or complex pricing schemes

- Pay-as-you-go model for flexibility

B. Processing fees

AWD processing fees cover the costs associated with receiving, handling, and preparing inventory for storage or distribution. The fee structure is as follows:

- Base rate: $2.50 per box

- Integrated rate (using AGL or PCP): $2.13 per box (15% discount)

These fees are charged when:

- Inventory is initially received at AWD facilities

- Inventory is prepared for shipment to FBA or other channels

C. Transportation fees

AWD charges transportation fees for moving inventory from AWD facilities to other destinations. The fee structure is:

1. Transportation to FBA:

- Base rate: $1.00 per cubic foot

- Integrated rate (using AGL or PCP): $0.85 per cubic foot (15% discount)

2. Transportation to other distribution channels:

- Flat rate: $1.65 per cubic foot (no discount for integrated services)

These fees cover the costs of:

- Preparing inventory for shipment

- Transportation to the destination

- Any necessary documentation and tracking

D. Comparison with FBA storage costs

AWD offers significant cost savings compared to FBA storage, especially during peak seasons:

1. Non-holiday period (January through September):

- AWD: $0.48 per cubic foot per month

- FBA (standard-size): $0.78 per cubic foot per month (effective April 1, 2024)

- Savings with AWD: 38%

2. Holiday period (October through December):

- AWD: $0.48 per cubic foot per month

- FBA (standard-size): $2.40 per cubic foot per month

- Savings with AWD: 80%

Additional cost benefits of AWD:

- No FBA inbound placement service fees

- Waiver of FBA storage-utilization surcharges when using AWD auto-replenishment

- Waiver of low-inventory-level costs and storage-overage costs with AWD auto-replenishment

E. Integrated rates with AGL or PCP

Amazon offers significant discounts for sellers who use Amazon Global Logistics (AGL) or the Partnered Carrier Program (PCP) in conjunction with AWD:

1. Storage costs: 25% discount

- Standard rate: $0.48 per cubic foot per month

- Integrated rate: $0.36 per cubic foot per month

2. Processing fees: 15% discount

- Standard rate: $2.50 per box

- Integrated rate: $2.13 per box

3. Transportation to FBA: 15% discount

- Standard rate: $1.00 per cubic foot

- Integrated rate: $0.85 per cubic foot

Key considerations for AWD pricing:

1. Volume-based savings: The more you store and ship through AWD, the more you can save.

2. Seasonal strategy: AWD’s consistent pricing allows for more predictable costs during peak seasons.

3. Integration benefits: Using AGL or PCP can lead to substantial savings across storage, processing, and transportation.

4. Long-term storage efficiency: AWD is particularly cost-effective for items that require longer storage periods.

5. Multi-channel optimization: The pricing structure supports efficient inventory management across multiple sales channels.

AWD’s pricing structure offers a transparent, flexible, and cost-effective inventory storage and distribution solution. By leveraging the integrated rates with AGL or PCP, sellers can achieve significant cost savings while streamlining their entire supply chain process.

The substantial savings compared to FBA storage, especially during peak seasons, make AWD an attractive option for sellers looking to optimize their inventory management and reduce operational costs.


Mastering Amazon Warehousing and Distribution: A Comprehensive Guide for Sellers was originally published in Openbridge on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.



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Monday, August 19, 2024

Add macOS to your continuous integration pipelines with AWS CodeBuild

Starting today, you can build applications on macOS with AWS CodeBuild. You can now build artifacts on managed Apple M2 machines that run on macOS 14 Sonoma. AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed continuous integration service that compiles source code, runs tests, and produces ready-to-deploy software packages.

Building, testing, signing, and distributing applications for Apple systems (iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS) requires the use of Xcode, which runs exclusively on macOS. When you build for Apple systems in the AWS Cloud, it is very likely you configured your continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline to run on Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (Amazon EC2) Mac instances.

Since we launched Amazon EC2 Mac in 2020, I have spent a significant amount of time with our customers in various industries and geographies, helping them configure and optimize their pipelines on macOS. In the simplest form, a customer’s pipeline might look like the following diagram.

iOS build pipeline on EC2 Mac

The pipeline starts when there is a new commit or pull request on the source code repository. The repository agent installed on the machine triggers various scripts to configure the environment, build and test the application, and eventually deploy it to App Store Connect.

