Today we’re excited to announce Research and Engineering Studio (RES) on AWS Version 2024.12. This release makes it possible to configure your Active Directory (AD) dynamically at runtime, allows Amazon Cognito users to launch Linux virtual desktops, and gives administrators the option to configure SSH access to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

RES administrators can now manage AD parameters and enable Cognito users through the RES UI in the new Identity Management page. AD parameters that were once required when deploying RES are now optional and can be changed at any time after deployment. Admins can also add LDAP filters for users and groups to be more targeted about what AD identities get synced to RES. Cognito can now be used as an identity source and login method to either augment or replace the existing Active Directory and Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication. Cognito users can access Linux VDI sessions in the RES environment just like users that access the environment through SSO. Add Cognito users to RES by manually adding them to the RES Cognito User Pool or activating user self registration from the RES UI.

This release also gives administrators control over SSH access in the RES environment. SSH access to VDI sessions is now deactivated by default and can be reactivated at any time from the Permission Policy page.

See the regional availability page for the list of regions where RES is available.

Check out additional release notes on Github to get started and deploy RES 2024.12.

 

​Today we’re excited to announce Research and Engineering Studio (RES) on AWS Version 2024.12. This release makes it possible to configure your Active Directory (AD) dynamically at runtime, allows Amazon Cognito users to launch Linux virtual desktops, and gives administrators the option to configure SSH access to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). RES administrators can now manage AD parameters and enable Cognito users through the RES UI in the new Identity Management page. AD parameters that were once required when deploying RES are now optional and can be changed at any time after deployment. Admins can also add LDAP filters for users and groups to be more targeted about what AD identities get synced to RES. Cognito can now be used as an identity source and login method to either augment or replace the existing Active Directory and Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication. Cognito users can access Linux VDI sessions in the RES environment just like users that access the environment through SSO. Add Cognito users to RES by manually adding them to the RES Cognito User Pool or activating user self registration from the RES UI. This release also gives administrators control over SSH access in the RES environment. SSH access to VDI sessions is now deactivated by default and can be reactivated at any time from the Permission Policy page. See the regional availability page for the list of regions where RES is available. Check out additional release notes on Github to get started and deploy RES 2024.12.  

AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code now includes Amazon CloudWatch Logs Live Tail, an interactive log streaming and analytics capability which provides real-time visibility into your logs, making it easier to develop and troubleshoot your serverless applications.

The Toolkit for VS Code is an open-source extension for the Visual Studio Code (VS Code) editor. This extension makes it easier for developers to develop, debug locally, and deploy serverless applications that use AWS. This new integration brings the power of Live Tail directly into the VS Code Command Palette. CloudWatch log events can now be streamed in the VS Code Editor as they are ingested in real-time. You can search, filter, and highlight log events of interest, to aid and accelerate troubleshooting, investigations, and root cause analysis.

Amazon CloudWatch Logs Live Tail for AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code is available in all AWS Commercial regions.

To learn more, please visit the documentation. For pricing details, check Amazon CloudWatch Pricing.
 

 

​AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code now includes Amazon CloudWatch Logs Live Tail, an interactive log streaming and analytics capability which provides real-time visibility into your logs, making it easier to develop and troubleshoot your serverless applications. The Toolkit for VS Code is an open-source extension for the Visual Studio Code (VS Code) editor. This extension makes it easier for developers to develop, debug locally, and deploy serverless applications that use AWS. This new integration brings the power of Live Tail directly into the VS Code Command Palette. CloudWatch log events can now be streamed in the VS Code Editor as they are ingested in real-time. You can search, filter, and highlight log events of interest, to aid and accelerate troubleshooting, investigations, and root cause analysis. Amazon CloudWatch Logs Live Tail for AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code is available in all AWS Commercial regions. To learn more, please visit the documentation. For pricing details, check Amazon CloudWatch Pricing.    

Starting today, you can use Amazon Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall and DNS Firewall Advanced in the Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Region.

Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall is a managed service that enables you to block DNS queries made for domains identified as low-reputation or suspected to be malicious, and to allow queries for trusted domains. In addition, Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall Advanced is a capability of DNS Firewall that allows you to detect and block DNS traffic associated with Domain Generation Algorithms (DGA) and DNS Tunneling threats. DNS Firewall can be enabled only for Route 53 Resolver, which is a recursive DNS server that is available by default in all Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) and that responds to DNS queries from AWS resources within a VPC for public DNS records, VPC-specific domain names, and Route 53 private hosted zones. DNS Firewall provides more granular control over the DNS querying behavior of resources within your VPCs by letting you create “blocklists” for domains you don’t want your VPC resources to communicate with via DNS, or take a stricter, “walled-garden” approach by creating “allowlists” that permit outbound DNS queries only to domains you specify. With DNS Firewall Advanced, you can also configure rules to alert on or block DNS traffic associated with more advanced DNS threats.

Visit the AWS Region Table to see all AWS Regions where Amazon Route 53 is available. Please visit our product page and documentation to learn more about Amazon Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall and its pricing.

 

​Starting today, you can use Amazon Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall and DNS Firewall Advanced in the Asia Pacific (Malaysia) Region. Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall is a managed service that enables you to block DNS queries made for domains identified as low-reputation or suspected to be malicious, and to allow queries for trusted domains. In addition, Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall Advanced is a capability of DNS Firewall that allows you to detect and block DNS traffic associated with Domain Generation Algorithms (DGA) and DNS Tunneling threats. DNS Firewall can be enabled only for Route 53 Resolver, which is a recursive DNS server that is available by default in all Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) and that responds to DNS queries from AWS resources within a VPC for public DNS records, VPC-specific domain names, and Route 53 private hosted zones. DNS Firewall provides more granular control over the DNS querying behavior of resources within your VPCs by letting you create “blocklists” for domains you don’t want your VPC resources to communicate with via DNS, or take a stricter, “walled-garden” approach by creating “allowlists” that permit outbound DNS queries only to domains you specify. With DNS Firewall Advanced, you can also configure rules to alert on or block DNS traffic associated with more advanced DNS threats. Visit the AWS Region Table to see all AWS Regions where Amazon Route 53 is available. Please visit our product page and documentation to learn more about Amazon Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall and its pricing.  

Starting today, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) C7g instances are available in the AWS GovCloud (US-East, US-West) Regions. These instances are powered by AWS Graviton3 processors that provide up to 25% better compute performance compared to AWS Graviton2 processors, and built on top of the the AWS Nitro System, a collection of AWS designed innovations that deliver efficient, flexible, and secure cloud services with isolated multi-tenancy, private networking, and fast local storage.

Amazon EC2 Graviton3 instances also use up to 60% less energy to reduce your cloud carbon footprint for the same performance than comparable EC2 instances. For increased scalability, these instances are available in 9 different instance sizes, including bare metal, and offer up to 30 Gbps networking bandwidth and up to 20 Gbps of bandwidth to the Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS).

To learn more, see Amazon EC2 C7g. To explore how to migrate your workloads to Graviton-based instances, see AWS Graviton Fast Start program and Porting Advisor for Graviton. To get started, see the AWS GovCloud (US) Console.

 

​Starting today, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) C7g instances are available in the AWS GovCloud (US-East, US-West) Regions. These instances are powered by AWS Graviton3 processors that provide up to 25% better compute performance compared to AWS Graviton2 processors, and built on top of the the AWS Nitro System, a collection of AWS designed innovations that deliver efficient, flexible, and secure cloud services with isolated multi-tenancy, private networking, and fast local storage. Amazon EC2 Graviton3 instances also use up to 60% less energy to reduce your cloud carbon footprint for the same performance than comparable EC2 instances. For increased scalability, these instances are available in 9 different instance sizes, including bare metal, and offer up to 30 Gbps networking bandwidth and up to 20 Gbps of bandwidth to the Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS). To learn more, see Amazon EC2 C7g. To explore how to migrate your workloads to Graviton-based instances, see AWS Graviton Fast Start program and Porting Advisor for Graviton. To get started, see the AWS GovCloud (US) Console.  

