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Jan 6, 2025

AWS Partner Program Enhancements for 2025

AWS has announced several upgrades to its partner program for 2025, focusing on driving customer value and accelerating cloud modernization[1]:

Launch of Amazon Elastic VMware Service (Amazon EVS) for running VMware-based workloads in Amazon VPC

Introduction of Amazon Q Developer Transformation for VMware, a GenAI-powered solution for migrating VMware workloads to AWS

Small Business Acceleration Initiative starting January 1, 2025, to support partners serving SMB customers

Extension of SaaS co-sell benefits to eligible startups from January 2025

New AWS Services and Technologies

AWS continues to innovate with new services and technologies:

Amazon Bedrock for generative AI

AWS Supply Chain for improved logistics management

Amazon Security Lake for enhanced data security

Amazon Aurora I/O Optimized for database performance

AWS DMS Serverless for easier database migrations

Amazon EC2 Inf2 instances for AI/ML workloads

AWS IoT Device Defender integration with Security Hub

Amazon CodeCatalyst for unified software development

Cloud Operations Competency for partners

AWS Control Tower for multi-account management

AWS CTO's Tech Predictions for 2025

Dr. Werner Vogels, Amazon CTO, shared five key tech predictions for 2025 and beyond:

Mission-driven workforce of tomorrow
Energy efficiency driving innovation
Technology aiding in truth discovery
Open data for decentralized disaster preparedness
Intention-driven consumer technology

Upcoming AWS Events

AWS at CES 2025 (January 7-10)
AWS at NRF 2025 (January 12-14)
Amazon QuickSight Learning Series (January 2025)
AWS AI Conclave 2025: Generative AI and Data edition (January 30th, Online Event)

Industry Collaborations

Valeo and AWS have announced a collaboration to accelerate the development of Software-Defined Vehicles (SDV)[3]. This partnership aims to:

Build new digital services for the automotive industry
Simplify development processes for automotive engineers
Introduce solutions like Valeo Virtualized Hardware Lab and Valeo Cloud Hardware Lab

Market Position and Growth

AWS maintains its leadership in the cloud computing market:

32% market share in Q1 2024
Continued focus on AI, machine learning, and IoT
Expansion of services like Amazon SageMaker and AWS Shield

January 1, 2025:

1. Expansion of Data Center Operations in Ohio

AWS has committed an additional $10 billion to expand its data center infrastructure in Ohio, bringing its total investment in the state to over $23 billion by the end of 2029. This expansion aims to support the growing demand for cloud computing services, including artificial intelligence and machine learning applications. The new data centers will house servers, storage drives, and networking equipment essential for these technologies. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2030.

2. Introduction of Nova AI Models

At the AWS re:Invent conference, Amazon unveiled a new series of AI foundation models under the "Nova" brand, which will be part of the Amazon Bedrock model library in AWS. The models include:

Nova Micro, Nova Lite, and Nova Pro: Understanding models designed to enhance AI capabilities.
Nova Canvas: An image generation model.
Nova Reel: A video generation model, both featuring watermarking capabilities.

Additionally, Amazon announced plans for future models, including a speech-to-speech model and a "native multimodal-to-multimodal" model. The company is also building the world's largest AI compute cluster in partnership with Anthropic, leveraging Amazon's Trainium 2 chips.

3. Launch of Amazon Q

Amazon introduced "Amazon Q," an AI-powered chatbot designed for enterprise use. Based on both Amazon Titan and GPT generative artificial intelligence, Amazon Q assists in troubleshooting issues in cloud applications, summarizing documents, and facilitating group chats. As of November 2023, it is available for $20 per month and is integrated into the AWS management console.