Archive · · 16 min read

Monday Night Live With Peter DeSantis

Highlights from AWS re:Invent 2022's Monday Night Live with Peter DeSantis

Monday Night Live With Peter DeSantis
At re:Invent or attending remotely? Check out my “Ultimate Guide to AWS re:Invent 2022” post for some tips and tricks to get the most out of the show.

Monday Night Live with Peter DeSantis is always a fantastic talk. Peter talks us behinds the scenes of AWS and shows how various technical improvements are enabling the features and functionality that we know and love.

I live tweeted the keynote. Frustratingly in a split thread, but here are both parts…

First Twitter Thread 🧵

Tweet 1/3 👇 Next tweet

here we go! Monday Night Live with Peter DeSantis is about to kick off at @awscloud #reinvent 2022! a 🧵👇 (/cc @AWSEvents)

Tweet 2/3 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

@awscloud @AWSEvents I love how much fun Peter has with this keynote! #reinvent

Tweet 3/3 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Peter reminds everyone that this keynote is all about "how" @awscloud does things. lots of behind the scenes info in this one.. #reinvent

Second Twitter Thread 🧵

Tweet 1/71 👇 Next tweet

big focus on performance tonight. Peter reminds us it's not all about what you can see "Great performance is the result of innovation from the ground up and investing over time" #reinvent

Tweet 2/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

starting with a dive into @awscloud Nitro... more on Nitro at https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/nitro/ #reinvent

Tweet 3/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

here’s a great talk from Abby Fuller on the technical details of AWS Nitro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1_UJTgyFqM&feature=youtu.be #reinvent

Tweet 4/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Peter announces a new version of Nitro (v5), with big gains behind the scenes. continued innovation behind the scenes from @awscloud here #reinvent


Tweet 5/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

NEW INSTANCE TYPE: C7gn uses the new Nitro v5 chip under the hood. lots of benefits. tip of the iceberg here #reinvent

Tweet 6/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

NEW CPU: Graviton3E custom tuned Graviton3 silicon. lots of benefits for the targeted use cases #reinvent

Tweet 7/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

NEW INSTANCE TYPE (coming soon): HPC7g …combines the Graviton3E + Nitro v5 for some big boosts for HPC applications #reinvent

Tweet 8/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

not sure I’m digging the graphic style for these slides... #reinvent

Tweet 9/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

typography with Amazon Ember is on point though. nice and clean. super clear. great typeface #reinvent

Tweet 10/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

back to the tech, here’s a great summary of the new instance types just announce from @jeffbarr: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-amazon-ec2-instance-types-in-the-works-c7gn-r7iz-and-hpc7g/ #reinvent

Tweet 11/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

btw, more on the Graviton processor at https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/graviton/ #reinvent

Tweet 12/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Peter has moved on to how the @awscloud Global Infrastructure is designed and built specifically talking about SRD (scalable reliable datagram) more on that at: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/hpc/in-the-search-for-performance-theres-more-than-one-way-to-build-a-network/ #reinvent

Tweet 13/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

more on the @awscloud global infrastructure at https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/ #reinvent

Tweet 14/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Peter is giving a great high level overview of TCP as a protocol tl:dr it works great, but focuses on “getting there” vs. performance at @awscloud scale, they need something more efficient and focused on hyper scale issues #reinvent


Tweet 15/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

key benefits of SRD on the @awscloud network: - multi-pathing - retries in microseconds - runs on nitro (dedicated hardware) #reinvent

Tweet 16/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

remember, @awscloud runs at a completely different scale. very few companies run at this size. it’s a completely different set of problems, requiring completely different solutions #reinvent

Tweet 17/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

SRD is helping deliver better performance for Amazon EBS, especially for “tail latency” …average latency doesn’t matter if you just need the data! #reinvent

Tweet 18/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

teal line is SRD performance. big improvement overall, but massive in the edge cases …btw, all new EBS io2 volumes will get this performance boost in the new year (stay tuned, they are just saying “coming soon") #reinvent


