AWS is announcing the general availability of new memory-optimized Amazon EC2 R8i and R8i-flex instances. 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 R8i and R8i-flex instances offer up to 15% better price-performance, and 2.5x more memory bandwidth compared to previous generation Intel-based instances. They deliver 20% better performance than R7i instances, with even higher gains for specific workloads. They 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 R7i.

R8i-flex, our first memory-optimized Flex instances, are the easiest way to get price performance benefits for a majority of memory-intensive workloads. 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.

R8i instances are a great choice for all memory-intensive workloads, especially for workloads that need the largest instance sizes or continuous high CPU usage. R8i instances offer 13 sizes including 2 bare metal and the new 96xlarge size for the largest applications. R8i instances are SAP-certified and deliver 142,100 aSAPS, the highest among all comparable machines in on-premises and cloud environments, delivering exceptional performance for mission-critical SAP workloads.

R8i and R8i-flex instances are available in the following AWS Regions: US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), and Europe (Spain).

To get started, sign in to the AWS Management Console. Customers can purchase these instances via Savings Plans, On-Demand instances, and Spot instances. For more information about the new R8i and R8i-flex instances visit the AWS News blog.

 

​AWS is announcing the general availability of new memory-optimized Amazon EC2 R8i and R8i-flex instances. 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 R8i and R8i-flex instances offer up to 15% better price-performance, and 2.5x more memory bandwidth compared to previous generation Intel-based instances. They deliver 20% better performance than R7i instances, with even higher gains for specific workloads. They 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 R7i. R8i-flex, our first memory-optimized Flex instances, are the easiest way to get price performance benefits for a majority of memory-intensive workloads. 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. R8i instances are a great choice for all memory-intensive workloads, especially for workloads that need the largest instance sizes or continuous high CPU usage. R8i instances offer 13 sizes including 2 bare metal and the new 96xlarge size for the largest applications. R8i instances are SAP-certified and deliver 142,100 aSAPS, the highest among all comparable machines in on-premises and cloud environments, delivering exceptional performance for mission-critical SAP workloads. R8i and R8i-flex instances are available in the following AWS Regions: US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), and Europe (Spain). To get started, sign in to the AWS Management Console. Customers can purchase these instances via Savings Plans, On-Demand instances, and Spot instances. For more information about the new R8i and R8i-flex instances visit the AWS News blog.  

Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for SQL Server now supports Kerberos authentication with self-managed Microsoft Active Directory (AD). With this launch, your applications can use Kerberos authentication to connect to your Amazon RDS for SQL Server instances joined to self-managed AD.

Previously, customers integrating Amazon RDS for SQL Server with Microsoft Active Directory had to use AWS Managed AD for Kerberos authentication. Now, customers can setup Kerberos authentication when integrating Amazon RDS for SQL Server with Microsoft AD without having to use AWS Managed AD. For customers that are migrating on-premises SQL Server databases to Amazon RDS for SQL Server, this feature simplifies migration by removing the requirement to adopt Amazon Managed AD to use Kerberos authentication. Customers who use Amazon RDS for SQL Server with AWS Managed AD can continue to use their existing integration.

To join your Amazon RDS for SQL Server instance to a self-managed AD and setup Kerberos authentication, refer to the Amazon RDS for SQL Server User Guide. This feature is available in all AWS Commercial and AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.

 

​Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for SQL Server now supports Kerberos authentication with self-managed Microsoft Active Directory (AD). With this launch, your applications can use Kerberos authentication to connect to your Amazon RDS for SQL Server instances joined to self-managed AD. Previously, customers integrating Amazon RDS for SQL Server with Microsoft Active Directory had to use AWS Managed AD for Kerberos authentication. Now, customers can setup Kerberos authentication when integrating Amazon RDS for SQL Server with Microsoft AD without having to use AWS Managed AD. For customers that are migrating on-premises SQL Server databases to Amazon RDS for SQL Server, this feature simplifies migration by removing the requirement to adopt Amazon Managed AD to use Kerberos authentication. Customers who use Amazon RDS for SQL Server with AWS Managed AD can continue to use their existing integration. To join your Amazon RDS for SQL Server instance to a self-managed AD and setup Kerberos authentication, refer to the Amazon RDS for SQL Server User Guide. This feature is available in all AWS Commercial and AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.  

Today, AWS announced the opening of a new AWS Direct Connect location within the Equinix BA1 data center near Barcelona, Spain. You can now establish private, direct network access to all public AWS Regions (except those in China), AWS GovCloud Regions, and AWS Local Zones from this location. This site is the first AWS Direct Connect location in Barcelona and the third AWS Direct connect location within Spain. This Direct Connect location offers dedicated 10 Gbps and 100 Gbps connections with MACsec encryption available.

