AWS re:Invent 2017

Latest Episodes:

ABD338: MirrorWeb: Powering Large-scale, Full-text Search for the UK Government Web Archives Using Amazon Elasticsearch Service Dec 01, 2017

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MirrorWeb offers automated website and social media archiving services with full text search capability for all content. The UK government hired MirrorWeb to provide search services across 20 years of archived data from over 4,800 websites. In this session, MirrorWeb discusses the technology stack they built using Amazon Elasticsearch Service (Amazon ES) to search across the 333 million unique documents (over 120 TB) that they indexed within a 10-hour period. They discuss how they moved data from on-premises to Amazon S3 using AWS Snowball and then processed that data using Amazon EC2 Spot Instances, reducing costs by over 90%. They also talk about how they used AWS Lambda to ingest data into Amazon ES. Finally, they share best practices for building a large-scale document search architecture.

ABD401: How Netflix Monitors Applications in Near Real-Time with Amazon Kinesis Dec 01, 2017

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Thousands of services work in concert to deliver millions of hours of video streams to Netflix customers every day. These applications vary in size, function, and technology, but they all make use of the Netflix network to communicate. Understanding the interactions between these services is a daunting challenge both because of the sheer volume of traffic and the dynamic nature of deployments. In this session, we first discuss why Netflix chose Kinesis Streams to address these challenges at scale. We then dive deep into how Netflix uses Kinesis Streams to enrich network traffic logs and identify usage patterns in real time. Lastly, we cover how Netflix uses this system to build comprehensive dependency maps, increase network efficiency, and improve failure resiliency. From this session, youl learn how to build a real-time application monitoring system using network traffic logs and get real-time, actionable insights.

ABD402: How Esri Optimizes Massive Image Archives for Analytics in the Cloud Dec 01, 2017

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Petabyte scale archives of satellites, planes, and drones imagery continue to grow exponentially. They mostly exist as semi-structured data, but they are only valuable when accessed and processed by a wide range of products for both visualization and analysis. This session provides an overview of how ArcGIS indexes and structures data so that any part of it can be quickly accessed, processed, and analyzed by reading only the minimum amount of data needed for the task. In this session, we share best practices for structuring and compressing massive datasets in Amazon S3, so it can be analyzed efficiently. We also review a number of different image formats, including GeoTIFF (used for the Public Datasets on AWS program, Landsat on AWS), cloud optimized GeoTIFF, MRF, and CRF as well as different compression approaches to show the effect on processing performance. Finally, we provide examples of how this technology has been used to help image processing and analysis for the response to Hurricane Harvey.

ABD403: Best Practices for Distributed Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics Using Amazon EMR and Open-Source Tools Dec 01, 2017

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This session, we focus on common use cases and design patterns for predictive analytics using Amazon EMR. We address accessing data from a data lake, extraction and preprocessing with Apache Spark, analytics and machine learning code development with notebooks (Jupyter, Zeppelin), and data visualization using Amazon QuickSight. We cover other operational topics, such as deployment patterns for ad hoc exploration and batch workloads using Spot and multi-user notebooks. The intended audience for this session includes technical users who are building statistical and data analytics models for the business using tools, such as Python, R, Spark, Presto, Amazon EMR, Notebooks.

ALX201: Building Alexa-Connected Products and Experiences with Alexa Gadgets Developer Tools Dec 01, 2017

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In this session, we will teach you the technology behind Alexa Gadgets – a new category of connected products and developer tools that enable you to create your own Alexa-connected product or game skill that work with Echo Buttons. You will hear from the GM of Alexa Gadgets, as well as early Alexa Gadget developers, Musicplode Media (the makers of Beat the Intro) and Gemmy Industries (the makers of Big Mouth Billy Bass).

ALX202: Integrate Alexa voice technology into your product with the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) Dec 01, 2017

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In this session, we'll teach you how to use the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) and its suite of development tools to bring your first Alexa-enabled product to market. You'll learn how commercial device manufacturers are getting to market faster using the new AVS Device SDK. To ensure your customers have the best voice experience, we'll teach you how to choose an Audio Front End and client-side hardware from a range of commercial-grade Development Kits. You'll walk out of this session with the knowledge required to design products with optimized Alexa-enabled voice experiences around your unique design requirements.

ALX203: How Voice Technology Is Moving Higher Education to a New Era Dec 01, 2017

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In this presentation, hear from John Rome, Arizona State University's Deputy CIO, and Jared Stein, Instructure's VP of Higher Ed Strategy, on how voice technology is bringing higher education to a new era. Come learn how institutions are adopting Alexa on campus and in their curriculum to serve students in new, innovative ways and how Instructure is rethinking the delivery of education for millions of customers through their Canvas skill for Alexa.

ALX303: The Art and Science of Conversation Applied to Alexa Skills Dec 01, 2017

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It used to be the case that we only spoke to computers in their language. But more and more often, we're interacting with them in ours. We are moving quickly into a world of computer conversation, and one in which, for many applications, the most natural interactions will be through spoken language. But how do you create engaging narrative and compelling, organic conversational interactions using the imprecise tools of speech recognition and intent resolution? In this session, we look at the experience as a whole and take you through key learnings that you can use when building your skills. We cover issues like knowing your audience, creating compelling storylines, using a cast of characters, integrating voiceover, designing a soundscape, and finding those “magic moments”. For each of these, we share the design pattern, the backing AI or physiological science, and how to implement the experience with Alexa.

ALX317: How Capital One Rethought Multimodal Voice Experiences and Brought Banking to the Kitchen with Echo Show Dec 01, 2017

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Last year, Capital One joined Alexa on stage to talk about their experience building their successful Alexa skill. Since that time, many lessons have been learned through customer feedback and new enhancements to the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) such as the skills beta testing tool and the Alexa skill builder. How can you evolve your Alexa skill with more meaningful data sets outside of the existing intents? As the Alexa Skills Kit has grown its built-in library, what does it mean for your skill to support both ordinal (list) and numerical values? How can you handle new specifications without requiring wholesale code changes? Capital One has tackled all of these issues as well as embracing additional programming languages like TypeScript to ensure that response structures are validated against all schemas. With the arrival of multimodal devices such as the Echo Show, the opportunity for seamless customer interaction models across voice and visual has also arrived (big fonts, touch, video). Your customers can now transition back and forth between using their voice and their hands while engaging with your skill. Come learn direct from Capital One on the best way of providing extra contextual information using the new Alexa Skills Kit display directives but in more convenient ways to get things done.

ALX318: Voice Plus Screen: How to Design Multi-Modal Devices with the Alexa Voice Service Dec 01, 2017

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In this advanced session, learn how to build Alexa-enabled devices that combine voice and visual responses in a meaningful way for consumers. The session covers the design methods and the hardware and software development resources for interactive multi-modal design. We also present some examples of products that are leading with such implementations.

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