Amazon EC2 Mac drastically simplifies the management and automation of macOS machines. As I like to describe it, an EC2 Mac instance has all the things I love from Amazon EC2 (Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes, snapshots, virtual private clouds (VPCs), security groups, and more) applied to Mac minis running macOS in the cloud.

However, customers are left with two challenges. The first is to prepare the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) with all the required tools for the build. A minimum build environment requires Xcode, but it is very common to install Fastlane (and Ruby), as well as other build or development tools and libraries. Most organizations require multiple build environments for multiple combinations of macOS and Xcode versions.

The second challenge is to scale your build fleet according to the number and duration of builds. Large organizations typically have hundreds or thousands of builds per day, requiring dozens of build machines. Scaling in and out of that fleet helps to save on costs. EC2 Mac instances are reserved for your dedicated use. One instance is allocated to one dedicated host. Scaling a fleet of dedicated hosts requires a specific configuration.

To address these challenges and simplify the configuration and management of your macOS build machines, today we introduce CodeBuild for macOS.

CodeBuild for macOS is based on the recently introduced reserved capacity fleet, which contains instances powered by Amazon EC2 that are maintained by CodeBuild. With reserved capacity fleets, you configure a set of dedicated instances for your build environment. These machines remain idle, ready to process builds or tests immediately, which reduces build durations. With reserved capacity fleets, your machines are always running and will continue to incur costs as long as they’re provisioned.

CodeBuild provides a standard disk image (AMI) to run your builds. It contains preinstalled versions of Xcode, Fastlane, Ruby, Python, Node.js, and other popular tools for a development and build environment. The full list of tools installed is available in the documentation. Over time, we will provide additional disk images with updated versions of these tools. You can also bring your own custom disk image if you desire.

In addition, CodeBuild makes it easy to configure auto scaling. You tell us how much capacity you want, and we manage everything from there.

Let’s see CodeBuild for macOS in action
To show you how it works, I create a CI/CD pipeline for my pet project: getting started with AWS Amplify on iOS. This tutorial and its accompanying source code explain how to create a simple iOS app with a cloud-based backend. The app uses a GraphQL API (AWS AppSync), a NoSQL database (Amazon DynamoDB), a file-based storage (Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)), and user authentication (Amazon Cognito). AWS Amplify for Swift is the piece that glues all these services together.

The tutorial and the source code of the app are available in a Git repository. It includes scripts to automate the build, test, and deployment of the app.

Configuring a new CI/CD pipeline with CodeBuild for macOS involves the following high-level steps:

  1. Create the build project.
  2. Create the dedicated fleet of machines.
  3. Configure one or more build triggers.
  4. Add a pipeline definition file (buildspec.yaml) to the project.

To get started, I open the AWS Management Console, select CodeBuild, and select Create project.

codebuild mac - 1

I enter a Project name and configure the connection to the Source code repository. I use GitHub in this example. CodeBuild also supports GitLab and BitBucket. The documentation has an up-to-date list of supported source code repositories.

codebuild mac - 2

For the Provisioning model, I select Reserved capacity. This is the only model where Amazon EC2 Mac instances are available. I don’t have a fleet defined yet, so I decide to create one on the flight while creating the build project. I select Create fleet.

codebuild mac - 3

On the Compute fleet configuration page, I enter a Compute fleet name and select macOS as Operating system. Under Compute, I select the amount of memory and the quantity of vCPUs needed for my build project, and the number of instances I want under Capacity.

For this example, I am happy to use the Managed image. It includes Xcode 15.4 and the simulator runtime for iOS 17.5, among other packages. You can read the list of packages preinstalled on this image in the documentation.

When finished, I select Create fleet to return to the CodeBuild project creation page.

