Amazon Web Services (AWS) has expanded the regional availability for Amazon WorkSpaces Applications. Starting today, AWS customers can deploy their applications and desktops in the AWS Europe (Milan), Europe (Spain), Asia Pacific (Malaysia), and Israel (Tel Aviv) Regions and stream them using WorkSpaces Applications. Deploying your applications in a region closer to your end users helps provide a more responsive experience. 

Amazon WorkSpaces Applications is a fully managed, secure application streaming service that provides users with instant access to their desktop applications from anywhere. It allows users to stream applications and desktops from AWS to their devices, without requiring them to download, install, or manage any software locally. WorkSpaces Applications manages the AWS resources required to host and run your applications, scales automatically, and provides access to your users on demand.

To get started with Amazon WorkSpaces Applications, sign into the WorkSpaces Applications management console and select one of the AWS Region of your choice. For the full list of Regions where WorkSpaces Applications is available, see the AWS Region Table. AppStream 2.0 offers pay-as-you-go pricing. For more information, see Amazon WorkSpaces Applications Pricing.

 

​Amazon Web Services (AWS) has expanded the regional availability for Amazon WorkSpaces Applications. Starting today, AWS customers can deploy their applications and desktops in the AWS Europe (Milan), Europe (Spain), Asia Pacific (Malaysia), and Israel (Tel Aviv) Regions and stream them using WorkSpaces Applications. Deploying your applications in a region closer to your end users helps provide a more responsive experience.  Amazon WorkSpaces Applications is a fully managed, secure application streaming service that provides users with instant access to their desktop applications from anywhere. It allows users to stream applications and desktops from AWS to their devices, without requiring them to download, install, or manage any software locally. WorkSpaces Applications manages the AWS resources required to host and run your applications, scales automatically, and provides access to your users on demand. To get started with Amazon WorkSpaces Applications, sign into the WorkSpaces Applications management console and select one of the AWS Region of your choice. For the full list of Regions where WorkSpaces Applications is available, see the AWS Region Table. AppStream 2.0 offers pay-as-you-go pricing. For more information, see Amazon WorkSpaces Applications Pricing.  

Amazon WorkSpaces Applications now offers enhanced flexibility features that provide customers with more choices for compute and configurable storage volume. Customers can also import their custom EC2 AMIs to create Amazon WorkSpaces images. These new capabilities help customers better match resources to their specific application requirements while optimizing costs.

The service now includes 100+ additional compute instance types and sizes across all supported instance families, including general purpose, compute optimized, memory optimized, and accelerated options. Customers can also customize storage volumes ranging from 200GB to 500GB, and utilize their own Microsoft Windows Server 2022 AMIs along with their preferred image customization tools.

With these enhancements, customers can now match their computing resources to exactly what their applications need while controlling costs effectively. Organizations can choose the right instance type for each use case – whether it’s basic office applications running on cost-efficient general-purpose instances, or demanding CAD software requiring powerful compute-optimized instances. The ability to select storage size options allows customers to use additional storage based on their application needs. All of this customization is available while maintaining the simplicity of a fully managed service, eliminating the complexity of infrastructure management.

These new capabilities are now generally available in all AWS Regions where Amazon WorkSpaces Applications is supported. The enhanced features follow WorkSpaces Applications’ standard pay-as-you-go pricing model. For detailed pricing information, visit the Amazon WorkSpaces Applications Pricing page. To learn more about these new features, visit the Amazon WorkSpaces Applications documentation.

 

​Amazon WorkSpaces Applications now offers enhanced flexibility features that provide customers with more choices for compute and configurable storage volume. Customers can also import their custom EC2 AMIs to create Amazon WorkSpaces images. These new capabilities help customers better match resources to their specific application requirements while optimizing costs. The service now includes 100+ additional compute instance types and sizes across all supported instance families, including general purpose, compute optimized, memory optimized, and accelerated options. Customers can also customize storage volumes ranging from 200GB to 500GB, and utilize their own Microsoft Windows Server 2022 AMIs along with their preferred image customization tools. With these enhancements, customers can now match their computing resources to exactly what their applications need while controlling costs effectively. Organizations can choose the right instance type for each use case – whether it’s basic office applications running on cost-efficient general-purpose instances, or demanding CAD software requiring powerful compute-optimized instances. The ability to select storage size options allows customers to use additional storage based on their application needs. All of this customization is available while maintaining the simplicity of a fully managed service, eliminating the complexity of infrastructure management. These new capabilities are now generally available in all AWS Regions where Amazon WorkSpaces Applications is supported. The enhanced features follow WorkSpaces Applications’ standard pay-as-you-go pricing model. For detailed pricing information, visit the Amazon WorkSpaces Applications Pricing page. To learn more about these new features, visit the Amazon WorkSpaces Applications documentation.  