You can now configure holidays and other variances to your contact center Hours of operation with “overrides” in Amazon Connect, using APIs or the admin website. Overrides are exceptions to your contact center’s standard day-of-the-week operating hours. For example, if your contact center opens at 9am and closes at 10pm, but on New Year’s Eve you want to close at 4pm to allow your agents to get home in time to celebrate, you can add an override to do so. When the holiday arrives and you close your contact center early, callers get the after hours customer experience.

Hours of operations overrides are supported in all AWS regions where Amazon Connect is offered. To learn more about Amazon Connect, the AWS cloud-based contact center, please visit the Amazon Connect website. To learn more about the hours of operations, see the Amazon Connect Administrator Guide.
 

 

​You can now configure holidays and other variances to your contact center Hours of operation with “overrides” in Amazon Connect, using APIs or the admin website. Overrides are exceptions to your contact center’s standard day-of-the-week operating hours. For example, if your contact center opens at 9am and closes at 10pm, but on New Year’s Eve you want to close at 4pm to allow your agents to get home in time to celebrate, you can add an override to do so. When the holiday arrives and you close your contact center early, callers get the after hours customer experience. Hours of operations overrides are supported in all AWS regions where Amazon Connect is offered. To learn more about Amazon Connect, the AWS cloud-based contact center, please visit the Amazon Connect website. To learn more about the hours of operations, see the Amazon Connect Administrator Guide.    

Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) for PostgreSQL announces Amazon RDS Extended Support minor version 11.22-RDS.20241121. We recommend that you upgrade to this version to fix known security vulnerabilities and bugs in prior versions of PostgreSQL. Learn more about the updates and patches in this Extended Support minor version in the Amazon RDS User Guide.

Amazon RDS Extended Support provides you more time, up to three years, to upgrade to a new major version to help you meet your business requirements. During Extended Support, Amazon RDS will provide critical security and bug fixes for your RDS for PostgreSQL databases after the community ends support for a major version. You can run your PostgreSQL databases on Amazon RDS with Extended Support for up to three years beyond a major version’s end of standard support date.

You are able to leverage automatic minor version upgrades to automatically upgrade your databases to more recent minor versions during scheduled maintenance windows. Learn more about upgrading your database instances, including minor and major version upgrades, in the Amazon RDS User Guide.

Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL makes it simple to set up, operate, and scale PostgreSQL deployments in the cloud. See Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL Pricing for pricing details and regional availability. Create or update a fully managed Amazon RDS database in the Amazon RDS Management Console.
 

 

​Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) for PostgreSQL announces Amazon RDS Extended Support minor version 11.22-RDS.20241121. We recommend that you upgrade to this version to fix known security vulnerabilities and bugs in prior versions of PostgreSQL. Learn more about the updates and patches in this Extended Support minor version in the Amazon RDS User Guide. Amazon RDS Extended Support provides you more time, up to three years, to upgrade to a new major version to help you meet your business requirements. During Extended Support, Amazon RDS will provide critical security and bug fixes for your RDS for PostgreSQL databases after the community ends support for a major version. You can run your PostgreSQL databases on Amazon RDS with Extended Support for up to three years beyond a major version’s end of standard support date. You are able to leverage automatic minor version upgrades to automatically upgrade your databases to more recent minor versions during scheduled maintenance windows. Learn more about upgrading your database instances, including minor and major version upgrades, in the Amazon RDS User Guide. Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL makes it simple to set up, operate, and scale PostgreSQL deployments in the cloud. See Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL Pricing for pricing details and regional availability. Create or update a fully managed Amazon RDS database in the Amazon RDS Management Console.    

Amazon Redshift announces the general availability of auto-copy, which simplifies data ingestion from Amazon S3 into Amazon Redshift in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions. This new feature enables you to set up continuous file ingestion from your Amazon S3 prefix and automatically load new files to tables in your Amazon Redshift data warehouse without the need for additional tools or custom solutions.

