Overview
Amazon EC2 offers 850+ instance types across general purpose, compute-optimized, memory-optimized, storage-optimized, and accelerated computing (GPU, Trainium, Inferentia). The AWS Nitro System is the underlying hardware/software platform that delivers near-bare-metal performance with hardware-accelerated networking and storage. AWS Graviton (Arm-based) processors deliver up to 40% better price-performance than comparable x86 instances and now power most new EC2 capacity.
Key concepts
- Instance families and right-sizing for workload
- AWS Graviton — Arm advantage for web tier, databases, ML inference
- Nitro System: Nitro Cards, Nitro Security Chip, Nitro Hypervisor
- Spot, Reserved, Savings Plans, On-Demand pricing
- EC2 Capacity Blocks for ML — reserve GPU capacity in advance
Key AWS services
- Amazon EC2
- AWS Graviton
- AWS Nitro System
- EC2 Auto Scaling
- AWS Outposts
Learn more — curated resources
Hand-picked official docs, foundational papers, and the best community guides for going deeper on this topic.
Sessions on this topic
14 sessions from the Summit covered this topic. Each is a self-contained mini-lesson.
- MAM302Advanced
Agentic AI for VMware migrations with AWS Transform for VMware
Accelerate your VMware migration journey with AWS Transform, the first agentic AI service for large-scale VMware workload migrations to Amazon EC2. Discover how to migrate from on-premises VMware infrastructure to a modernized, cloud-native architecture while overcoming challenges like evolving licensing models and vendor lock-in. Meet the team behind AWS Transform and see a live demonstration showcasing automated application discovery, dependency mapping, network translation, wave planning, and server migration with optimized EC2 instance selection. Learn practical approaches to streamline large-scale migrations and modernize VMware workloads to AWS with greater speed and confidence.
- TNC202Intermediate
Accelerate Your Cloud Journey with AWS Transform
Embark on a faster, smoother cloud transformation with agentic AI and integrated solutions. This session reveals how AWS Transform accelerates your cloud journey, addressing migration and modernization challenges through intelligent automation. Through real-world examples, discover how to leverage this powerful integration to fast-track your cloud adoption and transformation efforts. With the specialized AI agents of AWS Transform, customers can migrate VMware workloads to Amazon EC2, modernize .NET applications to cross-platform .NET, and modernize IBM z/OS mainframe applications, delivering transformation projects up to 4x faster.
- COP302Advanced
Applying AI for FinOps and FinOps for AI
Explore the intersection of AI and FinOps in this advanced session. First, discover how Kiro CLI can simplify AWS cost management by analyzing trends, explaining spend, and recommending optimizations like rightsizing and Savings Plans. Then, dive into FinOps for AI- learn how to track and control generative AI costs across Amazon EC2, Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Bedrock, and more. We'll share architecture patterns, cost-saving strategies, and real-world examples to help you build scalable, production-ready AI solutions while staying on budget. Whether you're optimizing existing workloads or launching new AI initiatives, you'll leave with practical tools to maximize value.
- ISV205Intermediate
AWS Graviton: The best price performance for your AWS workloads
AWS Graviton-based Amazon EC2 instances provide the best price performance for workloads in Amazon EC2. In this session, dive deep into the AWS Graviton processor and learn about its workload performance, energy efficiency, and software offerings. Hear from Atlassian as they share their Graviton adoption journey and practical tips for migration success. Learn about common use cases, best practices to optimize your workloads across various applications, customer success stories and how you can accelerate your AWS Graviton journey.
- STP302Advanced
Unleash Live: Cloud-Powered Vision for Infrastructure
What happens when live video meets AI and the scalability of AWS This session explores how Unleash live harnesses AWS to deliver real-time vision analytics, moving from ingestion to insight in milliseconds. We detail the architecture of cloud-native pipelines that process live streams at scale and apply custom computer vision models across the energy, security, and infrastructure sectors. By combining edge connectivity with AWSs elastic infrastructure, Unleash live transforms drone and CCTV feeds into actionable intelligence. Attendees will gain insights into key design decisions and learn how cloud-based AI optimises operations, reduces risk, and unlocks the speed that modern physical AI demands.
- CMP501All levels
Nitro Isolation Engine: Formally Verifying Confidentiality
What does it mean for the data of a virtual machine to be confidential Answering takes us on a journey through low-level systems and high-level mathematics. At re:Invent 2025, Graviton5 was introduced with the AWS Nitro Isolation Engine, a new software component enforcing isolation between virtual machines that was designed from the beginning with formal verification as a first-class consideration. You will learn about the hardware and software that isolate guest virtual machines, our mathematical definition of confidentiality, and the proofs used to establish this property for the Nitro Isolation Engine. No background in virtualization or formal methods is assumed.
- ARC302Advanced
Secure Multi-tenant SaaS with AWS Lambda: A Tenant Isolation Deep Dive
In this session, learn about AWS Lambda's execution environment lifecycle, diving deep into how the service manages isolation at the function level, and understanding the security implications of environment reuse patterns. Learn about traditional patterns for compute isolation in multi-tenant environments, as well as explore Lambda's tenant isolation mode - a new powerful capability that enables tenant-level compute separation without operational overhead. Explore how to implement robust tenant isolation strategies, manage state across executions, and leverage Lambda's security boundaries effectively. Whether building new SaaS applications or enhancing existing ones, leave with practical knowledge to implement secure multi-tenant architectures at scale.
