AWS re:Invent 2014

Genome sequencing technologies have lowered costs and increased data output at a much faster rate than traditional hardware refresh cycles can service effectively. With lowered costs, more biomedical research and clinical operations are integrating sequencing into a larger portion of their projects, compounding an already tough problem for IT operations. When Regeneron committed to using Next Generation Sequencing technology for biopharmaceutical research, the decision was made to keep the server room empty and deliver all genomic analysis and storage services using AWS and DNAnexus. We review the consequences of this decision, illustrating how basic AWS core services are game-changers in the design and operation of a scientific infrastructure at scale. We show how Amazon S3 changes the storage performance equation, discuss the impact of new instance types on the cost of genomic analysis, and explain how secure collaboration enables Regeneron to advance biopharmaceutical research techniques and support the future of genomic medicine.

Healthcare and life sciences companies depend on thousands of dissimilar data streams from a complicated array of sources for all aspects of their businesses. The complexity of managing this data can present challenges in understanding and engaging patients and providers, effectively managing clinical trials, making data-driven decisions, and developing intelligent insights. In this session, we show how IMS Health uses AWS services (AWS Data Pipeline, Amazon EC2, Amazon Glacier, Amazon RDS, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Route 53, and Amazon S3) to address the healthcare needs of its customers. In addition, we show how IMS Health uses AWS today to optimize the integration of sales and marketing activities through customer use cases. Find out how both applications and data services will improve as access to data is accelerated and new capabilities are delivered through Amazon Redshift.

In the past ten years, the cost of sequencing a human genome has fallen from $3 billion dollars to $1,000, unlocking the ability for clinicians to use genomics in routine care. As the volume of genomic data used in the clinic begins to grow, healthcare providers are facing a number of new IT challenges, such as how to integrate this data with clinical data stored in electronic medical records, and how to make both available in real time to inform clinical decisions. In this session, find out how UCSF Medical Center and Syapse met these challenges head-on and solved them using AWS, all while remaining compliant with privacy and security requirements. Learn how Syapse's precision medicine platform uses Amazon VPC, Dedicated Instances, Amazon EC2, and Amazon EBS to build a high performance, scalable, and HIPAA-compliant data platform that enables UCSF to deliver on the promise of precision medicine by dramatically reducing time and increasing the accuracy and utility of genomic profiling in cancer treatment.

This session brings together the interests of engineering, compliance, and security experts, and shows you how to align your AWS workload to the controls in the HIPAA Security Rule. You hear from customers who process and store Protected Health Information (PHI) on AWS, and you learn how they satisfied their compliance requirements while maintaining agility. This session helps security and compliance experts find out what is technically possible on AWS and learn how implementing the Technical Safeguards in the HIPAA Security Rule can be simple and familiar. We walk through the Technical Safeguards of the Security Rule and map them to AWS features and design choices to help developers, operations teams, and engineers speak the language of their security and compliance peers.

The key to fighting cancer through better therapeutics is a deep understanding of the basic biology of this disease at a cellular and molecular level. Comprehensive analysis of cancer mutations in specific tumors or cancer cell lines by using Life Technologies sequencing and real-time PCR systems generates gigabytes to terabytes of data every day. Our customers bring together this data in studies that seek to discover the genetic fingerprint of cancer. The data typically translates to millions of records in databases that require complex algorithmic processing, cross-application analysis, and interactive visualizations with real-time response (2-3 seconds) to enable users to consume large volumes of complex scientific information.

We have chosen the AWS platform to bring this new era of data analysis power to our customers by using technologies such as Amazon S3, ElastiCache, and DynamoDB for storage and fast access and Amazon EMR for parallelizing complex computations. Our talk tells the story with rich details about challenges and roadblocks in building data-intense, highly interactive applications in the cloud. We also highlight enhanced customer workflows and highly optimized applications with orders of magnitude improvement in performance and scalability.

The more devices are connected, the more new applications and services emerge that use those connected devices. AWS offers a wide variety of services that can be used to build andquot;device clouds,andquot; backend infrastructure for connecting different kinds of devices, including smart phones, tablets, smart meters, connected cars, sensor and actuator gateways, and so on. In this session, we share best practices for authentication, authorization, messaging, data collection, analytics, and much more. We also hear from Internet of Things (IoT) customers who have successfully built highly-scalable device clouds on AWS.

AWS Lambda is a new compute service that runs your code in response to events and automatically manages compute resources for you. In this session, you learn what you need to get started quickly, including a review of key features, a live demonstration, how to use AWS Lambda with Amazon S3 event notifications and Amazon DynamoDB streams, and tips on getting the most out of Lambda functions.

Cross-platform push notifications that can engage your customers even when your app is in the background are becoming a central part of a mobile app user experience. Some customers may rarely open an app that provides useful information to them; for them, the notifications are the most important part. But great user experiences can break if your messages get dropped or delayed. How do you ensure your messages are delivered fast and reliably at scale? And how can you use them to extend the user experience of your app? In this session, we show you how Amazon SNS provides the performance and simplicity of a managed service, while also supporting interactive notifications, silent push, and broadcasts to large groups. We also learn from Mailbox, who rely on large-scale push notifications as a core part of the user experience, and who will share real-world design patterns.

In the past, content and preferences would be moved to the device. Now devices are just a window to content and services that live in the cloud. The cloud enables your content and preferences to follow you wherever you go. You have the ability to transition between your phone, tablet, and laptop and seamlessly pick up where you left off. With Amazon Cognito, you can synchronize user data across mobile OS/devices and bridge the web world with the mobile world. In this session, learn how you can implement sync in Android, iOS, and JavaScript so you can deliver a ''WOW'' customized user experience to your customers. We show you how to integrate with Amazon Cognito to sync with mobile devices and the web and delve into some of the nuances of syncing, such as conflict resolution and account merging.

Choosing the right mobile analytics solution can help you understand user behavior, engage users, and maximize user lifetime value. After this session, you will understand how you can learn more about your users and their behavior quickly across platforms with just one line of code using Amazon Mobile Analytics.