At Queue-it, we leverage AWS (Amazon Web Services) daily to aid in delivering our virtual waiting room service, which has now processed more than 2 billion users.
This year we hosted the Copenhagen AWS User Group to watch the AWS re:Invent keynote by Werner Vogels, CTO, Amazon.com. The AWS keynote is one of our favorite parts of re:Invent, Amazon’s yearly cloud user conference, as it highlights the newest products, services and features.
Key takeaways from the 2017 AWS
The main focus from AWS this year has been on Machine Learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT). It was hard to find an AWS new service that didn’t touch machine learning or artificial intelligence in some way. AWS announced a number of high-level services within machine learning which makes natural language processing easy. They have also released services that support the process of building, training, and deploying machine learning models for advanced use cases.
In the IoT space, AWS announced several services that can help manage and secure the fleet of devices and enable machine learning at the edge.
The innovation mechanisms developed and presented by AWS have been an important trigger for identifying new potential developments and improvements for Queue-it and our network.
While Queue-it is not yet in the IoT space, we can take advantage of the fact that machine learning technology is increasingly becoming available to everyone. Upcoming development possibilities in this area could include improvements in calculating the estimated wait time and dropout percentage of people staying in a queue as well as technology enhancements within abuse and bot protection.
On the infrastructure part, there were also some very interesting announcements. The ability to run Docker or Kubernetes containers in a serverless format sounded very appealing and would allow Queue-it to focus less on infrastructure and more on the core domain and system features that bring business value to customers and benefit their end-users.
Finally, with new announcements to the primary databases we depend on, such as Aurora Multi-Master or DynamoDB Global Tables, we will be able to increase the availability and reliability of our services.
The network session during the keynote event, brought together individuals from similar backgrounds, but with different experience levels and ways of applying AWS services, which opened unique ideas for discussion and development based on the services presented. We are very committed to supporting the Copenhagen AWS User Group. We see a great benefit in establishing relationships in the community, appreciate the knowledge sharing in the group and are excited to be able to leverage internal competencies through AWS.