AWS partners with Avalanche to scale blockchain solutions for enterprise, government • TechCrunch

Image credit: Ava Labs

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has partnered with Ava Labs, the company building out the layer-1 blockchain Avalanche, to help scale blockchain adoption across enterprises, institutions and governments, the two firms told TechCrunch exclusively.

“Looking ahead, web3 and blockchain are inevitable,” Howard Wright, VP and global head of startups at AWS, told TechCrunch. “Nobody can call the time, the date or the quarter that it’s going to happen and it’s going to be mainstream, but we’ve seen the growth cycles before. The speed of this one seems like it’s accelerating, and we’re just excited to be a part of it. »

The partnership aims to make it easier for individuals to launch and manage nodes on Avalanche, while also aiming to give the network more strength and flexibility for developers.

AWS will support Avalanche’s infrastructure and decentralized application (dApp) ecosystem, along with one-click node deployments, through the marketplace. The tie-up will also include Ava Labs joining AWS Activate, a program that helps early-stage startups and entrepreneurs get off the ground on the platform.

“For us, this means a lot of things,” John Wu, president of Ava Labs, told TechCrunch. “We have over 500 applications in the chain and we want to give them a better experience, and now we have a real partnership that we can lead to the Activate program. On top of that, our users are always looking for a better experience. The one-click node is an incredible way to do that.”

A number of blockchains already use AWS to power their networks — about 25% of all Ethereum workloads in the world run on AWS, according to the website. The technology itself is “natively agnostic” and supports all blockchain protocols, Wright said, although this is AWS’s first foundational partnership with a blockchain.

Ava Labs plans to add its subnet deployment as a managed service to the AWS marketplace, allowing both individuals and institutions to easily launch their own custom subnets. Subnet is part of Avalanche’s scaling solution that diverts traffic away from the main blockchain and allows projects to stake its native token, AVAX, while creating their own layer-1 or layer-2 blockchains.

“This is the beginning of something much, much bigger,” Wu said, adding that the subnets will allow developers “to spin up their own blockchain, a full blockchain, in Amazon very easily.”

Last quarter, Avalanche began developing five to six active subnets, Wu said. But in the testnet phase, there are over 100 subnets that will be deployed in the next six to 12 months “at least.” “We look forward to sharing this partnership with the hundreds of subnets that will launch this year […] so I’m excited about what this could be, not just what it is.”

Wright echoed this sentiment: “When you multiply Activate times Avalanche times Subnet, you have something that is a breakthrough moment. I’m thinking about blockchain [technology] will become common and used in our marketplace by developers.”

Ava Labs has also joined the AWS Partner Network (APN), which gives the firm access to distribute offerings on AWS with more than 100,000 partners in more than 150 countries, Wright said. “[APN] with Ava Labs and Avalanche is the jet fuel for blockchain and crypto that will democratize access for all corners of the world.”

Avalanche is far from the first startup to come through Amazon’s network, Wright shared. “Over 200,000 startups came through our doors, so we know what excellence looks like. It’s [including] Netflix, Uber and Airbnb — they have redefined verticals and we have the audacity to think differently [like them] are out there, including Ava.”

“We are still in the early stages of companies and governments building on the chain,” Emin Gün Sirer, founder and CEO of Ava Labs, told TechCrunch. But the pace of these initiatives will increase now that Avalanche and AWS deliver a more complete and reliable solution for their needs, Sirer added.

That said, the size of this network could significantly expand the reach of the crypto-based company and its developers building on the blockchain. “The underlying technology and capabilities are something we’re trying to leverage with John and his team,” Wright said. “It comes back to ease and access.”

And the “ease and access” that both AWS and Avalanche aim to provide through the partnership is only going to accelerate adoption, Wu believes.

“Many of the developers and newer entrepreneurs are crossovers from web2 to web3, there are no longer hardcore web3 people,” Wu said. “And I think with them, they already have good experience with Amazon, and having Activate and Avalanche will just make it easier for the crossover, and it will be an accelerator and amplifier for that.”

The two companies also collaborate on events for entrepreneurs and developers through the Avalanche Summit, Avalanche Creates and hackathons to help developers build on the blockchain.

“We want to be strategic long-term partners; it’s a differentiating and motivating factor for us,” Wright said. “So the complement of the subnets and our Activate we think is the perfect time, the perfect opportunity, and we humbly believe that we will look back years and see this as an important time for blockchain expansion.”

As for the future of AWS? It plans to be “closer to developers and partners,” Wright said. “Not just a Seattle headquarters […] we’re trying to bring this to the proverbial seven kids in a garage somewhere, and we’re going to be more approachable and nimble with high-value partners like Ava.”

“We want to push the envelope of what’s possible,” Wright said.