Previously, Amazon Redshift customers had to build their data pipelines using COPY commands to automate continuous loading of data from S3 to Amazon Redshift tables. With auto-copy, you can now setup an integration which will automatically detect and load new files in a specified S3 prefix to Redshift tables. The auto-copy jobs keep track of previously loaded files and exclude them from the ingestion process. You can monitor auto-copy jobs using system tables

Amazon Redshift auto-copy from Amazon S3 is now generally available for both Amazon Redshift Serverless and Amazon Redshift RA3 Provisioned data warehouses in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions. To learn more, see the documentation or check out the AWS Blog.
 

 

​Amazon Redshift announces the general availability of auto-copy, which simplifies data ingestion from Amazon S3 into Amazon Redshift in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions. This new feature enables you to set up continuous file ingestion from your Amazon S3 prefix and automatically load new files to tables in your Amazon Redshift data warehouse without the need for additional tools or custom solutions. Previously, Amazon Redshift customers had to build their data pipelines using COPY commands to automate continuous loading of data from S3 to Amazon Redshift tables. With auto-copy, you can now setup an integration which will automatically detect and load new files in a specified S3 prefix to Redshift tables. The auto-copy jobs keep track of previously loaded files and exclude them from the ingestion process. You can monitor auto-copy jobs using system tables Amazon Redshift auto-copy from Amazon S3 is now generally available for both Amazon Redshift Serverless and Amazon Redshift RA3 Provisioned data warehouses in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions. To learn more, see the documentation or check out the AWS Blog.    

Today, AWS announces the general availability of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) F2 instances, featuring up to 8 FPGAs. Amazon EC2 F2 instances, the second-generation FPGA-powered instances, are purpose built to develop and deploy reconfigurable hardware in the cloud.

You can use F2 instances to power the next generation of FPGA-accelerated solutions in genomics, multimedia processing, big data, network security/acceleration, and cloud-based video broadcasting.

F2 instances are the first FPGA-based instances to feature 16GB of high-bandwidth memory. F2 instances provide up to 8 FPGAs paired with a 3rd generation AMD EPYC (Milan) processor with 3x processor cores (192 vCPU), 2x system memory (2 TiB), 2x NVMe SSD (7.6 TiB), and 4x networking bandwidth (100 Gbps) compared to F1 instances.

F2 instances are now available in the US East (N.Virginia) and Europe (London) AWS Regions in f2.12xl, and f2.48xl sizes.

To learn more about F2 instances, see Amazon EC2 F2 Instances.

 

​Today, AWS announces the general availability of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) F2 instances, featuring up to 8 FPGAs. Amazon EC2 F2 instances, the second-generation FPGA-powered instances, are purpose built to develop and deploy reconfigurable hardware in the cloud. You can use F2 instances to power the next generation of FPGA-accelerated solutions in genomics, multimedia processing, big data, network security/acceleration, and cloud-based video broadcasting. F2 instances are the first FPGA-based instances to feature 16GB of high-bandwidth memory. F2 instances provide up to 8 FPGAs paired with a 3rd generation AMD EPYC (Milan) processor with 3x processor cores (192 vCPU), 2x system memory (2 TiB), 2x NVMe SSD (7.6 TiB), and 4x networking bandwidth (100 Gbps) compared to F1 instances. F2 instances are now available in the US East (N.Virginia) and Europe (London) AWS Regions in f2.12xl, and f2.48xl sizes. To learn more about F2 instances, see Amazon EC2 F2 Instances.  

Amazon OpenSearch Service now adds support for Graviton3 based r7gd instances with local NVMe-based SSD storage in six additional regions i.e., Asia Pacific (Hong Kong), Asia Pacific (Jakarta), Asia Pacific (Malaysia), Middle East (UAE), AWS GovCloud (US-East) and AWS GovCloud (US-West). AWS Graviton3-based instances with local NVMe-based SSD storage have up to 45% improved real-time NVMe storage performance compared to comparable Graviton2-based instances.

