Adventure Through the Amazon: AWS Week in Review

Let’s take a quick look at what happened in AWS-land last week:

Monday October 5	The AWS Startup Collection announced the Internet of Beer: Introducing Simple Beer Service. The Cloudlytics Blog talked about Amazon EC2 Monitoring & Management to Increase Efficiency & Optimize Usage.
Tuesday October 6	We announced EC2 Spot Blocks for Defined Duration Workloads, and also announced that EC2 Dedicated Hosts are Coming Soon. We announced AWS WAF (web application firewall). We published the new AWS Financial Services Portal. The AWS Partner Network Blog introduced Five New All-in Technology Partners with AWS and also announced the 2016 APN Premier Consulting Partners. The Amazon Mobile App Distribution Blog shared some Tips for Using Login with Amazon in Alexa Connected Home (CoHo) Skills. The Evident.io Blog shared Best Practice #9: Do Not Allow 0.0.0.0/0 Unless You Mean It. The Cloudability Blog posed Four Questions to Ask About New AWS Announcements. The Cloud & Me Blog published a Step by Step Guide to Install SSL in AWS ELB.
Wednesday October 7	We made a bunch of announcements on day 1 of re:Invent: Amazon Inspector – Automated Security Assessment Service. AWS Config Rules – Dynamic Compliance Checking for Cloud Resources. Amazon RDS Update – MariaDB is Now Available. AWS Import/Export Snowball – Transfer 1 Petabyte Per Week Using Amazon-Owned Storage Appliances. Amazon Kinesis Firehose – Simple & Highly Scalable Data Ingestion. Amazon QuickSight – Fast & Easy to Use Business Intelligence for Big Data at 1/10th the Cost of Traditional Solutions. The AWS Security Blog reviewed New Security Services Launched at AWS re:Invent 2015—Amazon Inspector, AWS WAF, and AWS Config Rules. The Trend Micro Blog discussed Amazon Inspector and Deep Security, AWS Config Rules and Deep Security, and AWS WAF and Deep Security. Andreas Wittig (Cloudonaut) announced that his book, Amazon Web Services in Action, is available! The Segment Engineering Blog discussed Rebuilding Our Infrastructure with Docker, ECS, and Terraform.
Thursday October 8	We made even more announcements on day 2 of re:Invent: AWS Mobile Hub – Build, Test, and Monitor Mobile Applications. AWS IOT – Cloud Services for Mobile Devices. AWS Lambda Update – Python, VPC, Increased Function Duration, Scheduling, and More. CloudWatch Dashboards – Create & Use Customized Metric Views. EC2 Container Service Update – Container Registry, ECS CLI, AZ-Aware Scheduling, and More. EC2 Instance Update – X1 (SAP HANA) & T2.Nano (Websites). The AWS Partner Network Blog introduced the IoT Hardware Program and AWS on IoT. Eric Hammond announced that Unreliable Town Clock is Now Using AWS Lambda Scheduled Functions. Cloud Academy discussed AWS re:Invent 2015: Designing for IaaS, reviewed AWS Mobile Hub and Amazon QuickSight, and also talked about Real-World Smart Applications with Amazon Machine Learning. They also reviewed the AWS re:Invent Day One and Day Two Keynotes. The Cloudyn Blog announced that Saving Cloud Costs is Not Enough: Introducing SmartSizing. The Codeship Blog discussed Codeship, Docker, and Deployment to AWS EC2 Container Service.
Friday October 9	The AWS Big Data Blog discussed Automating Analytic Workflows on AWS. We updated the AWS SDK for Java, AWS CLI, AWS SDK for Go, AWS SDK for Ruby, AWS Mobile SDK, and the AWS SDK for JavaScript. The AWS Security Blog shared a Customer Update – AWS and EU Safe Harbor. The Barricade Blog introduced their New Amazon Web Application Firewall Integration. Cloud Technology Partners discussed Current Cloud Trends from AWS re:Invent 2015. The Cloud & Me Blog showed you How to Access S3 Bucket from Application on Amazon EC2 Without Access Credentials.

