Build & maintain complex distributed systems
October 1–2, 2017: Training
October 2–4, 2017: Tutorials & Conference
New York, NY

Systems management with a voice UI using Amazon Alexa

Karthik Kirupanithi (Amazon Web Services)
4:45pm5:25pm Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Who is this presentation for?

  • System engineers, system administrators, and operations managers

Prerequisite knowledge

  • Familiarity with AWS EC2 and basic systems management concepts

What you'll learn

  • Learn how to create Alexa skills using AWS Lambda and perform systems management with EC2 Systems Manager

Description

Voice UIs like Amazon’s Alexa can make systems management simple, intuitive, and delightful. The virtual private assistant feel of a VUI, coupled with the abstraction that voice commands bring, break the tedium of management tasks. Alexa allows engineers to create skills that can turn voice commands into an automated process. For instance, the EC2 Systems Manager skill turns an engineer’s voice command (e.g., “Send me a list of all web servers that are not patched”) into an API call and schedules an action or fetches results. In addition to being able to perform complex actions, Alexa also provides a notification system that can be used to get event notifications, such as patch failures.

Karthik Kirupanithi demonstrates how to put together an Alexa skill that can perform tasks using the EC2 Systems Manager, covering how to address authentication and notification and how to personalize your skill to address your specific needs. Along the way, Karthik offers a glimpse of how powerful voice dashboards can be.

Photo of Karthik Kirupanithi

Karthik Kirupanithi

Amazon Web Services

Karthik Kirupanithi is a software development engineer at Amazon Web Services. Previously, Karthik worked for Amazon, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, and Dow Jones. He enjoys solving everyday problems and automating and simplifying everyday work; his recent interests include systems management and Alexa skill development.