CodeBuild - create fleet

As a next step, I tell CodeBuild to create a new service role to define the permissions I want for my build environment. In the context of this project, I must include permissions to pull an Amplify configuration and access AWS Secrets Manager. I’m not sharing step-by-step instructions to do so, but the sample project code contains the list of the permissions I added.

codebuild mac - 4

I can choose between providing my set of build commands in the project definition or in a buildspec.yaml file included in my project. I select the latter.

codebuild mac - 5

This is optional, but I want to upload the build artifact to an S3 bucket where I can archive each build. In the Artifact 1 – Primary section, I therefore select Amazon S3 as Type, and I enter a Bucket name and artifact Name. The file name to upload is specified in the buildspec.yaml file.

codebuild mac - 6

Down on the page, I configure the project trigger to add a GitHub WebHook. This will configure CodeBuild to start the build every time a commit or pull request is sent to my project on GitHub.

codebuild - webhook

Finally, I select the orange Create project button at the bottom of the page to create this project.

Testing my builds
My project already includes build scripts to prepare the build, build the project, run the tests, and deploy it to Apple’s TestFlight.

codebuild - project scripts

I add a buildspec.yaml file at the root of my project to orchestrate these existing scripts.

version: 0.2

phases:

  install:
    commands:
      - code/ci_actions/00_install_rosetta.sh
  pre_build:
    commands:
      - code/ci_actions/01_keychain.sh
      - code/ci_actions/02_amplify.sh
  build:
    commands:
      - code/ci_actions/03_build.sh
      - code/ci_actions/04_local_tests.sh
  post_build:
    commands:
      - code/ci_actions/06_deploy_testflight.sh
      - code/ci_actions/07_cleanup.sh
artifacts:
   name: $(date +%Y-%m-%d)-getting-started.ipa
   files:
    - 'getting started.ipa'
  base-directory: 'code/build-release'

I add this file to my Git repository and push it to GitHub with the following command: git commit -am "add buildpsec" buildpec.yaml

On the console, I can observe that the build has started.

codebuild - build history

When I select the build, I can see the log files or select Phase details to receive a high-level status of each phase of the build.

codebuild - phase details

When the build is successful, I can see the iOS application IPA file uploaded to my S3 bucket.

aws s3 ls

The last build script that CodeBuild executes uploads the binary to App Store Connect. I can observe new builds in the TestFlight section of the App Store Connect.

App Store Connect

Things to know
It takes 8-10 minutes to prepare an Amazon EC2 Mac instance and to accept the very first build. This is not specific to CodeBuild. The builds you submit during the machine preparation time are queued and will be run in order as soon as the machine is available.

CodeBuild for macOS works with reserved fleets. Contrary to on-demand fleets, where you pay per minute of build, reserved fleets are charged for the time the build machines are reserved for your exclusive usage, even when no builds are running. The capacity reservation follows the Amazon EC2 Mac 24-hour minimum allocation period, as required by the Software License Agreement for macOS (article 3.A.ii).

A fleet of machines can be shared across CodeBuild projects on your AWS account. The machines in the fleet are reserved for your exclusive use. Only CodeBuild can access the machines.

CodeBuild cleans the working directory between builds, but the machines are reused for other builds. It allows you to use the CodeBuild local cache mechanism to quickly restore selected files after a build. If you build different projects on the same fleet, be sure to reset any global state, such as the macOS keychain, and build artifacts, such as the SwiftPM and Xcode package caches, before starting a new build.

When you work with custom build images, be sure they are built for a 64-bit Mac-Arm architecture. You also must install and start the AWS Systems Manager Agent (SSM Agent). CodeBuild uses the SSM Agent to install its own agent and to manage the machine. Finally, make sure the AMI is available to the CodeBuild organization ARN.

CodeBuild for macOS is available in the following AWS Regions: US East (Ohio, N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Sydney), and Europe (Frankfurt). These are the same Regions that offer Amazon EC2 Mac M2 instances.

Get started today and create your first CodeBuild project on macOS.

-- seb

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AWS Weekly Roundup: G6e instances, Karpenter, Amazon Prime Day metrics, AWS Certifications update and more (August 19, 2024)

You know what I find more exciting than the Amazon Prime Day sale? Finding out how Amazon Web Services (AWS) makes it all happen. Every year, I wait eagerly for Jeff Barr’s annual post to read the chart-topping metrics. The scale never ceases to amaze me.

