AWS re:Invent 2025 in the books! (First one for me!)
Oh my gosh, what a whirlwind! Finally attended my first AWS re:Invent!
The sheer scale of this conference was astounding, here's some stats if you're not aware how big this event is. Around 60,000 of your closest friends and peers attending over 3000+ sessions/events across pretty much the entire Las Vegas Strip. One of the smartphone backgrounds/wallpapers that Brooke Jamieson (totally recommend following her on LinkedIn) crafted which was insanely helpful, illustrates the scale.
As you can imagine, a prime focus of the event was all things AI (shocking I know). Kiro was prominently peppered all over the event.
There's a fantastic roundup of the announcements on the AWS blog. As someone more focused on security, there was a litany of exciting announcements that show me AWS is focused on embedding security into their platform and services rather than bolting it on.
Some of the announcements I'm most excited about are:
AWS Security Agent (Preview)
AWS introduced a new context-aware application security tool designed to protect workloads from design through deployment. Unlike traditional static or dynamic testing, Security Agent analyzes both code and runtime environments together, helping developers catch vulnerabilities earlier in the software lifecycle.
AWS Security Hub (GA with some upgrades)
Security Hub received a major upgrade, offering faster correlation of findings and improved automation for compliance monitoring. Enterprises can now gain a more unified view of their security posture across multiple accounts and services, streamlining governance at scale.
Amazon GuardDuty Extended Threat Detection
GuardDuty expanded its reach to cover containers, serverless workloads, and hybrid environments. This enhancement strengthens AWS’s managed threat detection service, giving organizations deeper visibility into modern architectures where threats often hide.
Bedrock AgentCore
Policy Controls – Enterprises can now set natural language boundaries for agent interactions, automatically blocking unauthorized actions.
Evaluations – Continuous inspection of agent quality based on behavior, ensuring agents act reliably in production.
Expanded Coverage – CloudWatch now supports deeper monitoring across distributed applications, containers, and hybrid environments.
Performance Insights – Improved dashboards provide clearer visibility into system health, latency, and throughput.
Incident Response – Faster correlation of logs, metrics, and traces accelerates troubleshooting and reduces mean time to resolution.
Compliance & Governance – Enhanced automation streamlines monitoring for regulatory requirements, giving enterprises confidence in their operational posture.
Community, Bonding, and Inclusion were Important!
What I loved about the event was the focus on connection, community, and inclusion. I got to connect with my own community which was awesome to catch up with my coworkers at Zelis.
What I loved was that they had different community areas that you connect with peers for various meetups, take a break, or different areas for folks with similar interests. If you got certified before the event, they even had a lounge area where you can have some snacks, relax a bit, and celebrate your accomplishments.
Sessions, Content, and Expo Galore!!!!
There was no shortage of sessions, you had your pick of 3000+ sessions, events, or meetups to attend. My favorite types of sessions were the ones where you had some direct takeaways or you got to get your hands dirty with a workshop or tabletop excercise. One of my favorite sessions was a talk by AWS CISO, Amy Herzog where she discussed the how AWS protects themselves and the idea of intentions vs mechanisms AND where AI could actually help. It was very much grounded in reality vs the AI hype out there. You can find a recording of the talk here.
Wow what an event!
I had such a wonderful time at re:Invent 2025. Between connecting with immediate community and the larger community, getting to talk to folks who are innovating on the front lines to better protect organizations, and hearing about some immediate things I could be doing better in my career, protecting organizations I work for, and making new friends along the way. If you haven't been, I totally recommend it, but make sure you pace yourself because AWS has a lot to offer beyond product announcements and vendor FUD if you're willing to look a little bit deeper.
