AWS Summit 2025

Article by Maike Wessels, Senior Marketing Manager at M2

Hamburg was calling – and together with seven colleagues, we made our way to the AWS Summit 2025, which, unlike in previous years, was held for the first time not in Berlin, but in the beautiful Hanseatic city.

We have a long-standing, intensive partnership with AWS and have successfully implemented various customer projects across different industries, so we were very excited to see what impulses and trends the AWS Summit would set this year with over 170 sessions and a wide range of customer and partner presentations.

After some colleagues had already attended the AWS Partner Summit and several evening events, including one by IngramMicro, the AWS Summit 2025 kicked off for us with the "Public Sector & Regulated Industries Breakfast" in the Public Sector Area at the Messe Hamburg. By the time the DJ set during registration and our first coffee kicked in, we were wide awake and ready for an eventful day with over 170 sessions in various areas.

Of course, we also took the opportunity to reconnect with some of our customers, partners, and colleagues from AWS for some face-to-face discussions (for example, during a ride on the specially set-up Ferris wheel).

Stefan Hoechbauer, Managing Director Germany & Europe Central, kicked off the AWS Summit Hamburg 2025 with a keynote focused on innovation, digital sovereignty, and future-proof transformation. He discussed the challenges and opportunities arising from the use of Generative AI, infrastructure modernization, and ensuring compliance and data sovereignty. Digital Sovereignty, and particularly the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, was a central theme throughout the summit. Höchbauer emphasized that AWS strengthens digital sovereignty in Europe with the AWS European Sovereign Cloud and helps companies shape their digital future in a secure and sustainable way, highlighting that AWS takes the requirements surrounding data sovereignty in the EU and specifically in Germany seriously.

With the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, which was announced at the AWS Summit 2024 and is set to launch by the end of 2025, AWS has taken an important step toward digital independence to meet the requirements of European data protection regulations. This initiative aims to provide European organizations with a cloud infrastructure that is fully built, operated, and controlled within Europe. The governance structure was particularly emphasized, ensuring that data flows and operational processes adhere to the highest standards of data protection and compliance. This initiative will be especially significant for the public sector, but companies that place a high value on data protection and security will also benefit from it.

The agenda provided a comprehensive overview of the current challenges and solutions in the public sector, with customer presentations and sessions in various areas. The topic of Digital Sovereignty was particularly prominent on the Public Sector & Regulated Industries Stage. AWS customers, such as ARD and the Traunstein District Office, presented how they have optimized processes using AWS. Just last year, we had the great opportunity to present our customer case with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Also significant for the public sector is the cooperation agreement between AWS and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), which aims to develop and adapt standards and validation processes for cloud environments traditionally designed for on-premises systems. Both organizations aim to promote digital freedom in Germany and the EU and create an environment that enhances the security of digital infrastructures while simultaneously supporting technological progress.

As a strategic partner in the public sector, the exchange with customers and between sessions was particularly exciting and important for us.

Equally impressive is the rapid development in the field of Generative AI, which was another prominent topic at the summit. Particularly the integration of Amazon QuickSight with the AWS Generative AI Assistant Q opens up entirely new possibilities for data-driven work.

Q not only helps with data analysis but can also automatically generate content and insights that can be directly integrated into decision-making processes. Customer presentations, such as one from Süddeutsche Zeitung, showed how quickly the AI field is advancing and how companies can now use their data in entirely new ways.

Another highlight was the presentation of Amazon SageMaker. SageMaker provides a comprehensive end-to-end solution for creating, training, and deploying machine learning models. It offers a user-friendly environment with pre-trained models, automated training, and easy deployment options to help companies develop and scale AI solutions. What makes SageMaker particularly special is its flexibility and performance.

By integrating tools like SageMaker and Q, companies can leverage Generative AI to not only revolutionize data analysis but also generate creative solutions and personalized insights more quickly and efficiently.

The partner and AWS expo, divided by thematic areas and industry solutions, along with numerous demos, highlighted how AWS can map the entire Data Value Chain with its native services. From data collection to processing and analysis, all the way to visualization – AWS provides solutions that cover the end-to-end data architecture of a company. This is especially exciting for us as partners, as it allows us to reduce complexity for our customers and support them with scalable, efficient solutions.

The fact that so many customers from various industries not only attended the summit but also presented their solutions developed with AWS and partners highlights one thing above all: customer-centricity, strong partnerships, and effective collaboration that have collectively led to success. AWS repeatedly emphasized how important close collaboration between AWS, its partners, and customers is. This “One Team” approach is especially valuable in projects, as it ensures that all stakeholders work in the same direction, allowing innovative solutions to be implemented more quickly and efficiently. For us as partners, this means that we not only use AWS technologies but also help shape the future of cloud development.

The summit not only showed us how far AWS has already come, but also what the future of the cloud will look like. Innovation and adaptability, as well as close partnerships and customer-centricity, remain the keys to success. The progress in Generative AI, the introduction of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, and the continuous development of AWS SaaS solutions clearly show that, as partners, we must remain agile and innovative to provide the best solutions to our customers.

We look forward to integrating the innovations from the summit into our own projects and continuing to work together with AWS and our customers on the future of the cloud!