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AWS To Open Brick-and-Mortar 'Loft' for Developers
Part of an effort to educate developers on the company's cloud services.
Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS) will open a brick-and-mortar store in San Francisco this fall as part of an effort to educate developers on its cloud services, the company announced last week.
After a four-week pilot program in June, the AWS Pop-up Loft will open its doors for a longer-term installation sometime this fall. Ariel Kelman, worldwide marketing chief for AWS, said in a Bloomberg interview that the Loft will be open for "at least a year" this time.
Amazon had previously described its Loft concept as "technical interaction on demand," or like a version of its re:Invent conference "on crack." The company's goal is for the Loft to catch on with developers as an educational and networking resource, and as a way to encourage use of its Amazon S3, Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS services.
Eventually, the company may open Lofts in other locations, especially in cities that are home to high numbers of tech startups, Kelman told Bloomberg.
Visitors to the Loft can take advantage of pre-scheduled presentations or one-day technical bootcamps led by AWS architects. They can also schedule 30-minute, one-on-one meetings with AWS architects. Visitors can also access a variety of self-paced AWS labs. Although the Technical Bootcamps typically cost $600 each and the self-paced labs $30 each, all of the activities will be offered for free to Loft visitors, according to this FAQ.
The San Francisco Loft will have space for up to 400 people and employ about 10 on-site AWS employees, Kelman told Bloomberg, adding that AWS expects to see about "several thousand" visitors to the Loft each month.
The San Francisco Loft will be located on 925 Market Street. Those interested can sign up for the AWS Loft mailing list here.