This year, Channy Yun and Jeff Barr bring us behind the scenes of how AWS powered Prime Day 2024 for record-breaking sales. I will let you read the post for full details, but one metric that blows my mind every year is that of Amazon Aurora. On Prime Day, 6,311 Amazon Aurora database instances processed more than 376 billion transactions, stored 2,978 terabytes of data, and transferred 913 terabytes of data.

Amazon Box with checkbox showing a record breaking prime day event powered by AWS

Other news I’m excited to share is that registration is open for two new AWS Certification exams. You can now register for the beta version of the AWS Certified AI Practitioner and AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Associate. These certifications are for everyone—from line-of-business professionals to experienced machine learning (ML) engineers—and will help individuals prepare for in-demand artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) careers. You can prepare for your exam by following a four-step exam prep plan for AWS Certified AI Practitioner and AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Associate.

Last week’s launches
Here are some launches that got my attention:

General availability of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) EC2 G6e instances – Powered by NVIDIA L40S Tensor Core GPUs, G6e instances can be used for a wide range of ML and spatial computing use cases. You can use G6e instances to deploy large language models (LLMs) with up to 13B parameters and diffusion models for generating images, video, and audio.

Release of Karpenter 1.0 – Karpenter is a flexible, efficient, and high-performance Kubernetes compute management solution. You can use Karpenter with Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) or any conformant Kubernetes cluster. To learn more, visit the Karpenter 1.0 launch post.

Drag-and-drop UI for Amazon SageMaker Pipelines – With this launch, you can now quickly create, execute, and monitor an end-to-end AI/ML workflow to train, fine-tune, evaluate, and deploy models without writing code. You can drag and drop various steps of the workflow and connect them together in the UI to compose an AI/ML workflow.

Split, move and modify Amazon EC2 On-Demand Capacity Reservations – With the new capabilities for managing Amazon EC2 On-Demand Capacity Reservations, you can split your Capacity Reservations, move capacity between Capacity Reservations, and modify your Capacity Reservation’s instance eligibility attribute. To learn more about these features, refer to Split off available capacity from an existing Capacity Reservation.

Document-level sync reports in Amazon Q Business – This new feature of Amazon Q Business provides you with a comprehensive document-level report including granular indexing status, metadata, and access control list (ACL) details for every document processed during a data source sync job. You have the visibility of the status of the documents Amazon Q Business attempted to crawl and index as well as the ability to troubleshoot why certain documents were not returned with the expected answers.

Landing zone version selection in AWS Control Tower – Starting with landing zone version 3.1 and above, you can update or reset in-place your landing zone on the current version, or upgrade to a version of your choice. To learn more, visit Select a landing zone version in the AWS Control Tower user guide.

Launch of AWS Support Official channel on AWS re:Post – You now have access to curated content for operating at scale on AWS, authored by AWS Support and AWS Managed Services (AMS) experts. In this new channel, you can find technical solutions for complex problems, operational best practices, and insights into AWS Support and AMS offerings. To learn more, visit the AWS Support Official channel on re:Post.

For a full list of AWS announcements, be sure to keep an eye on the What’s New at AWS page.

Regional expansion of AWS Services
Here are some of the expansions of AWS services into new AWS Regions that happened this week:

Amazon VPC Lattice is now available in 7 additional RegionsAmazon VPC Lattice is now available in US West (N. California), Africa (Cape Town), Europe (Milan), Europe (Paris), Asia Pacific (Mumbai), Asia Pacific (Seoul), and South America (São Paulo). With this launch, Amazon VPC Lattice is now generally available in 18 AWS Regions.

Amazon Q in QuickSight is now available in 5 additional Regions  Amazon Q in QuickSight is now generally available in Asia Pacific (Mumbai), Canada (Central), Europe (Ireland), Europe (London), and South America (São Paulo), in addition to the existing US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), and Europe (Frankfurt) Regions.

AWS Wickr is now available in the Europe (Zurich) RegionAWS Wickr adds Europe (Zurich) to the US East (N. Virginia), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Canada (Central), Europe (London), Europe (Frankfurt), and Europe (Stockholm) Regions that it’s available in.

You can browse the full list of AWS Services available by Region.

Upcoming AWS events
Check your calendars and sign up for these AWS events:

AWS re:Invent 2024 – Dive into the first-round session catalog. Explore all the different learning opportunities at AWS re:Invent this year and start building your agenda today. You’ll find sessions for all interests and learning styles.

