Amazon Web Services is rumored to be announcing two major new product launches at its AWS re:Invent conference later today, including a new data analytics service and a “super-fast” database, according to reports.

Analytics on AWS

The Wall Street Journal claims that AWS’s business intelligence tool, called “Space Needle”, will allow IT teams to copy and transfer data to the AWS cloud much faster than before. Moreover, if there’s too much data to migrate to the cloud, AWS will offer storage devices so customers can manually store their data. Those devices, together with the data, will then be shipped back to Amazon and uploaded to the cloud.

If the WSJ is correct, Space Needle will be available as a monthly subscription service though it gave no details of pricing.

The move could pose a major threat to more established business intelligence software providers like Microsoft, IBM, SAP SE and Tableau Software Inc., the WSJ says. It’s easy to see why AWS would want a piece of the pie too – according to Pringle & Co., the business intelligence market will be worth about $143 billion in 2016.

Boris Evelson, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc., told the WSJ that AWS has a big advantage over its rivals because it can offer its BI tool as an add-on service. He also pointed to the overall immaturity of the market, which would effectively make Space Needle the “new 800-pound gorilla in the BI market.”

Space Needle would almost certainly help AWS to further “lock-in” big customers like Netflix Inc., Airbnb Inc. and Nike Inc. More importantly though, Space Needle will give AWS an edge because it will allow non-technical professionals, for example business managers and marketing employees, to make use of a tool that was once only available to skilled IT personnel.

Blazing-fast in-memory datbase

AWS may also have a second major new product up its sleeve, if Business Insider is to be believed. Rumors of a new “super-fast” database are a bit more suspect given BI doesn’t quite have the same track record as the WSJ on these things, but the website cites a research note from Merrill Lynch’s Justin Post to back up its claims.

“Amazon may announce new database products like in-memory databases or higher performance database services like Aurora (MySQL),” he wrote in a research note earlier this week.

In-memory databases run on the computer’s memory rather than using the main storage, and are able to process “ungodly” amounts of data, in the words of Oracle’s Larry Ellison.

If AWS does unveil an in-memory database it could be a big blow to Oracle which has staked a lot on its Oracle 12c database, and also to SAP, which has admitted to betting its whole company on its own in-memory HANA database.

AWS already offers several ways in which customers can set up in-memory databases on its cloud, including SAP HANA, but the company is known to be working on its own database technologies anyway. That much we know from a recent job listing for a database developer, where AWS says: These are exciting times in our space – we are growing fast, but still at an early stage and working on ambitious new initiatives where an engineer at any level can have significant technical and business impact.”

AWS jumps into bed with Rackspace?

Also this week, as SiliconANGLE reported earlier today, it’s rumored that AWS could be about to announce a major partnership with cloud services firm Rackspace Inc. My colleague Duncan Riley writes that if the rumors are true, Rackspace could offer enterprise customers the ability move their hosting into Amazon’s cloud. The partnership would likely be similar to one Rackspace already has with Microsoft Azure, where it provides support and acts as a reseller with the option of hosting on its own cloud infrastructure.

While neither AWS nor Rackspace would comment on the reports, it seems that most Wall Street investors believe they could well be true. Shares in Rackspace were trading up 6.61 percent to $25.87 at the close of markets on Monday.

Readers can follow all the action when AWS kicks off its re:Invent conference on SiliconANGLE‘s live event show theCUBE, which will be covering all the action live from Sands Expo: The Veneitian – Las Vegas, NV.

Photo Credit: hayefmajid via Compfight cc