- ARC403Expert
Secure Multi-tenant SaaS with AWS Lambda: A Tenant Isolation Deep Dive
Secure Multi-tenant SaaS with AWS Lambda: A Tenant Isolation Deep DiveIn this session, learn about AWS Lambda's execution environment lifecycle, diving deep into how the service manages isolation at the function level, and understanding the security implications of environment reuse patterns. Learn about traditional patterns for compute isolation in multi-tenant environments, as well as explore Lambda's tenant isolation mode - a new powerful capability that enables tenant-level compute separation without operational overhead. Explore how to implement robust tenant isolation strategies, manage state across executions, and leverage Lambda's security boundaries effectively. Whether building new SaaS applications or enhancing existing ones, leave with practical knowledge to implement secure multi-tenant architectures at scale.
- DEV203Intermediate
Decisions Over Diagrams: How Bell Financial Group Architects on AWS
Architecture diagrams show what you built. They don't explain why. At Bell Financial Group, every major technology choice — from landing zone design to compute platform to database engine — is captured in an Architecture Decision Document that forces honest evaluation of trade-offs. In this talk, the Head of Engineering at Bell Financial Group walks through the real decisions behind their AWS platform: why ECS Fargate beat EKS, when DynamoDB wins over relational databases, why the entire infrastructure is written in TypeScript CDK, and the deliberate constraints they place on Lambda usage. No slides full of boxes and arrows — just the reasoning, the trade-offs, and the lessons learned building a regulated financial services platform on AWS.
- ISV203Intermediate
AI Monetization and Pricing Strategies
Software companies developing AI solutions face unique monetization challenges. AI compute costs run 3-5x higher than standard applications, per-user pricing often yields negative margins, and profit margins typically fall 10-30 points below traditional SaaS. This session introduces a proven framework to help you navigate AI pricing complexities. Learn how to identify value capture attributes, select appropriate pricing models, and build sustainable monetization strategies. We'll cover when to begin pricing considerations, how to apply an AI monetization framework to your solutions, and how to develop an approach tailored to your company's position. Whether defining your initial AI pricing strategy or validating your current approach, gain actionable insights to maximize the value of your AI investments.
- STP216Intermediate
Building AI Agents: From Open-Source Frameworks to Production-Grade
AI agents are moving from demo to deployment. Startups across ANZ are building production-grade assistants using open-source orchestration frameworks, fine-tuned foundation models, and GPU-accelerated inference on AWS and NVIDIA infrastructure. This panel explores what it actually takes to ship agentic use casesfrom choosing the right models and frameworks to managing latency, cost, and reliability at scale. We'll hear from AirTree VC on where the investment thesis is heading, from NVIDIA on how accelerated compute is shaping the agent stack, and from Heidi Health building and scaling these systems in production. Whether it's vertical agents for healthcare, customer support, or code generation, we'll focus on what's working, what's hype, and where the real startup opportunities lie in the agent ecosystem.
- DEV310Advanced
Zero-Downtime Migration from Sydney to Auckland (ap-southeast-6)
With AWS ap-southeast-6 (Auckland) now open, New Zealand organizations can repatriate workloads from Sydney. This advanced session provides practical migration strategies minimizing downtime and eliminating data loss across every layer of your stack. You'll learn region-to-region migration patterns for: *Storage*: S3 replication, EBS snapshots, EFS cross-region transfers *Databases*: RDS read replicas, DynamoDB global tables, self-managed EC2 database replication *Applications*: Lambda, ECS/EKS workload migration, EC2 AMI copying Walk away with a prioritized migration playbook, realistic RTO/RPO targets, and battle-tested sequencing strategies for large-scale data transfers without extended application outages.
- ISV207Intermediate
How Canva Scales and Optimizes AI Workloads with Karpenter
his session explores how Canva leverages Karpenter to scale and optimize diverse workloads on Amazon EKS. Learn how Canva manages AI workloads using On-Demand Capacity Reservations (ODCRs) and EC2 Capacity Blocks for ML, while maximizing resource utilization by intelligently co-locating CPU and GPU workloads on GPU nodes. We will dive into NodePool management strategies for efficient scheduling of AI workloads and examine how Canva uses a range of Amazon EC2 instance types to operate a multi-tenant container orchestration platform for all workloads, optimizing for cost-effectiveness and resource efficiency. Ideal for platform engineers and Kubernetes operators looking to optimize their EKS clusters for both AI and general workloads at scale.
- SMB203Intermediate
From Vision AI to Agentic AI: Real-Time Ops & Compliance in QSR
Fingermark's Eyecue platform turns drive-thru video feeds into real-time operational intelligence for some of the world's largest QSR brands. Using hybrid edge-cloud architecture on AWS, they track every customer journeycapturing precise timing at order points, windows, and bayswhile keeping sensitive data at the edge. Now they're taking the next leap: agentic AI powered by Amazon Bedrock AgentCore. Autonomous agents automatically answer compliance questions"Are there spills Are staff following food handling protocols"replacing manual audits with continuous monitoring. See how a Kiwi company scaled from local innovation to global impact, and from computer vision to autonomous agents.
Non-obvious insights
From the PlaybookOne sharp, contrarian insight per session — the things teams don't think of unprompted.