The Direct Connect service enables you to establish a private, physical network connection between AWS and your data center, office, or colocation environment. These private connections can provide a more consistent network experience than those made over the public internet. 

For more information on the over 143 Direct Connect locations worldwide, visit the locations section of the Direct Connect product detail pages. Or, visit our getting started page to learn more about how to purchase and deploy Direct Connect.

 

​Today, AWS announced the opening of a new AWS Direct Connect location within the Equinix BA1 data center near Barcelona, Spain. You can now establish private, direct network access to all public AWS Regions (except those in China), AWS GovCloud Regions, and AWS Local Zones from this location. This site is the first AWS Direct Connect location in Barcelona and the third AWS Direct connect location within Spain. This Direct Connect location offers dedicated 10 Gbps and 100 Gbps connections with MACsec encryption available. The Direct Connect service enables you to establish a private, physical network connection between AWS and your data center, office, or colocation environment. These private connections can provide a more consistent network experience than those made over the public internet.  For more information on the over 143 Direct Connect locations worldwide, visit the locations section of the Direct Connect product detail pages. Or, visit our getting started page to learn more about how to purchase and deploy Direct Connect.  

Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 and OpenAI’s GPT-OSS 120B and 20B models are now available for Batch inference in Amazon Bedrock. With Batch inference, you can run multiple inference requests asynchronously, improving performance on large datasets at 50% of the on-demand inference pricing. Amazon Bedrock offers select foundation models (FMs) from leading AI providers such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta, and Amazon for batch inference, making it easier and more cost-effective to process high-volume workloads.

With Batch inference on Claude Sonnet 4 and OpenAI GPT-OSS models, you can process large datasets for scenarios such as document and customer feedback analysis, bulk content generation (e.g., marketing copy, product descriptions), large-scale prompt or output evaluations, automated summarization of knowledge bases and archives, mass categorization of support tickets or emails, and extraction of structured data from unstructured text—at scale and with lower costs. We’ve optimized our Batch offering to deliver higher overall batch throughput on these newer models compared to previous ones. In addition, you can now track your Batch workload progress at the AWS account level with Amazon CloudWatch metrics. For all models, these metrics include total pending records, processed records and tokens per minute, and for Claude models, they also include tokens pending processing.

To learn more about Batch inference in Amazon Bedrock, visit the Batch inference documentation. You can visit Supported Regions and models for batch inference page for more details on supported models and follow Amazon Bedrock API reference to get started with Batch inference. 

 

​Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 and OpenAI’s GPT-OSS 120B and 20B models are now available for Batch inference in Amazon Bedrock. With Batch inference, you can run multiple inference requests asynchronously, improving performance on large datasets at 50% of the on-demand inference pricing. Amazon Bedrock offers select foundation models (FMs) from leading AI providers such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta, and Amazon for batch inference, making it easier and more cost-effective to process high-volume workloads. With Batch inference on Claude Sonnet 4 and OpenAI GPT-OSS models, you can process large datasets for scenarios such as document and customer feedback analysis, bulk content generation (e.g., marketing copy, product descriptions), large-scale prompt or output evaluations, automated summarization of knowledge bases and archives, mass categorization of support tickets or emails, and extraction of structured data from unstructured text—at scale and with lower costs. We’ve optimized our Batch offering to deliver higher overall batch throughput on these newer models compared to previous ones. In addition, you can now track your Batch workload progress at the AWS account level with Amazon CloudWatch metrics. For all models, these metrics include total pending records, processed records and tokens per minute, and for Claude models, they also include tokens pending processing. To learn more about Batch inference in Amazon Bedrock, visit the Batch inference documentation. You can visit Supported Regions and models for batch inference page for more details on supported models and follow Amazon Bedrock API reference to get started with Batch inference.   

Amazon S3 provides a new way to verify the content of stored datasets. You can efficiently verify billions of objects and automatically generate integrity reports to prove that your datasets remain intact over time using S3 Batch Operations. This capability works with any object stored in S3, regardless of storage class or object size, without the need to restore or download data. Whether you’re verifying objects for data preservation, accuracy checks, or compliance requirements, you can reduce the cost, time, and effort required.

With S3 Batch Operations, you can create a compute checksum job for your objects. To get started, provide a list of objects (called a manifest) or specify the bucket with filters like prefix or suffix. Then choose «Compute checksum» as the operation type and select from supported algorithms including SHA-1, SHA-256, CRC32, CRC32C, CRC64, and MD5. When the job completes, you receive a detailed report with checksum information for all processed objects. You can use this report for compliance or audit purposes. This capability complements S3’s built-in validation, letting you independently verify your stored data any time.