Tweet 19/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

NEW LAUNCH: ENA Express, brings SRD to ENA…available today! more details on ENA (basic, not express): https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/enhanced-networking-ena.html #reinvent

Tweet 20/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

here’s the SRD boost for ENA with ENA Express (needs to be enabled on your ENAs) #reinvent

Tweet 21/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

lots of improvements backed by the move to SRD in the @awscloud network #reinvent

Tweet 22/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

“A veritable hoedown of machine learning”, Peter DeSantis 🤦🤦🤦

Tweet 23/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

oh Peter…. #reinvent

Tweet 24/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

this graphic redeems part of the hoedown comment… would have been better if he drove it out on stage 😉 #reinvent

Tweet 25/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

gist of this section: 🧠 machine learning models are getting MASSIVE they need more performance (processing, storage, network, etc.) in order to train properly. @awscloud innovations in performance engineering like SRD are helping drive these advances #reinvent


Tweet 26/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

here are the details on the @awscloud Trn1 instance type that Peter referenced: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/trn1/ #reinvent

Tweet 27/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

while they make the point, graphs without units and numbers are tough for me to look at that said, numbers and more specifics would actual make these slides weaker and muddle the point Peter is making #reinvent

Tweet 28/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

“Just as a refresher. Stochastic rounding is probabilistic rounding”, Peter #reinvent

Tweet 29/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

why is that important 👆? it helps train the more faster with less loss. @awscloud accomplishes this with hardware acceleration in the Trainium silicon more on that chip at https://aws.amazon.com/machine-learning/trainium/ #reinvent

Tweet 30/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

also, here’s a mathematical primer on stochastic rounding: https://nhigham.com/2020/07/07/what-is-stochastic-rounding/ you know, because MATH! 🤣 #reinvent

Tweet 31/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

the tl:dr of this section is that @awscloud has been focusing on a lot of deeply interesting (to me at least!) performance engineering problems so that we can build & train ml 🧠 models faster and more accurately #reinvent

Tweet 32/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

how else would we get fun/weird avatar pics in different styles? 🤣🤣🤣 #reinvent


Tweet 33/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Peter is currently giving a great explanation of how to scale out a workload across multiple processors. I can’t explain it in 280 character chunks 🤦 basically: many hands make light work? #reinvent

Tweet 34/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

you’re going to have to watch this segment for yourself. it starts at 35m into this keynote with this slide 👇 #reinvent

Tweet 35/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Peter brings this back home using a Rings of Power reference. btw, the show is very much worth watching https://t.co/kaILOWDPE6 #reinvent

Tweet 36/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

lots of work to average out the results, but the “ring of rings” works much faster than “one ring” …as long as you don’t give 9 to the race of man, 3 to the Elves, 7 for the Dwarves, and one to Sauron 🤦 #reinvent


Tweet 37/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

new instance type coming soon to help speed things up even more: Trn1n - faster networking - faster training #reinvent

Tweet 38/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Jock Clear up now talking about the technical complexity of F1 racing more details on @awscloud + F1 at https://aws.amazon.com/sports/f1/ #reinvent

Tweet 39/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

three key aspects of making zoom-y cars zoom faster... (somewhere @mosescj58 just felt a chill 🤣) #reinvent

Tweet 40/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

with @awscloud, Jock and the team built a virtual ground speed sensor it’s an AI/ML tool that provides more accurate data faster…and more importantly with less weight …would love to see more technical details on that one #reinvent

Tweet 41/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

btw, @QuinnyPig is also live tweeting this keynote. honestly, probably with a lot more—and funnier—jokes check out his thread at https://twitter.com/QuinnyPig/status/1597430775330537472?s=20&t=reKJgcbkR9LjU2gLMZeRXg #reinvent

Tweet 42/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Jock continues to lay out the challenges that F1 teams face outside of the race and the onslaught of challenges within a race lots of engineering challenges and trade offs… #reinvent