New & Notable Open Source

awesome-aws is a curated list of awesome AWS libraries, open source repos, guides, blogs, and other resources.
awsm is a specification for AWS Service Modules for JAWS.
SimpleDynamo is a simple way yo use DynamoDB from PHP.
aws-scripts contains some scripts for launching environments in AWS.
hyperion is a Scala library and abstractions for AWS Data Pipeline.
spark-appliance creates a distributed Spark standalone cluster appliance for the AWS/STUPS environment.
troposphere is a Python library to create AWS CloudFormation descriptions.
awful is a Ruby gem for simple AWS command line tasks and YAML persistence.
JustSaying is a lightweight message bus on top of SNS and SQS.
simple-aws-captcha is a simple serverless CAPTCHA for AWS Lambda.

New SlideShare Presentations

AWS re:Invent 2015 (232 presentations and counting).
Defining VPC Based Web Applications in AWS CloudFormation.
Amazon DynamoDB Workshop.
Build and Manage Your APIs with Amazon API Gateway.
Amazon ML – Machine Learning for Developers.

New Customer Success Stories

New YouTube Videos

re:Invent 2015 Playlist – Keynotes.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist – Short Videos.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist – Mobile Developer & IoT.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist – Storage & Content Delivery.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist – Security & Compliance.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist – Networking.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist – IT Strategy & Migration.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist –Gaming.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist –DevOps.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist –Developer Tools.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist –Databases.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist –Compute.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist – Big Data & Analytics.
re:Invent 2015 Playlist – Architecture.
Fabio Silva – AWS IoT Demo.

Upcoming Events

AWS IoT Mega Contest.
October 21 – Webinar – Running MongoDB 3.0 on AWS.
October 21 – Webinar – Securing Gene Sequencing Data on AWS for HIPAA Compliance – with APN Partner Alert Logic and customer GenomeNext.
October 27 – Webinars:
October 28 – Webinars:
October 29 – Webinars:

Upcoming Events at the AWS Loft (San Francisco)

October 13 – Behind the Scenes with ironSource: The Road to Production with Node.js and JavaScript.
October 14 – Server-less Application Development using Swagger, API Gateway, and Lambda (6 – 7:30 PM).
October 14 – Getting Started with Big Data and HPC (4 – 5 PM).
October 19 – AWS Bootcamp: Getting Started with AWS (10 AM – 6 PM).
October 19 – Transparency Across DevOps Culture, Process and Toolchain (7 – 9 PM).
October 20 – AWS Bootcamp: Getting Started with AWS (10 AM – 6 PM).
October 21 – Intro to Using AWS and the Alexa Skills Kit to Build Voice Driven Experiences + Open Hackathon (10 AM – 3 PM).
October 22 – IoT Hack Day Sponsored by MediaTek Labs (10 AM – 6 PM).
October 26 – A New Way to Use EC2 – At Up to 90% Less Than On Demand Prices (3 – 4 PM).
October 29 – Building Serverless Microservices with AWS Lambda (Noon – 4 PM).
October 29 – Startup Pitch Event and Halloween Party (6:30 PM – 9:30 PM).

Upcoming Events at the AWS Loft (New York)

October 20 – Chef Cookbook Workflow (6:30 – 8:30 PM).
October 22 – Programmatic Security on AWS (6:30 – 8:30 PM).
October 26 – AWS Bootcamp: Getting Started on AWS (10 AM – 6 PM).
October 27 – AWS Bootcamp: Getting Started on AWS (10 AM – 6 PM).
October 27 – Startup Pitch Event and Halloween Party (6:30 – 9:30 PM).
October 28 – Responsive Game Design (Noon – 1 PM).
October 28 – A Prescription for Startup Financial Health – 8 Financial Best Practices for Startup Executives (6:30 PM – 8 PM).