EC2 Image Builder now supports invoking Lambda functions and executing Step Functions state machine through image workflows. These capabilities enable you to incorporate complex, multi-step workflows and custom validation logic into your image creation process, providing greater flexibility and control over how your images are built and validated.

Prior to this launch, customers had to write custom code and implement multi-step workarounds to integrate Lambda or Step Functions within image workflows. This was a cumbersome process that was time-consuming to set up, difficult to maintain, and prone to errors. With these new capabilities, you can now seamlessly invoke Lambda functions to execute custom logic or orchestrate Step Functions state machines for complex, multi-step workflows. This native integration allows you to implement use cases such as custom compliance validation, sending custom notifications, multi-stage security testing —all within your Image Builder workflow.

These capabilities are available to all customers at no additional costs, in all AWS regions including AWS China (Beijing) Region, operated by Sinnet, AWS China (Ningxia) Region, operated by NWCD, and AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.

You can get started from the EC2 Image Builder Console, CLI, API, CloudFormation, or CDK, and learn more in the EC2 Image Builder documentation.

 

​EC2 Image Builder now supports invoking Lambda functions and executing Step Functions state machine through image workflows. These capabilities enable you to incorporate complex, multi-step workflows and custom validation logic into your image creation process, providing greater flexibility and control over how your images are built and validated. Prior to this launch, customers had to write custom code and implement multi-step workarounds to integrate Lambda or Step Functions within image workflows. This was a cumbersome process that was time-consuming to set up, difficult to maintain, and prone to errors. With these new capabilities, you can now seamlessly invoke Lambda functions to execute custom logic or orchestrate Step Functions state machines for complex, multi-step workflows. This native integration allows you to implement use cases such as custom compliance validation, sending custom notifications, multi-stage security testing —all within your Image Builder workflow. These capabilities are available to all customers at no additional costs, in all AWS regions including AWS China (Beijing) Region, operated by Sinnet, AWS China (Ningxia) Region, operated by NWCD, and AWS GovCloud (US) Regions. You can get started from the EC2 Image Builder Console, CLI, API, CloudFormation, or CDK, and learn more in the EC2 Image Builder documentation.  

Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR) now supports PrivateLink for endpoints that have been validated under the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-3 program.

With this release, customers with security and compliance requirements can now use FIPS-validated cryptographic modules when connecting to Amazon ECR while keeping their traffic within their Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). This enhancement enables you to meet regulatory compliance requirements while maintaining the security benefits of private connectivity.

Support for PrivateLink for FIPS ECR endpoints is now available in (US East) N. Virginia, Ohio, (US West) N. California, Oregon and select (AWS GovCloud) US West and (AWS Govcloud) Us East regions. To learn more about AWS PrivateLink, see accessing AWS services through AWS PrivateLink. To learn more about FIPS 140-3 at AWS, visit FIPS 140-3 Compliance. You can learn more about storing, managing and deploying container images and artifacts with Amazon ECR, including how to get started, from our product page and user guide.

 

​Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR) now supports PrivateLink for endpoints that have been validated under the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-3 program.
With this release, customers with security and compliance requirements can now use FIPS-validated cryptographic modules when connecting to Amazon ECR while keeping their traffic within their Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). This enhancement enables you to meet regulatory compliance requirements while maintaining the security benefits of private connectivity.
Support for PrivateLink for FIPS ECR endpoints is now available in (US East) N. Virginia, Ohio, (US West) N. California, Oregon and select (AWS GovCloud) US West and (AWS Govcloud) Us East regions. To learn more about AWS PrivateLink, see accessing AWS services through AWS PrivateLink. To learn more about FIPS 140-3 at AWS, visit FIPS 140-3 Compliance. You can learn more about storing, managing and deploying container images and artifacts with Amazon ECR, including how to get started, from our product page and user guide.  

