Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs
Matt Garman, AWS CEO, announces the new AI tool for migrating .NET applications to Linux at AWS re:Invent on Tuesday morning. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)
LAS VEGAS — Amazon has a new use for AI: dumping Microsoft Windows.
At the Amazon Web Services re:Invent conference Tuesday morning, the company announced a series of new features for Amazon Q Developer, its AI assistant for software development, including one that uses AI to help companies migrate legacy Microsoft .NET applications to Linux.
The move could boost Amazon’s cloud business by reducing a major hurdle for customers to move away from data centers and servers running on Microsoft’s operating system.
“Customers would love an ‘easy button’ to get off Windows,” said AWS CEO Matt Garman, announcing the initiative on stage here Tuesday morning, along with an array of new products and features across Amazon’s cloud business.
Although the AI twist is new, the push to help customers move workloads away from Windows and into Amazon’s cloud has been a longstanding quest for AWS, stretching back to current Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s past tenure as the leader of the company’s cloud unit.
RELATED STORYAmazon unveils ‘Nova’ AI models, looking to make its mark in the generative AI revolution
The keynote Tuesday morning marked Garman’s first re:Invent as CEO. Jassy also made an appearance on stage, talking about Amazon’s implementation of AI across robotics, e-commerce, Alexa, and other businesses. He also unveiled the company’s new “Nova” AI foundation models.
Amazon Q is the company’s flagship AI application for developers and businesses, originally announced here a year ago. It was widely seen at the time as an effort by the company to play catch-up in the fast-moving field of artificial intelligence.
Amazon Q competes on different fronts with Microsoft’s market-leading GitHub Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot for businesses, Google Gemini, Salesforce Agentforce, and many other AI tools for businesses and developers.
The new Amazon Q .NET-to-Linux feature uses AI agents to examine files designated by a developer for migration, identify software components that need to be upgraded, create a transformation plan, and execute the plan by upgrading code and configuration files, among other steps.
Based on the experience of customers who’ve been testing the tool, Amazon says AI could reduce the migration process from months to days, and save up to 40% in costs due to the shift away from Microsoft’s traditional licensing model.
Jassy previously posted about Amazon’s own use of Amazon Q to upgrade its internal Java applications to newer versions of the programming language, describing the estimated savings of 4,500 developer-years as “crazy but real.”
At re:Invent today, Amazon also announced new AI migration tools for companies using legacy mainframe applications, and those looking to move away from VMware virtualization technology in data centers.
In addition, the company announced new Amazon Q capabilities that use AI to help developers automatically generate unit tests, keep documentation up-to-date, and provide efficient code reviews. The idea is to remove much of the grunt work from developers’ day-to-day work, making Amazon Q more than just a coding assistant.
“We’ve been taking a very intentional, broad approach,” said Adnan Ijaz, director of product management for Amazon Q Developer, in an interview at re:Invent.
Amazon also announced a series of new capabilities for Amazon Q Business, including integrations with the Amazon QuickSight business intelligence tool, and the ability for independent software vendors (ISVs) to integrate with customers’ Amazon Q index. In addition, an upcoming Amazon Q Business feature will automate complex business workflows using generative AI.
