The pandemic period has been marked by a quest of institutions to run their businesses with an efficient, low-cost and agile information technology infrastructure. Tech platforms have also started to shape their services to serve the needs of the institutions.

This week was marked by AWS re:Invent 2021, one of the most anticipated events of the year, hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon company.

It is an annual conference designed for business owners as well as developers, engineers, IT executives and other technical decision-makers.

The 10th annual iteration of the event in Las Vegas ran from Nov. 29 through Dec. 3. and was marked by cooperation and partnerships.

Known for its vertical strategy that covers expertise in cloud technology, big data and artificial intelligence, AWS announced a lengthy list of new services and partnerships during the re:Invent 2021, from health and education to transportation and finance technologies.

It also announced the launch of Goldman Sachs Financial Cloud for Data, a new suite of cloud-based data and analytics solutions for financial institutions, with the Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs.

The collaboration is said to redefine how clients can discover, organize and analyze data in the cloud, thereby gaining rapid insights and driving informed investment decisions, according to a statement by the companies. Institutional clients will benefit from decades of Goldman Sachs experience to address data management and analytic challenges.

Advances in data and technology are rapidly transforming the financial services industry; however, developers within investment firms continue to spend significant time and energy customizing various tools to manage, interpret and analyze financial data at scale.

Many of the existing solutions for financial data management and analytics are based on a patchwork of legacy technologies that struggle to meet the latency and scale requirements of modern investment practices.

As a result, investment firms may spend their engineering expertise managing undifferentiated infrastructure and wrangling data, rather than innovating at the speed they would like for their customers.

Deepening advancement

AWS looks to advance its vertical ground game with new partnerships. Having become one of the driving platforms of digital transformation all over the world, it activates the cloud, artificial intelligence and big data experience it has in verticals such as health and finance.

And it is now set to offer new financial services with the Goldman Sachs partnership.

"There is no industry that has not been touched by the cloud," said AWS CEO Adam Selipsky in his keynote speech, adding that only 5% to 15% of enterprises have moved to the cloud. "It’s still early days, and we’re tailoring services to industry-specific use cases. We have launched targeted services across a wide range of industries," Selipsky said.

He cited Amazon FinSpace as an example to prepare financial data. The aim is to power new customer experiences, he noted.

In addition to the partnership with Goldman Sachs, AWS also announced a partnership with tech stock exchange Nasdaq to build the next generation of cloud-enabled infrastructure for the world’s capital markets.

Among other noteworthy cooperations are ones in the transportation industry made with United Airlines and in 5G and the telecom sector with Dish Wireless.

Priority in finance

Performing sophisticated data management and analytics can provide a critical advantage in financial markets, but doing so with speed and scale takes considerable time and resources.

"Goldman Sachs has always led by building technology to serve the most sophisticated financial institutions," said David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, detailing the Goldman Sachs Financial Cloud for Data.

"Today, we are redefining the future of cloud for financial services as we enable developers to focus on building financial solutions for their customers. We are excited to bring together the two leading firms in financial services and cloud computing to deliver an unparalleled solution for financial data management and analytics on the cloud, revolutionizing how our clients extract value from the increasing wealth of information in our industry," Solomon noted.

Strong finance analytics meets the cloud

The importance of the partnership between Goldman Sachs and AWS is highlighted by 150 years and 15 years of expertise in finance and cloud technology, respectively.

The collaboration promises to vastly reduce the need for investment firms to develop and maintain foundational data-integration technology, and lower the barriers to entry for accessing advanced quantitative analytics across global markets.

Goldman Sachs institutional clients will be able to accelerate time to market for financial applications, optimize their resources to focus on portfolio returns and innovate faster.

Users of the Goldman Sachs Financial Cloud for Data will also benefit from more streamlined and secure access to best-in-class financial data from Goldman Sachs.

Nasdaq’s cloud journey

Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman outlined how a market operator is a software as a service (SaaS) provider to the ecosystem focusing on equities, derivatives, crypto and even sports betting.

Nasdaq’s reach extends into 130 other markets around the world, Friedman said, noting that the market operator has been an AWS partner since 2008 and has extended its use of services to improve speed, reliability and deliver low latency.

"To date, Nasdaq has moved data distribution, revenue management, regulatory reporting and market operations to AWS. The next frontier is Nasdaq’s matching engine, which turns an order into a trade," she said.

"We will be the first market provider that is 100% cloud-enabled."

5G network being built in cloud

Marc Rouanne, chief network officer at Dish Wireless, said a new 5G network entirely built in the cloud will be established.

The play for Dish Wireless 5G is to move beyond smartphones to machines, he noted.

"By using AWS as its infrastructure, Dish Wireless aims to deliver data and automation at scale," Rouanne said.

3M eyes digital products

American multinational conglomerate corporation 3M is looking to advance its material and physical science know-how in new ways to innovate, its senior vice president of digital transformation, Shaun Braun, said.

"AWS is helping us become a digital company of the future," said Braun, adding that 3M started moving data centers to AWS as well as applications but now sees the company as a partner for future products.

3M has used AWS for its manufacturing operations, covering 200 plants, 51 technology platforms and 27 countries, he noted. 3M can search for materials down to the plant name in minutes. "Our manufacturing is now smarter," Braun said.

Going forward, he noted that the company is looking to be known for its digital products as much as its physical products. "We are building those capabilities now."