AWS Backup now supports logically air-gapped vaults as a primary backup target. You can assign a logically air-gapped vault as the primary target in backup plans, organization-wide policies, or on-demand backups. Previously, logically air-gapped vaults could only store copies of existing backups.

This capability reduces storage costs for customers who want the security and recoverability benefits of logically air-gapped vaults. Organizations wanting those benefits can now back up directly to a logically air-gapped vault without storing multiple backups.

Resource types that support full AWS Backup management back up directly to the specified air-gapped vault. For resource types without full management support, AWS Backup creates a temporary snapshot in a standard vault, copies it to the air-gapped vault, then removes the snapshot.

This feature is available in all AWS Regions that support logically air-gapped vaults. To get started, select a logically air-gapped vault as your primary backup target in the AWS Backup console, API, or CLI. For more information, visit the AWS Backup product page and documentation.

 

​AWS Backup now supports logically air-gapped vaults as a primary backup target. You can assign a logically air-gapped vault as the primary target in backup plans, organization-wide policies, or on-demand backups. Previously, logically air-gapped vaults could only store copies of existing backups.
This capability reduces storage costs for customers who want the security and recoverability benefits of logically air-gapped vaults. Organizations wanting those benefits can now back up directly to a logically air-gapped vault without storing multiple backups.
Resource types that support full AWS Backup management back up directly to the specified air-gapped vault. For resource types without full management support, AWS Backup creates a temporary snapshot in a standard vault, copies it to the air-gapped vault, then removes the snapshot.
This feature is available in all AWS Regions that support logically air-gapped vaults. To get started, select a logically air-gapped vault as your primary backup target in the AWS Backup console, API, or CLI. For more information, visit the AWS Backup product page and documentation.  

Starting today, Amazon Aurora MySQL – Compatible Edition 3 (with MySQL 8.0 compatibility) will support MySQL 8.0.43 through Aurora MySQL v3.11.

In addition to several security enhancements and bug fixes, MySQL 8.0.43 contains additional errors for group replication and introduces the mysql client “commands” option, which enables or disables most mysql client commands. For more details, refer to the Aurora MySQL 3.11 and MySQL 8.0.43 release notes. To upgrade to Aurora MySQL 3.11, you can initiate a minor version upgrade manually by modifying your DB cluster, or you can enable the “Auto minor version upgrade” option when creating or modifying a DB cluster. This release is available in all AWS regions where Aurora MySQL is available.

Amazon Aurora is designed for unparalleled high performance and availability at global scale with full MySQL and PostgreSQL compatibility. It provides built-in security, continuous backups, serverless compute, up to 15 read replicas, automated multi-Region replication, and integrations with other Amazon Web Services services. To get started with Amazon Aurora, take a look at our getting started page.

 

​Starting today, Amazon Aurora MySQL – Compatible Edition 3 (with MySQL 8.0 compatibility) will support MySQL 8.0.43 through Aurora MySQL v3.11. In addition to several security enhancements and bug fixes, MySQL 8.0.43 contains additional errors for group replication and introduces the mysql client “commands” option, which enables or disables most mysql client commands. For more details, refer to the Aurora MySQL 3.11 and MySQL 8.0.43 release notes. To upgrade to Aurora MySQL 3.11, you can initiate a minor version upgrade manually by modifying your DB cluster, or you can enable the “Auto minor version upgrade” option when creating or modifying a DB cluster. This release is available in all AWS regions where Aurora MySQL is available. Amazon Aurora is designed for unparalleled high performance and availability at global scale with full MySQL and PostgreSQL compatibility. It provides built-in security, continuous backups, serverless compute, up to 15 read replicas, automated multi-Region replication, and integrations with other Amazon Web Services services. To get started with Amazon Aurora, take a look at our getting started page.  

AWS Backup now offers cross-account management in the following AWS Regions: Asia Pacific (Taipei, Thailand, New Zealand) and Mexico (Central). This capability helps you manage and monitor backups across your AWS accounts using AWS Organizations.

With cross-account management in AWS Backup, you can deploy organization-wide backup policies using your AWS Organizations management account or delegated administrator account. This helps maintain compliance across all organizational accounts while reducing management overhead. You can also monitor backup activity across all accounts in your organization from a single management account.