AWS Summits – The 2024 AWS Summit season is starting to wrap up! Join free online and in-person events that bring the cloud computing community together to connect, collaborate, and learn about AWS. Register in your nearest city: Jakarta (September 5), and Toronto (September 11).

AWS Community Days – Join community-led conferences that feature technical discussions, workshops, and hands-on labs led by expert AWS users and industry leaders from around the world: Colombia (August 24), New York (August 28), Belfast (September 6), and Bay Area (September 13).

AWS GenAI Lofts – Meet AWS AI experts and attend talks, workshops, fireside chats, and Q&As with industry leaders. All lofts are free and are carefully curated to offer something for everyone to help you accelerate your journey with AI. There are lofts scheduled in San Francisco (August 14–September 27), São Paulo (September 2–November 20), London (September 30–October 25), Paris (October 8–November 25), and Seoul (November).

You can browse all upcoming in-person and virtual events.

That’s all for this week. Check back next Monday for another Weekly Roundup!

Prasad

This post is part of our Weekly Roundup series. Check back each week for a quick roundup of interesting news and announcements from AWS!



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Tuesday, August 13, 2024

How AWS powered Prime Day 2024 for record-breaking sales

The last Amazon Prime Day 2024 (July 17-18) was Amazon’s biggest Prime Day shopping event ever, with record sales and more items sold during the two-day event than any previous Prime Day event. Prime members shopped for millions of deals and saved billions across more than 35 categories globally.

I live in South Korea, but luckily I was staying in Seattle to attend the AWS Heroes Summit during Prime Day 2024. I signed up for a Prime membership and used Rufus, my new AI-powered conversational shopping assistant, to search for items quickly and easily. Prime members in the U.S. like me chose to consolidate their deliveries on millions of orders during Prime Day, saving an estimated 10 million trips. This consolidation results in lower carbon emissions on average.

We know from Jeff’s annual blog post that AWS runs the Amazon website and mobile app that makes these short-term, large scale global events feasible. (check out his 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 posts for a look back). Today I want to share top numbers from AWS that made my amazing shopping experience possible.

Prime Day 2024 – all the numbers
Here are some of the most interesting and/or mind-blowing metrics:

Amazon EC2 – Since many of Amazon.com services such as Rufus and Search use AWS artificial intelligence (AI) chips under the hood, Amazon deployed a cluster of over 80,000 Inferentia and Trainium chips for Prime Day. During Prime Day 2024, Amazon used over 250K AWS Graviton chips to power more than 5,800 distinct Amazon.com services (double that of 2023).

Amazon EBS – In support of Prime Day, Amazon provisioned 264 PiB of Amazon EBS storage in 2024, a 62 percent increase compared to 2023. When compared to the day before Prime Day 2024, Amazon.com performance on Amazon EBS jumped by 5.6 trillion read/write I/O operations during the event, or an increase of 64 percent compared to Prime Day 2023. Also, when compared to the day before Prime Day 2024, Amazon.com transferred an incremental 444 petabytes of data during the event, or an increase of 81 percent compared to Prime Day 2023.

Amazon Aurora – On Prime Day, 6,311 database instances running the PostgreSQL-compatible and MySQL-compatible editions of Amazon Aurora processed more than 376 billion transactions, stored 2,978 terabytes of data, and transferred 913 terabytes of data.

Amazon DynamoDB – DynamoDB powers multiple high-traffic Amazon properties and systems including Alexa, the Amazon.com sites, and all Amazon fulfillment centers. Over the course of Prime Day, these sources made tens of trillions of calls to the DynamoDB API. DynamoDB maintained high availability while delivering single-digit millisecond responses and peaking at 146 million requests per second.

Amazon ElastiCache – ElastiCache served more than quadrillion requests on a single day with a peak of over 1 trillion requests per minute.

Amazon QuickSight – Over the course of Prime Day 2024, one Amazon QuickSight dashboard used by Prime Day teams saw 107K unique hits, 1300+ unique visitors, and delivered over 1.6M queries.

Amazon SageMaker – SageMaker processed more than 145B inference requests during Prime Day.

Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) – SES sent 30 percent more emails for Amazon.com during Prime Day 2024 vs 2023, delivering 99.23 percent of those emails to customers.

Amazon GuardDuty – During Prime Day 2024, Amazon GuardDuty monitored nearly 6 trillion log events per hour, a 31.9% increase from the previous year’s Prime Day.

AWS CloudTrail – CloudTrail processed over 976 billion events in support of Prime Day 2024.

Amazon CloudFront – CloudFront handled a peak load of over 500 million HTTP requests per minute, for a total of over 1.3 trillion HTTP requests during Prime Day 2024, a 30 percent increase in total requests compared to Prime Day 2023.

Prepare to Scale
As Jeff noted in every year, rigorous preparation is key to the success of Prime Day and our other large-scale events. For example, 733 AWS Fault Injection Service experiments were run to test resilience and ensure Amazon.com remains highly available on Prime Day.

If you are preparing for a similar business-critical events, product launches, and migrations, I strongly recommend that you take advantage of newly-branded AWS Countdown, a support program designed for your project lifecycle to assess operational readiness, identify and mitigate risks, and plan capacity, using proven playbooks developed by AWS experts. For example, with additional help from AWS Countdown, Legal Zoom successfully migrated 450 servers with minimal issues and continues to leverage AWS Countdown Premium to streamline and expedite the launch of SaaS applications.

We look forward to seeing what other records will be broken next year!

Channy & Jeff;



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Monday, August 12, 2024

AWS Weekly Roundup: Mithra, Amazon Titan Image Generator v2, AWS GenAI Lofts, and more (August 12, 2024)

When Dr. Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of AI and Data, was an intern at Amazon in 2005, Dr. Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, was his first manager. Nineteen years later, the two shared a stage at the VivaTech Conference to reflect on Amazon’s history of innovation—from pioneering the pay-as-you-go model with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to transforming customer experiences using “good old-fashioned AI”—as well as what really keeps them up at night in the age of generative artificial intelligence (generative AI).

Asked if competitors ever kept him up at night, Dr. Werner insisted that listening to customer needs—such as guardrails, security, and privacy—and building products based on those needs is what drives success at Amazon. Dr. Swami said he viewed Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Bedrock as prime examples of successful products that have emerged as a result of this customer-first approach. “If you end up chasing your competitors, you are going to end up building what they are building,” he added. “If you actually listen to your customers, you are actually going to lead the way in innovation.” To learn four more lessons on customer-obsessed innovation, visit our AWS Careers blog.

For example, for customer-obsessed security, we build and use Mithra, a powerful neural network model to detect and respond to cyber threats. It analyzes up to 200 trillion internet domain requests daily from the AWS global network, identifying an average of 182,000 new malicious domains with remarkable accuracy. Mithra is just one example of how AWS uses global scale, advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) technology, and constant innovation to lead the way in cloud security, making the internet safer for everyone. To learn more, visit the blog post of Chief Information Security Officer at Amazon CJ Moses, How AWS tracks the cloud’s biggest security threats and helps shut them down.

Last week’s launches
Here are some launches that got my attention:

Amazon Titan Image Generator v2 in Amazon Bedrock – With the new Amazon Titan Image Generator v2 model, you can guide image creation using a text prompt and reference images, control the color palette of generated images, remove backgrounds, and customize the model to maintain brand style and subject consistency. To learn more, visit my blog post, Amazon Titan Image Generator v2 is now available in Amazon Bedrock.

Regional expansion of Anthropic’s Claude models in Amazon Bedrock – The Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Anthropic’s latest high-performance AI model, is now available in US West (Oregon), Europe (Frankfurt), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), and Asia Pacific (Singapore) Regions in Amazon Bedrock. The Claude 3 Haiku, Anthropic’s compact and affordable AI model, is now available in Asia Pacific (Tokyo) and Asia Pacific (Singapore) Regions in Amazon Bedrock.

