On November 14th my CSI 320 Global IT & Ethics and CSI 385 Operating Systems Architecture classes went for a visit to Amazon Web Services (AWS) at their main Dublin office – One Burlington Plaza in South Dublin just near the Grand Canal. We were hosted by Alan Reddy, Operations Manager who has been with Amazon for four years after working as a programmer with a network engineering company.
Alan’s talk began by explaining the history, background and current structure of Amazon. The founder – Jeff Bezos – despite starting by selling books from his garage, always saw the company as a technology supplier and not a bookseller. Alan then gave an overview of the type of Services (more than 1500 now) provided by Amazon and how they allow companies such as Netflix to operate from the cloud and dynamically utilise extra capacity when needed. The list of services now is vast and also includes a specialised game development engine, secure authentication servers and dedicated platforms for the Internet of Things.
One interesting fact was that the Amazon web selling sites are also hosted on AWS but treated as any other paying customer. Importantly there is an Amazon Educational Programme which provides free experimental use of AWS for student projects. He also described the Amazon approach to graduate recruitment and more generally the types of background research that applicants should do before attending any interview with any company. Amazon currently employs 1700 people in Dublin and Cork and has released plans to hire 500 more over the coming years. They are moving into a completely new HQ in the coming months and in fact might be expanding further.
Finally after discussions about the use of AWS for the hosting of a start-up and its evolution to a multi-site cloud-based system the afternoon concluded with a question and answer session. It was fantastic to be allocated so much time and it was much appreciated. All this and a free lunch too! While he had to be circumspect, Alan forecast that there would be some very interesting announcements from Amazon at their annual get-together coming up in Las Vegas at the end of November, when AWS “take over” the town. You can read more here: https://reinvent.awsevents.com/