For more information on the AWS Backup features available across AWS Regions, see AWS Backup documentation. To get started, visit the AWS Backup console.

 

​AWS Backup now offers cross-account management in the following AWS Regions: Asia Pacific (Taipei, Thailand, New Zealand) and Mexico (Central). This capability helps you manage and monitor backups across your AWS accounts using AWS Organizations. With cross-account management in AWS Backup, you can deploy organization-wide backup policies using your AWS Organizations management account or delegated administrator account. This helps maintain compliance across all organizational accounts while reducing management overhead. You can also monitor backup activity across all accounts in your organization from a single management account. For more information on the AWS Backup features available across AWS Regions, see AWS Backup documentation. To get started, visit the AWS Backup console.  

Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for MySQL now supports MySQL minor versions 8.0.44 and 8.4.7, the latest minors released by the MySQL community. We recommend upgrading to the newer minor versions to fix known security vulnerabilities in prior versions of MySQL and to benefit from bug fixes, performance improvements, and new functionality added by the MySQL community. Learn more about the enhancements in RDS for MySQL 8.0.44 and 8.4.7 in the Amazon RDS user guide.

You can leverage automatic minor version upgrades to automatically upgrade your databases to more recent minor versions during scheduled maintenance windows. You can also use Amazon RDS Managed Blue/Green deployments for safer, simpler, and faster updates to your MySQL instances. Learn more about upgrading your database instances, including automatic minor version upgrades and Blue/Green Deployments, in the Amazon RDS User Guide.

Amazon RDS for MySQL makes it simple to set up, operate, and scale MySQL deployments in the cloud. Learn more about pricing details and regional availability at Amazon RDS for MySQL. Create or update a fully managed Amazon RDS for MySQL database in the Amazon RDS Management Console.

 

​Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for MySQL now supports MySQL minor versions 8.0.44 and 8.4.7, the latest minors released by the MySQL community. We recommend upgrading to the newer minor versions to fix known security vulnerabilities in prior versions of MySQL and to benefit from bug fixes, performance improvements, and new functionality added by the MySQL community. Learn more about the enhancements in RDS for MySQL 8.0.44 and 8.4.7 in the Amazon RDS user guide. You can leverage automatic minor version upgrades to automatically upgrade your databases to more recent minor versions during scheduled maintenance windows. You can also use Amazon RDS Managed Blue/Green deployments for safer, simpler, and faster updates to your MySQL instances. Learn more about upgrading your database instances, including automatic minor version upgrades and Blue/Green Deployments, in the Amazon RDS User Guide. Amazon RDS for MySQL makes it simple to set up, operate, and scale MySQL deployments in the cloud. Learn more about pricing details and regional availability at Amazon RDS for MySQL. Create or update a fully managed Amazon RDS for MySQL database in the Amazon RDS Management Console.  

Amazon Redshift today announces the general availability of write capability to Apache Iceberg tables, enabling users to run analytics read and write queries for append-only workloads on Apache Iceberg tables within Amazon Redshift. Amazon Redshift is a petabyte-scale, enterprise-grade cloud data warehouse service used by tens of thousands of customers. Whether your data is stored in operational data stores, data lakes, streaming engines or within your data warehouse, Amazon Redshift helps you quickly ingest, securely share data, and achieve the best performance at the best price. The Apache Iceberg open table format has been used by many customers to simplify data processing on rapidly expanding and evolving tables stored in data lakes.

Customers have been using Amazon Redshift to run queries on data lake tables in various file and table formats, achieving a wide range of scalability across data warehouse and data lake workloads. Data lake use cases continue to evolve and become increasingly sophisticated, and require capabilities like transactional consistency for record-level updates and deletes while having seamless schema and partition evolution support. With this milestone Amazon Redshift now supports SQL DDL (data definition language) operations to CREATE an Apache Iceberg table, SHOW the table definition SQL, DROP the table and perform DML (data manipulation language) operations such as INSERT. You can continue to use Amazon Redshift to read from your Apache Iceberg tables in AWS Glue Data Catalog and perform write operations on those Apache Iceberg tables while other users or applications can safely run DML operations on your tables.

Apache Iceberg support in Amazon Redshift is available in all AWS regions where Amazon Redshift is available. To get started, visit the documentation page for Amazon Redshift Management Guide.