Private IPv6 addressing for VPCs and subnets – You can now address private IPv6 for VPCs and subnets with Amazon VPC IP Address Manager (IPAM). Within IPAM, you can configure private IPv6 addresses in a private scope, provision Unique Local IPv6 Unicast Addresses (ULA) and Global Unicast Addresses (GUA), and use them to create VPCs and subnets for private access. To learn more, visit see the Understanding IPv6 addressing on AWS and designing a scalable addressing plan and VPC documentation,

Up to 30 GiB/s of read throughput in Amazon EFS – We are increasing the read throughput to 30 GiB/s, extending simple, fully elastic, and provisioning-free experience of Amazon EFS to support throughput-intensive AI and ML workloads for model training, inference, financial analytics, and genomic data analysis.

Large language models (LLMs) in Amazon Redshift ML – You can use pre-trained publicly available LLMs in Amazon SageMaker JumpStart as part of Amazon Redshift ML. For example, you can use LLMs to summarize feedback, perform entity extraction, and conduct sentiment analysis on data in your Amazon Redshift table, so you can bring the power of generative AI to your data warehouse.

Data products in Amazon DataZone – You can create data products in Amazon DataZone, which enable the grouping of data assets into well-defined, self-contained packages tailored for specific business use cases. For example, a marketing analysis data product can bundle various data assets such as marketing campaign data, pipeline data, and customer data. To learn more, visit this AWS Big Data blog post.

For a full list of AWS announcements, be sure to keep an eye on the What’s New at AWS page.

Other AWS news
Here are some additional news items that you might find interesting:

AWS Goodies by Jeff Barr – Want to discover more exciting news about AWS? Jeff Barr is always in catch-up mode, doing his best to share all of the interesting things that he finds or that are shared with him. You can find his goodies once a week. Follow his LinkedIn page.

AWS and Multicloud – You might have missed a great article about the existing capabilities AWS has and the continued enhancements we’ve made in multicloud environments. In the post, Jeff covers the AWS approach to multicloud, provides you with some real-world examples, and reviews some of the newest multicloud and hybrid capabilities found across the lineup of AWS services.

Code transformation in Amazon Q Developer – At Amazon, we asked a small team to use Amazon Q Developer Agent for code transformation to migrate more than 30,000 production applications from older Java versions to Java 17. By using Amazon Q Developer to automate these upgrades, the team saved over 4,500 developer years of effort compared to what it would have taken to do all of these upgrades manually and saved the company $260 million in annual savings by moving to the latest Java version.

Contributing to AWS CDKAWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) is an open source software development framework to model and provision your cloud application resources using familiar programming languages. Contributing to AWS CDK not only helps you deepen your knowledge of AWS services but also allows you to give back to the community and improve a tool you rely on.

Upcoming AWS events
Check your calendars and sign up for these AWS events:

AWS re:Invent 2024 – Dive into the first-round session catalog. Explore all the different learning opportunities at AWS re:Invent this year and start building your agenda today. You’ll find sessions for all interests and learning styles.

AWS Innovate Migrate, Modernize, Build – Learn about proven strategies and practical steps for effectively migrating workloads to the AWS Cloud, modernizing applications, and building cloud-native and AI-enabled solutions. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn with the experts and unlock the full potential of AWS. Register now for Asia Pacific, Korea, and Japan (September 26).

AWS Summits – The 2024 AWS Summit season is almost wrapping up! Join free online and in-person events that bring the cloud computing community together to connect, collaborate, and learn about AWS. Register in your nearest city: São Paulo (August 15), Jakarta (September 5), and Toronto (September 11).

AWS Community Days – Join community-led conferences that feature technical discussions, workshops, and hands-on labs led by expert AWS users and industry leaders from around the world: New Zealand (August 15), Colombia (August 24), New York (August 28), Belfast (September 6), and Bay Area (September 13).

AWS GenAI Lofts – Meet AWS AI experts and attend talks, workshops, fireside chats, and Q&As with industry leaders. All lofts are free and are carefully curated to offer something for everyone to help you accelerate your journey with AI. There are lofts scheduled in San Francisco (August 14–September 27), São Paulo (September 2–November 20), London (September 30–October 25), Paris (October 8–November 25), and Seoul (November).

You can browse all upcoming in-person and virtual events.

That’s all for this week. Check back next Monday for another Weekly Roundup!

Channy

This post is part of our Weekly Roundup series. Check back each week for a quick roundup of interesting news and announcements from AWS!



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