This article is based on expert predictions published ahead of AWS re:Invent 2019. Original analysis sourced from SearchAWS (TechTarget).
Setting the Stage for re:Invent 2019
AWS re:Invent has become the cloud industry’s most anticipated annual event, consistently delivering a wave of new product launches, feature updates, and strategic announcements. Heading into re:Invent 2019, the cloud computing community had every reason to expect another heavy slate of announcements.
The 2018 edition delivered notable releases including Amazon Managed Blockchain, AWS Transit Gateway, and further expansions to EC2 instance types. AWS also surprised the industry with the disclosure of AWS Ground Station, a managed ground station service for satellite communications — a product that few analysts had anticipated.
With 2019’s show on the horizon, several experienced cloud practitioners shared their predictions across four key themes: enterprise-grade managed services, AI and machine learning, multi-cloud support, and security.
Enterprise Services and Custom Hardware — Kurt Marko, Consultant
Kurt Marko predicted that AWS would continue its push toward enterprise adoption, building on the hybrid infrastructure work started in 2018 with VMware on AWS and the AWS Outposts announcement. He anticipated further expansions in managed database services, with the possibility of deeper partnerships targeting ERP and CRM workloads to compete with platforms like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
On the AI and machine learning front, Marko expected new services and improvements to existing frameworks such as TensorFlow and MXNet. He specifically called out potential enhancements to AWS Deep Learning Containers, possibly with tighter integrations for AWS Fargate and AWS Lambda — moves that would simplify the deployment of containerized machine learning workloads alongside other AWS services.
Marko also highlighted AWS’s track record in custom silicon, pointing to the Graviton processor, AWS Inferentia (the ML inference chip), and the Nitro system. While he did not expect an entirely new processor architecture, he anticipated meaningful performance improvements to both the ARM-based and machine learning-focused chips — with stronger capabilities for higher-end compute workloads.
Multi-Cloud Support as a Competitive Necessity — David Linthicum, Cloud Analyst
David Linthicum made the boldest prediction of the group: that AWS would make a significant move toward embracing multi-cloud as part of its 2019 announcements. His reasoning was grounded in market reality — enterprise customers increasingly operate across more than one public cloud provider, and they tend to favor vendors that make cross-cloud interoperability easier.
Linthicum pointed to Google’s launch of Anthos earlier in 2019 as a clear signal that multi-cloud was becoming a mainstream expectation rather than an edge-case requirement. He argued that AWS, despite its dominant market position, could not afford to ignore a shift that its major competitors were actively promoting.
Security by Default — George Lawton, IT Writer
George Lawton focused his predictions on security, arguing that AWS would use re:Invent 2019 to announce significant security enhancements aimed at enterprise customers. His rationale was straightforward: the majority of cloud security incidents in recent years have not been caused by AWS platform vulnerabilities, but by customer misconfigurations of AWS tools and services.
Lawton noted that this issue had reached the level of political attention, with U.S. Senator Ron Wyden among those raising questions about whether cloud providers had done enough to protect customers from misconfiguration risks. While Lawton did not expect AWS to directly acknowledge political pressure, he anticipated announcements around security by default configurations and improved security scanning capabilities — both of which would reduce the likelihood of accidental data exposure.
AI Dominance and Marketing Momentum — Brian Kirsch, IT Architect
IT architect Brian Kirsch brought a market dynamics perspective to his predictions. Writing in the context of Microsoft’s JEDI contract win — one of the largest government cloud contracts ever awarded — Kirsch expected AWS to use re:Invent as an opportunity to assert its continued leadership as the largest cloud vendor and to showcase the breadth of its platform.
Like Marko, Kirsch predicted that machine learning and AI would dominate the session catalog, the show floor, and attendee conversations. He was candid about the practical reality, however: the proportion of enterprises that have mature AI use cases and the budget to deploy AWS’s more advanced ML services remains relatively small. Nevertheless, he anticipated that AI would receive outsized attention relative to its current enterprise adoption rate.
Key Themes to Watch
- AI and Machine Learning: New managed services, framework improvements, and deeper integrations with serverless and container platforms.
- Custom Silicon: Incremental improvements to Graviton and Inferentia chips for higher-performance workloads.
- Multi-Cloud: Potential announcements signaling AWS openness to heterogeneous cloud environments.
- Security: Hardened defaults and improved scanning tools to reduce misconfiguration risk.
- Enterprise Services: Managed services targeting ERP, CRM, and SAP workloads, alongside continued VMware and Outposts development.
Whether AWS delivered curveballs as unexpected as AWS Ground Station in 2018 remained to be seen — but the consensus among analysts was clear: re:Invent 2019 would be another landmark event for the cloud industry.