WC 24/12/09 AWS Whats New

Welcome to another week of updates from the world of AWS. Whether you’re just starting your cloud journey or you’re a seasoned pro, there’s something here for everyone. Let’s dive into what’s new and why it matters to you.

User Experience Enhancements

Amazon AppStream 2.0 now allows users to save their client preferences between streaming sessions. This means that settings like audio, video, regional settings, and streaming mode will be automatically applied the next time you connect, providing a seamless and consistent experience.

Media and Streaming

AWS Elemental MediaConnect Gateway has introduced support for source-specific multicast (SSM). This feature enhances control and security by allowing you to specify both a multicast group address and an optional source IP address. It helps in filtering unwanted traffic and ensures efficient bandwidth use, making your live video workflows more secure and efficient.

Compute and Instances

Amazon EC2 instances now support bandwidth configurations for VPC and EBS. With Instance Bandwidth Configurations (IBC), you can adjust the bandwidth allocation between VPC and EBS services by up to 25%. This flexibility allows you to optimise your workloads better, whether you're focusing on data analytics or database operations. Additionally, new EC2 instance types like C7g, M7i-flex, M7i, and F2 have been introduced, offering improved performance and regional availability.

Resource Management

AWS Resource Explorer has expanded its support to include 59 new resource types. This update makes it easier to search for resources across various AWS services, including Amazon EKS, Amazon Kendra, and Amazon SageMaker. AWS Cloud Map now supports service-level attributes, enabling you to store and access information directly at the service level.

Data and Analytics

Amazon Redshift has introduced auto and incremental refresh for Materialized Views, eliminating the need for full refreshes. This feature ensures that your views are always up-to-date with minimal manual intervention, providing near real-time insights and reducing operational workload. The auto-copy feature for data ingestion from Amazon S3 is now generally available in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.

Networking and Connectivity

AWS has announced a new Direct Connect location in Osaka, Japan. This new site offers dedicated connections with MACsec encryption, providing a more consistent network experience for users in the Osaka Metropolitan area. Amazon Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall and DNS Firewall Advanced are now available in the Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Region, providing granular control over DNS queries.

Security and Compliance

Amazon DynamoDB now supports FIPS 140-3 interface VPC and Streams endpoints, enhancing security for regulated workloads. AWS Security Hub now supports PCI DSS v4.0.1 standard, providing automated security checks aligned with the latest compliance framework. Amazon SES now offers Global Endpoints for multi-region sending resilience, ensuring continuous email sending even during regional outages.

Database Services

Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL has announced Extended Support for minor version 11.22-RDS.20241121. This update provides critical security and bug fixes, giving you more time to upgrade to a new major version. Amazon Keyspaces (for Apache Cassandra) now supports User-Defined Types and frozen collections in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions, allowing for more complex and efficient data models.

AI and Machine Learning

Amazon Bedrock Guardrails now supports Spanish and French languages, expanding its reach to more users. This feature helps implement safeguards for generative AI applications, ensuring content safety and privacy. Amazon SageMaker AI has introduced P5e and G6e instances for inference, providing exceptional performance for compute-intensive AI workloads.

Developer Tools

AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code now includes Amazon CloudWatch Logs Live Tail, providing real-time visibility into your logs. This feature makes it easier to develop and troubleshoot serverless applications. Research and Engineering Studio on AWS has released Version 2024.12, which includes dynamic Active Directory configuration and support for Amazon Cognito users.

IoT and Edge Computing

AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN has announced new feature enhancements, including IPv6 support and improved firmware update capabilities. These updates improve fleet management, scalability, reliability, and user experience for IoT applications.

Backup and Recovery

AWS Backup has expanded cross-account management in opt-in Regions, simplifying backup management across multiple AWS accounts. This feature helps maintain compliance and reduces account management overhead.

Customer Engagement

Amazon Connect now supports holiday overrides for Hours of Operation, allowing you to configure exceptions for holidays and other variances. This update ensures that your contact centre operates smoothly during special occasions. Additionally, Amazon Connect now supports push notifications for mobile chat, improving the customer experience by notifying users of new messages even when they are not actively chatting.

Conclusion

These enhancements and new features are designed to make your cloud journey smoother, more secure, and more efficient. Whether you're optimising your infrastructure, enhancing security, or leveraging the latest in AI and machine learning, AWS continues to provide the tools and services you need to innovate and succeed.

 Whether you're just starting out or looking to master advanced AWS tools, iteach.cloud can help you achieve your goals. Contact us for AWS training from certified experts and take your cloud skills to the next level.

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