Upcoming Events at the AWS Loft (Berlin) – Register Now

October 15 – An overview of Hadoop & Spark, using Amazon Elastic MapReduce (9 AM).
October 15 – Processing streams of data with Amazon Kinesis (and other tools) (10 AM).
October 15 – STUPS – A Cloud Infrastructure for Autonomous Teams (5 PM).
October 16 – Transparency and Audit on AWS (9 AM).
October 16 – Encryption Options on AWS (10 AM).
October 16 – Simple Security for Startups (6 PM).
October 19 – Introduction to AWS Directory Service, Amazon WorkSpaces, Amazon WorkDocs and Amazon WorkMail (9 AM).
October 19 – Amazon WorkSpaces: Advanced Topics and Deep Dive (10 AM).
October 19 – Building a global real-time discovery platform on AWS (6 PM).
October 20 – Scaling Your Web Applications with AWS Elastic Beanstalk (10 AM).
October 20 – Managing Infrastructure and Configuration with AWS OpsWorks (10 AM).
October 20 – Deep Dive into Blue/Green Deployments on AWS (4 PM).
October 20 – AWS OpsWorks Under the Hood (October 20th).
October 21 – Cloud Gaming Architectures from Mobile to Social to MMO (10 AM).
October 21 – re:Invent 2015 Revisited (10 AM).
October 21 – Live Demo Day (2 PM).
October 22 – AWS Pop-Up Loft Morning Shower: Microservices (8:30 AM).
October 22 – Serverless Architecture on AWS (5 PM).
October 22 – Berlin’s Godfather of Tech (6 PM).
October 23 – Amazon Echo Hackathon (10 AM).
October 23 – Convert Your Code into a Microservice using AWS Lambda (4 PM).
October 23 – Why Load & Performance Test the Cloud? (5 PM).
October 23 – Lessons Learned from 7 Accelerator Programs (6 PM).
October 26 – re:Invent Recap (9 PM).
October 26 – Funding Cycles and Term Sheets (5 PM).
October 26 – Scaling synergy – How AWS works with VC’s (6 PM).
October 27 – DevOps at Amazon: A Look at Our Tools and Processes (9 AM).
October 27 – Taking Ops to the Next Level (10 AM).
October 27 – Automating Software Deployments with AWS CodeDeploy (10 AM).
October 27 – Releasing Software Quickly and Reliably with AWS CodePipeline (5 PM).
October 28 – Cache is King (9 AM).
October 28 – How to Save Costs and Mitigate Risks with Spot Instances (10 AM).
October 28 – Running Lean & Mean on AWS: How to Optimize for Cost Efficiency (5 PM).
October 29 – Simple Security for Startups (9 AM).
October 29 – Encryption Options on AWS (10 AM).
October 29 – Software to Services workshop – An intro to SaaS Business with AWS (2 PM).
October 29 – Best Practice Tech Recruiting (4 PM).
October 29 – Mapping Traditional Security Controls to AWS (5 PM).
October 29 – Transparency and Audit on AWS (6 PM).
October 30 – Mobile Identity Management and Data Synchronization Using Amazon Cognito (9 AM).
October 30 – Analyze Mobile App Data and Build Predictive Applications (10 AM).
October 30 – Software to Services workshop – An intro to SaaS Technology with AWS (2 PM).
October 30 – The Data Pipeline Powering EyeEm (6 PM).

Upcoming Events at the AWS Loft (London) – Register Now

October 14 – Masterclass Live: Amazon EMR (10 AM).
October 14 – IoT on AWS (Noon).
October 14 – FinTech in the Cloud: How to build scalable, compliant and secure architecture with AWS (2 PM).
October 14 – AWS for Startups (6 PM).
October 15 – AWS Container Day (10 AM).
October 16 – HPC in the Cloud Workshop (2 – 4 PM).
October 19 – Hands-on Labs Drop In (1 PM).
October 20 – An Introduction to Using Amazon Web Services and the Alexa Skills Kit to Build Voice Driven Experiences + Open Hackathon (10 AM).
October 21 – Startup Showcase – B2C (10 AM).
October 21 – Chef Cookbook Workflow (6 PM).
October 22 – AWS Security Day (10 AM).
October 22 – Working with Planetary-Scale Open Data Sets on AWS (4 PM).
October 23 – AWS Booktamp: Taking AWS Operations to the Next Level (10 AM).
October 26 – Hands-on Labs Drop In (1 PM).
October 27 – IoT Hack Day: AWS Pop-up Loft Hack Series – Sponsored by Intel (10 AM).