Graviton3 based r7gd instances have custom-designed processors that enable improved performance for memory-intensive workloads. They offer upto 30 Gbps enhanced networking bandwidth and up to 20 Gbps of bandwidth to the Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS).

Amazon OpenSearch Service Graviton3 instances are supported on all OpenSearch versions, and Elasticsearch versions 7.9 and 7.10. Please refer to the Amazon OpenSearch Service pricing page for additional information about instance types supported in different regions and their On-Demand and Reserved Instance pricing details.

To learn more about Amazon OpenSearch Service, please visit the product page.

 

​Amazon OpenSearch Service now adds support for Graviton3 based r7gd instances with local NVMe-based SSD storage in six additional regions i.e., Asia Pacific (Hong Kong), Asia Pacific (Jakarta), Asia Pacific (Malaysia), Middle East (UAE), AWS GovCloud (US-East) and AWS GovCloud (US-West). AWS Graviton3-based instances with local NVMe-based SSD storage have up to 45% improved real-time NVMe storage performance compared to comparable Graviton2-based instances. Graviton3 based r7gd instances have custom-designed processors that enable improved performance for memory-intensive workloads. They offer upto 30 Gbps enhanced networking bandwidth and up to 20 Gbps of bandwidth to the Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS). Amazon OpenSearch Service Graviton3 instances are supported on all OpenSearch versions, and Elasticsearch versions 7.9 and 7.10. Please refer to the Amazon OpenSearch Service pricing page for additional information about instance types supported in different regions and their On-Demand and Reserved Instance pricing details. To learn more about Amazon OpenSearch Service, please visit the product page.  

Starting today, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) M7i-flex and M7i instances powered by custom 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids) are available in Asia Pacific (Jakarta) region. These custom processors, available only on AWS, offer up to 15% better performance over comparable x86-based Intel processors utilized by other cloud providers.

M7i-flex instances are the easiest way for you to get price-performance benefits for a majority of general-purpose workloads. They deliver up to 19% better price-performance compared to M6i. M7i-flex instances offer the most common sizes, from large to 8xlarge, and are a great first choice for applications that don’t fully utilize all compute resources such as web and application servers, virtual-desktops, batch-processing, and microservices.

M7i deliver up to 15% better price-performance compared to M6i. M7i instances are a great choice for workloads that need the largest instance sizes or continuous high CPU usage, such as gaming servers, CPU-based machine learning (ML), and video-streaming. M7i offer larger instance sizes, up to 48xlarge, and two bare metal sizes (metal-24xl, metal-48xl). These bare-metal sizes support built-in Intel accelerators: Data Streaming Accelerator, In-Memory Analytics Accelerator, and QuickAssist Technology that are used to facilitate efficient offload and acceleration of data operations and optimize performance for workloads.

To learn more, visit the EC2 M7i/M7i-flex instances Page.

 

​Starting today, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) M7i-flex and M7i instances powered by custom 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named Sapphire Rapids) are available in Asia Pacific (Jakarta) region. These custom processors, available only on AWS, offer up to 15% better performance over comparable x86-based Intel processors utilized by other cloud providers. M7i-flex instances are the easiest way for you to get price-performance benefits for a majority of general-purpose workloads. They deliver up to 19% better price-performance compared to M6i. M7i-flex instances offer the most common sizes, from large to 8xlarge, and are a great first choice for applications that don’t fully utilize all compute resources such as web and application servers, virtual-desktops, batch-processing, and microservices. M7i deliver up to 15% better price-performance compared to M6i. M7i instances are a great choice for workloads that need the largest instance sizes or continuous high CPU usage, such as gaming servers, CPU-based machine learning (ML), and video-streaming. M7i offer larger instance sizes, up to 48xlarge, and two bare metal sizes (metal-24xl, metal-48xl). These bare-metal sizes support built-in Intel accelerators: Data Streaming Accelerator, In-Memory Analytics Accelerator, and QuickAssist Technology that are used to facilitate efficient offload and acceleration of data operations and optimize performance for workloads. To learn more, visit the EC2 M7i/M7i-flex instances Page.