This new data verification, compute checksum operation, is now available in all AWS Regions. For pricing details, visit the S3 pricing page. To learn more, visit the S3 User Guide.

 

​Amazon S3 provides a new way to verify the content of stored datasets. You can efficiently verify billions of objects and automatically generate integrity reports to prove that your datasets remain intact over time using S3 Batch Operations. This capability works with any object stored in S3, regardless of storage class or object size, without the need to restore or download data. Whether you’re verifying objects for data preservation, accuracy checks, or compliance requirements, you can reduce the cost, time, and effort required. With S3 Batch Operations, you can create a compute checksum job for your objects. To get started, provide a list of objects (called a manifest) or specify the bucket with filters like prefix or suffix. Then choose «Compute checksum» as the operation type and select from supported algorithms including SHA-1, SHA-256, CRC32, CRC32C, CRC64, and MD5. When the job completes, you receive a detailed report with checksum information for all processed objects. You can use this report for compliance or audit purposes. This capability complements S3’s built-in validation, letting you independently verify your stored data any time. This new data verification, compute checksum operation, is now available in all AWS Regions. For pricing details, visit the S3 pricing page. To learn more, visit the S3 User Guide.  

AWS Marketplace now offers a streamlined fulfillment experience for Amazon Machine Image (AMI) and AMI with CloudFormation products across both the AWS Marketplace website and console. Additionally, users can now also access the new launch experience for container products directly within AWS Marketplace console.

The new fulfillment experience in AWS Marketplace simplifies product deployment for AMI products by combining the configuration and fulfillment experience into a single page, clearly presenting fulfillment options and AWS services available for purchased products. Users will also have access to new resources, including detailed guides from AWS Marketplace Sellers. The new experience is available through both the AWS Marketplace website and console, in all AWS Marketplace supported commercial regions and languages, delivering a consistent experience worldwide.

To learn more about the new fulfillment experience for AMI-based products in AWS Marketplace and how it can benefit your organization, visit the AWS Marketplace Buyer Guide or start exploring AMI products in AWS Marketplace today.

 

​AWS Marketplace now offers a streamlined fulfillment experience for Amazon Machine Image (AMI) and AMI with CloudFormation products across both the AWS Marketplace website and console. Additionally, users can now also access the new launch experience for container products directly within AWS Marketplace console. The new fulfillment experience in AWS Marketplace simplifies product deployment for AMI products by combining the configuration and fulfillment experience into a single page, clearly presenting fulfillment options and AWS services available for purchased products. Users will also have access to new resources, including detailed guides from AWS Marketplace Sellers. The new experience is available through both the AWS Marketplace website and console, in all AWS Marketplace supported commercial regions and languages, delivering a consistent experience worldwide. To learn more about the new fulfillment experience for AMI-based products in AWS Marketplace and how it can benefit your organization, visit the AWS Marketplace Buyer Guide or start exploring AMI products in AWS Marketplace today.  

Starting today, long-term support (LTS) will also be provided on Aurora MySQL 3.10 (compatible with MySQL 8.0.42) minor version. Database clusters that use LTS releases can stay on the same minor version for at least three years or until end of standard support for the major version, whichever is sooner. During the lifetime of an Aurora MySQL LTS release, new patches introduce fixes for select high severity security and operational issues. These patches don’t include any new features. For more details about Aurora MySQL 3.10, refer to the Aurora MySQL 3.10 launch announcement and release notes.

This is the second minor version designated as LTS on Aurora MySQL-Compatible Edition 3 in addition to Aurora MySQL 3.04 (compatible with MySQL 8.0.26) minor version. This LTS version does not change the end of life schedules for other LTS versions or engine major versions. For more details about LTS and how to stay on the LTS minor version, refer to LTS documentation. This LTS 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 AWS services. To get started with Amazon Aurora, take a look at our getting started page.

 

​Starting today, long-term support (LTS) will also be provided on Aurora MySQL 3.10 (compatible with MySQL 8.0.42) minor version. Database clusters that use LTS releases can stay on the same minor version for at least three years or until end of standard support for the major version, whichever is sooner. During the lifetime of an Aurora MySQL LTS release, new patches introduce fixes for select high severity security and operational issues. These patches don’t include any new features. For more details about Aurora MySQL 3.10, refer to the Aurora MySQL 3.10 launch announcement and release notes. This is the second minor version designated as LTS on Aurora MySQL-Compatible Edition 3 in addition to Aurora MySQL 3.04 (compatible with MySQL 8.0.26) minor version. This LTS version does not change the end of life schedules for other LTS versions or engine major versions. For more details about LTS and how to stay on the LTS minor version, refer to LTS documentation. This LTS 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 AWS services. To get started with Amazon Aurora, take a look at our getting started page.  

