Friendly competition at re:Invent — AWS Gamedays and Jams
This year I had the chance to be present at re:Invent for the first time and it was certainly a great experience. I was able to meet some fantastic people and attend some great sessions. However, one of my favorite parts of the conference is AWS Gameday/Jams. A low-pressure setting where participants form teams and tackle a set of challenges that involve scenarios that will require knowledge of AWS services and troubleshooting skills.
The ultimate goal is to learn about new features, best practices, and get ideas for how to improve your DevOps style. You’ll also get to practice your troubleshooting skills. A lot. Each of the challenges has tips that can be revealed and will help you in case you get stuck. These tips cost points, which means that if you use them you surely aren’t going to win but you will learn new cool things for sure.
The Gamedays or Jam events are organized by different AWS teams but share the same spirit. These are done in collaboration with some of the re:Invent sponsors. Participants are presented with a set of challenges and have approximately four hours to complete them. When time runs out the team with the most points will get the win and all the glory that goes with it, but surely all teams will get a valuable learning experience. In each of these events I’ve always used a service I didn’t use before. The challenges simulate outages, security breaches and other types of disruptions that you may have encountered or will likely encounter in your career… unfortunately. There is a safe and controlled environment for each of the challenges in which to work in order to resolve each stage of the challenge and win points.
Collaborative effort
This is an exercise that promotes teamwork and communication, as team members work together to resolve complex challenges. Additionally, it provides an opportunity for individuals to learn from each other and improve their understanding of the AWS Services involved. We had the opportunity to go in as an organized team, but people who are interested in taking part and do not have a team are matched with people from around the world. This also creates a valuable opportunity for meeting new people and networking.
AWS Support
While the exercise takes place there are numerous AWS technical staff roaming the floor and willing to help teams that are perhaps stuck with the mechanics of the game itself and not the challenge per-se. Sometimes there can be more than one solution to the same problem, or perhaps the validation engine doesn’t like your valid IAM policy (this happened to us). Upon visual verification one of the AWS crew members for the Jam or Gameday will be able to award the points for that part of the exercise if you justify it properly. By engaging with the AWS team members we had the opportunity to meet some amazing people too. These guys and gals are the ones that make all of this possible so if you are reading this, thank you for the experience 👏👏.
Troubleshooting fun
It is important to practice AWS troubleshooting because it helps you develop the skills and knowledge needed to identify and resolve issues that may arise in a production environment. AWS is a complex platform, and it is not uncommon for issues to arise during the operation of an application or service. These issues can range from simple configuration errors to more complex issues involving the underlying infrastructure. By practicing troubleshooting in a simulated environment, you can become familiar with the tools and processes needed to identify and resolve issues quickly and effectively.
Conclusion
Overall, the AWS Gameday/Jam events at re:Invent are a fantastic learning opportunity for participants. Not only do they provide a chance to meet new people and have fun, but they also offer a safe and controlled environment to practice troubleshooting skills and learn about new features and best practices.
More info:
https://aws.amazon.com/gameday
https://aws.amazon.com/es/professional-services/jam/
