A Sell-Side Takeaway From Amazon's re:Invent 2017 Conference

Online retail behemoth Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN hosts the annual Amazon Web Services re:Invent conference, a platform to announce new product offerings, certify developers on the AWS platform and provide training.

The AWS re:Invent 2017 is underway now in Las Vegas.

The Analyst

KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Brent Bracelin offered his take on the conference.

The Thesis

The 2017 narrative clarified that AWS is focusing new innovation on three main areas: databases, machine learning and automation, Bracelin said in a Wednesday note. (See Bracelin's track record here.) 

After attending the keynote by AWS CEO Andy Jassy, the analyst said he came away impressed by the several product announcements that appealed to AWS' developer roots. The audience was excited about EKS, Fargate, Aurora, Serverless, SageMaker and Rekognition Video, Bracelin said.

Bracelin shared some highlights from the presentation:

• AWS's 44.1-percent market share in IaaS/PaaS, more than the share of the next nine competitors combined
• Strong performance in serverless computing
• The Aurora database's strong growth
• New customer wins, with NFL, Expedia Inc EXPE and Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS among the additions
• New AWS database and storage products
• New AWS management tools
• New AI and ML tools

"While our conversations with customers suggest enterprises continue to shift to a multicloud strategy, the pace of AWS innovations, coupled with the breadth of cloud functionality, should continue to sustain high growth for an $18 billion cloud platform that is disrupting a trillion-dollar legacy IT stack," Bracelin said. 

The Price Action

At the time of writing, Amazon shares were advancing 1.08 percent to $1,173.77. The shares are up about 55 percent year-to-date.

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