Amazon S3 Express One Zone, a high-performance S3 storage class for latency-sensitive applications, now supports resilience testing with AWS Fault Injection Service (FIS). With this launch, you can use the FIS network disruption action to test the failover response and recovery of your latency-sensitive applications in the unlikely event of a disruption to an Availability Zone (AZ) that impairs access to your data. You can use the results of FIS experiments to verify your monitoring, test recovery processes, and improve application resilience.

With FIS, you can disrupt connectivity to your S3 Express One Zone data in S3 directory buckets, helping you validate application resilience. During the FIS experiment, data plane requests made to directory buckets will timeout. This fault action is also included in the FIS AZ Availability: Power Interruption scenario, so you can test the resilience of your applications when an AZ event impacts multiple AWS services.

You can use the updated FIS network disruption action for S3 Express One Zone data in all AWS Regions where the storage class is available. To get started with testing the resilience of applications that store data in S3 Express One Zone, you can use the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or FIS API. For pricing information, visit the FIS pricing page. To learn more, visit the AWS FIS user guide.

 

​Amazon S3 Express One Zone, a high-performance S3 storage class for latency-sensitive applications, now supports resilience testing with AWS Fault Injection Service (FIS). With this launch, you can use the FIS network disruption action to test the failover response and recovery of your latency-sensitive applications in the unlikely event of a disruption to an Availability Zone (AZ) that impairs access to your data. You can use the results of FIS experiments to verify your monitoring, test recovery processes, and improve application resilience. With FIS, you can disrupt connectivity to your S3 Express One Zone data in S3 directory buckets, helping you validate application resilience. During the FIS experiment, data plane requests made to directory buckets will timeout. This fault action is also included in the FIS AZ Availability: Power Interruption scenario, so you can test the resilience of your applications when an AZ event impacts multiple AWS services. You can use the updated FIS network disruption action for S3 Express One Zone data in all AWS Regions where the storage class is available. To get started with testing the resilience of applications that store data in S3 Express One Zone, you can use the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or FIS API. For pricing information, visit the FIS pricing page. To learn more, visit the AWS FIS user guide.  

You can now easily deliver task and email based customer experiences on your websites and applications using the new contact form option in the Amazon Connect communication widget. For example, you can add the communication widget to your website and give customers the ability to submit callback requests outside business hours or send emails through webforms.

Supervisors and managers can configure customer-facing forms using the drag and drop editor and generate code snippets for seamless website integration. This expanded capability gives customers more flexible engagement options while enabling you to manage all engagements through existing Amazon Connect workflows.

For region availability, please see the availability of Amazon Connect features by Region. To learn more, see our documentation. To learn more about Amazon Connect, the easy-to-use cloud contact center, visit the Amazon Connect website.

 

​You can now easily deliver task and email based customer experiences on your websites and applications using the new contact form option in the Amazon Connect communication widget. For example, you can add the communication widget to your website and give customers the ability to submit callback requests outside business hours or send emails through webforms. Supervisors and managers can configure customer-facing forms using the drag and drop editor and generate code snippets for seamless website integration. This expanded capability gives customers more flexible engagement options while enabling you to manage all engagements through existing Amazon Connect workflows. For region availability, please see the availability of Amazon Connect features by Region. To learn more, see our documentation. To learn more about Amazon Connect, the easy-to-use cloud contact center, visit the Amazon Connect website.  

Amazon Connect now supports recurring activities in agent schedules, making it easier for you to add repeating events in a few clicks. With this launch, you can now schedule activities such as daily stand-up at 8 a.m. or team meeting every Monday at 9 a.m. as a series that automatically gets added to agent schedules. You can schedule these as individual recurring series for each agent or a shared recurring series across multiple agents. This launch eliminates the need for manually creating each occurrence as a separate activity and ensures timely addition of activities to agent schedules, thus improving manager productivity and ensuring agent schedules are up to date.

This feature is available in all AWS Regions where Amazon Connect agent scheduling is available. To learn more about Amazon Connect agent scheduling, click here.

 

​Amazon Connect now supports recurring activities in agent schedules, making it easier for you to add repeating events in a few clicks. With this launch, you can now schedule activities such as daily stand-up at 8 a.m. or team meeting every Monday at 9 a.m. as a series that automatically gets added to agent schedules. You can schedule these as individual recurring series for each agent or a shared recurring series across multiple agents. This launch eliminates the need for manually creating each occurrence as a separate activity and ensures timely addition of activities to agent schedules, thus improving manager productivity and ensuring agent schedules are up to date. This feature is available in all AWS Regions where Amazon Connect agent scheduling is available. To learn more about Amazon Connect agent scheduling, click here.