Title

AWS re:Invent 2023 - Scale analytics and SaaS applications with serverless elastic storage (STG338)

Summary

Alex Martineau, GM for Elastic File System at AWS, and Perry Jeanette, senior solutions architect for file storage at AWS, presented the session with guest Dave Smith from SAP Enterprise Cloud Services.
The session focused on the storage needs of SaaS and analytics applications, emphasizing the importance of shared file storage for concurrent access, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and resilience.
Real customer use cases were discussed, including Amazon CodeWhisperer and Kensho's AI audio analytics solution, both utilizing AWS Elastic File System (EFS).
Dave Smith shared SAP's use of EFS, highlighting its scalability, reliability, performance, and cost efficiency, and how it supports SAP's ERP systems on AWS.
Perry Jeanette provided a deep dive into EFS, discussing its configuration-free setup, high availability, data durability, security features, elastic throughput, and cost optimization.
EFS's integration with various AWS compute services, such as EC2, EKS, and Lambda, was highlighted, showcasing its flexibility and ability to adapt to changing application architectures.
The session concluded with a discussion on the new features of EFS, including elastic throughput, lower latencies, improved performance, and new storage classes for cost optimization.

AWS Elastic File System (EFS) is designed to meet the dynamic storage requirements of SaaS and analytics applications, offering a serverless solution that scales with application needs.
EFS's ability to integrate with a range of AWS compute services allows for seamless transitions between different compute models, such as moving from monolithic architectures to microservices.
The introduction of elastic throughput and new storage classes, including EFS Archive, demonstrates AWS's commitment to performance improvements and cost efficiency, which are critical for both SaaS providers and data analytics workloads.
SAP's extensive use of EFS across AWS regions and the significant cost savings reported by adopting EFS features like Elastic Throughput and Infrequent Access storage class underscore the real-world benefits of AWS's storage solutions.
The session's emphasis on security, high availability, and data durability aligns with the growing importance of data protection and regulatory compliance in cloud storage solutions.
AWS's approach to storage, as presented in the session, focuses on simplifying operations for customers, allowing them to concentrate on application optimization and value delivery rather than infrastructure management.