AWS User Group Finland February Meetup - Sponsored by Alma Media

The February meetup brought us to Alma Media’s office on Alvar Aallon katu in Helsinki for a sustainability-themed evening. With 91 people in attendance, it was one of the bigger turnouts we have had, and the energy in the room reflected that. Sustainability in cloud development is a topic that does not always get the attention it deserves, so it was great to see the community show up for it in force.

Rolf Koski opened the evening with news from the community and an overview of what was new at AWS. Then Anna Suo-Anttila and Minna Vanhasalo from Alma Media took the stage to talk about sustainable choices in cloud development and why they matter. Hearing from practitioners at a major Finnish media company about how they think about sustainability in their day-to-day cloud work was both practical and thought-provoking. Niklas Westerstrahle from Knowit followed up with a presentation on using the AWS Well-Architected Framework to promote sustainability, tying the conceptual framework to concrete actions teams can take.

The Q&A sessions were lively. People were not shy about asking detailed follow-up questions, which is always a sign that the content resonated with the audience. Sustainability is one of those topics where the gap between intention and action can be large, and these talks helped bridge that gap with practical approaches.

Networking after the presentations was excellent. Alma Media took great care of the catering, and the venue itself was spacious enough for people to move around and have proper conversations without feeling crowded.

Thank you to Alma Media for hosting. The strong turnout of 91 people shows that the Finnish AWS community cares about more than just the latest service launches – sustainability is clearly on people’s minds, and an evening dedicated to it was exactly the right call.