 

​Amazon Redshift today announces the general availability of write capability to Apache Iceberg tables, enabling users to run analytics read and write queries for append-only workloads on Apache Iceberg tables within Amazon Redshift. Amazon Redshift is a petabyte-scale, enterprise-grade cloud data warehouse service used by tens of thousands of customers. Whether your data is stored in operational data stores, data lakes, streaming engines or within your data warehouse, Amazon Redshift helps you quickly ingest, securely share data, and achieve the best performance at the best price. The Apache Iceberg open table format has been used by many customers to simplify data processing on rapidly expanding and evolving tables stored in data lakes. Customers have been using Amazon Redshift to run queries on data lake tables in various file and table formats, achieving a wide range of scalability across data warehouse and data lake workloads. Data lake use cases continue to evolve and become increasingly sophisticated, and require capabilities like transactional consistency for record-level updates and deletes while having seamless schema and partition evolution support. With this milestone Amazon Redshift now supports SQL DDL (data definition language) operations to CREATE an Apache Iceberg table, SHOW the table definition SQL, DROP the table and perform DML (data manipulation language) operations such as INSERT. You can continue to use Amazon Redshift to read from your Apache Iceberg tables in AWS Glue Data Catalog and perform write operations on those Apache Iceberg tables while other users or applications can safely run DML operations on your tables. Apache Iceberg support in Amazon Redshift is available in all AWS regions where Amazon Redshift is available. To get started, visit the documentation page for Amazon Redshift Management Guide.  

Starting today, Amazon EC2 M8i and M8i-flex instances are now available in Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region. These instances are powered by custom Intel Xeon 6 processors, available only on AWS, delivering the highest performance and fastest memory bandwidth among comparable Intel processors in the cloud. The M8i and M8i-flex instances offer up to 15% better price-performance, and 2.5x more memory bandwidth compared to previous generation Intel-based instances. They deliver up to 20% better performance than M7i and M7i-flex instances, with even higher gains for specific workloads. The M8i and M8i-flex instances are up to 30% faster for PostgreSQL databases, up to 60% faster for NGINX web applications, and up to 40% faster for AI deep learning recommendation models compared to M7i and M7i-flex instances.

M8i-flex are the easiest way to get price performance benefits for a majority of general-purpose workloads like web and application servers, microservices, small and medium data stores, virtual desktops, and enterprise applications. They offer the most common sizes, from large to 16xlarge, and are a great first choice for applications that don’t fully utilize all compute resources.

M8i instances are a great choice for all general purpose workloads, especially for workloads that need the largest instance sizes or continuous high CPU usage. The SAP-certified M8i instances offer 13 sizes including 2 bare metal sizes and the new 96xlarge size for the largest applications.

To get started, sign in to the AWS Management Console. For more information about the new instances, visit the M8i and M8i-flex page or visit the AWS News blog.

 

​Starting today, Amazon EC2 M8i and M8i-flex instances are now available in Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region. These instances are powered by custom Intel Xeon 6 processors, available only on AWS, delivering the highest performance and fastest memory bandwidth among comparable Intel processors in the cloud. The M8i and M8i-flex instances offer up to 15% better price-performance, and 2.5x more memory bandwidth compared to previous generation Intel-based instances. They deliver up to 20% better performance than M7i and M7i-flex instances, with even higher gains for specific workloads. The M8i and M8i-flex instances are up to 30% faster for PostgreSQL databases, up to 60% faster for NGINX web applications, and up to 40% faster for AI deep learning recommendation models compared to M7i and M7i-flex instances. M8i-flex are the easiest way to get price performance benefits for a majority of general-purpose workloads like web and application servers, microservices, small and medium data stores, virtual desktops, and enterprise applications. They offer the most common sizes, from large to 16xlarge, and are a great first choice for applications that don’t fully utilize all compute resources. M8i instances are a great choice for all general purpose workloads, especially for workloads that need the largest instance sizes or continuous high CPU usage. The SAP-certified M8i instances offer 13 sizes including 2 bare metal sizes and the new 96xlarge size for the largest applications. To get started, sign in to the AWS Management Console. For more information about the new instances, visit the M8i and M8i-flex page or visit the AWS News blog.