Tweet 43/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

I’m not a car person (see the previous “zoom-y” comment), but I do love engineering challenges. lots of crazy ones here Jock is constantly calling out the sheer number of decisions the team needs to make. they need data & analysis to make those decisions #reinvent

Tweet 44/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

they are launching an app with a bunch of race/interview content …was hoping for an engineering data app like the real time MLB analysis: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/calculating-new-stats-in-major-league-baseball-with-amazon-sagemaker/ ..it’s not that, but I’m sure F1 fans will enjoy it #reinvent

Tweet 45/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Peter is back up now. new topic: #serverless computing #reinvent

Tweet 46/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

“Behind me you can see a youthful @Werner announcing @awscloud Lambda”, Peter 😬🤣 #reinvent

Tweet 47/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Lambda has grown a LOT since it’s launch in 2014 thanks again @timallenwagner for setting us on this path! #reinvent

Tweet 48/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Peter is diving into the technical details and some of the performance engineering that goes into @awscloud Lambda in order to reach this scale... #reinvent

Tweet 49/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

if you are interested in not only #serverless compute, but the whole concept. check out https://serverlessland.com/ #reinvent

Tweet 50/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

#reinvent

Tweet 51/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Peter using a castle 🏰 analogy for virtual machines. key point: small number of access points. built for defence #reinvent

Tweet 52/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

“Mostly secure isn’t good enough”, Peter #reinvent

Tweet 53/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

#reinvent

Tweet 54/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

“At @awscloud, we always use an isolated virtual machine for customer compute workloads”, Peter >> thus Nitro! #reinvent

Tweet 55/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

back to Lambda… think of it as a cache. a big pool of compute #reinvent

Tweet 56/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

each slot was specific to a customer function. new function? new virtual machine if a VM is up for the customer function, great. if not, initialize a new instance (empty & waiting) to handle it >> a/k/a cold starts …it works, but there’s room for improvement #reinvent

Tweet 57/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

more graphs #reinvent

Tweet 58/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

so cold starts are a cache miss. that happens, caching isn’t perfect #reinvent

Tweet 59/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

obvious solution: bigger cache on the @awscloud backend that’s more expensive and less efficient enter Firecracker #reinvent

Tweet 60/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Tweet 61/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

moving to Firecrack provides more efficient use of the existing hardware. it also spins up faster, allowing things to sit in the cache longer! #reinvent

Tweet 62/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

results are Firecracker, bigger arrow, less bump numbers would be helpful here. Peter mentioned one but I’m not sure I heard it right assumption: things got better with the move to Firecracker #reinvent

Tweet 63/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

even with these improvements, you’ll see still cache misses (a/k/a cold starts) need to make them faster. where is that time going? for Java devs? a lot of it is in initialization #reinvent

Tweet 64/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

solution is to save the initialized start. think opening up your MacBook’s lid and working vs. turning it on from completely off #reinvent

Tweet 65/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

this feature is called AWS Lambda SnapStart and it’s available today! bye bye cold starts…at least most of them #reinvent

Tweet 66/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

places where SnapStart _won’t_ work/help #1: - some cryptography use cases where uniqueness is required - can adjust with code changes #reinvent #serverless

Tweet 67/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

interesting division of snapshot-ing here. separating out the uniqueness to improve performance even further #reinvent

Tweet 68/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

last piece of the puzzle, predictive snapshot loading get the pieces needed to start the function up and running as quickly as possible…before it’s even asked for #reinvent

Tweet 69/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

pumped to see the benefits of @awscloud Lambda SnapStat. love that I really don’t have to do anything to get those benefits #reinvent #serverless

Tweet 70/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

Peter signs off with some great session recommendations for performance engineering #reinvent

Tweet 71/71 👇 Next tweet 👆 Start

great keynote from Peter DeSantis.hoping we’re going to see some @AmazonScience or @awscloud papers on these innovations soon lots of great advancements & engineering work to deliver more features & functionality to builders …more tomorrow as #reinvent kicks into high gear!

Read next