AWS Week in Review – September 27, 2016

Fourteen (14) external and internal contributors worked together to create this edition of the AWS Week in Review. If you would like to join the party (with the possibility of a free lunch at re:Invent), please visit the AWS Week in Review on GitHub.

Monday September 26	The AWS Podcast released an episode interviewing Abby Fuller from Startup www.airtime.com. The AWS Enterprise Blog talked about Getting Started with the Cloud. The AWS Security Blog showed you How to Create a Custom AMI with Encrypted Amazon EBS Snapshots and Share It with Other Accounts and Regions. The AWS Government, Education, & Nonprofits Blog wrote about Exatype: Cloud for HIV Drug Resistance Testing. The Backspace Blog wrote about using CloudFront with next generation frameworks for dynamic data in Super Fast Dynamic Websites with CloudFront, EC2 and NodeJS – Part 1. The A Cloud Guru blog wrote about AWS Certification: How many candidates will pass today? Powerupcloud showed you how to Automate Multiple Domains Migration to Route53 using Nodejs. Stelligent Blog wrote about One-Button Everything in AWS. CloudCheckr wrote about Concrete Steps to Reduce Public Cloud IaaS Expenses. Soenke Ruempler blogged about New AWS CloudFormation YAML syntax and variable substitution in action. AWS Community Hero Eric Hammond provided a guide to deleting a Route 53 hosted zone and all DNS records using aws-cli. The AWS Database Blog talked about Configuring the AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT). Cloudadvisors wrote about Docker on AWS with ECS and ECR(Part 1). Flux7 showed you How to Convert a CloudFormation Template from JSON to YAML.
Tuesday September 27	We announced the M4.16xlarge Instance Type. We announced that the Amazon Linux AMI 2016.09 is Now Available. We shared the AWS Hot Startups for September 2016. We announced the AWS Pop-up Loft and Innovation Lab in Munich. Sander van de Graaf wrote about How to build a Serverless Screenshot Service with Lambda. The AWS Startup Collection blog wrote about Serverless Architectures with Java 8, AWS Lambda, and Amazon DynamoDB in part 1 of their series. The Batchly blog wrote about 4 points to consider in your spot bidding strategy. The Concurrency Labs Blog wrote about How to Operate Reliable AWS Lambda Applications in Production.
Wednesday September 28	Trainline Engineering wrote about Trainline Environment Manager. The AWS Partner Network Blog wrote about The Evolution of Managed Services in Hyperscale Cloud Environments. We announced the AWS Answers page for help architecting your solutions. vBrownBag continues its AWS-SA Associate Certification Exam Study Webinar Series, this time covering Domain 4.0 with Zach Zeid of Ahead. ParkMyCloud listed 5 Reasons to Turn Your Cloud Servers Off When You're Not Using Them. Thinking Aloud discussed Securing SQL Server in EC2: Certificates, Ports, and Gotchas. Parsec described The Technology Behind A Low Latency Cloud Gaming Service.
Thursday September 29	We announced that an AWS Region is Coming to France in 2017. We launched the P2 Instance Type, with up to 16 GPUs. We made an EC2 Reserved Instance Update, featuring Convertible RIs and a Regional Benefit. We welcomed the Fall 2016 AWS Community Heroes. We announced the First Annual Alexa Prize – $2.5 Million to Advance Conversational AI. We announced that Amazon Cognito is Available in Asia Pacific (Seoul) and EU (Frankfurt) Regions. Erik Meinders wrote a blog Serverless EC2 scheduler using Lambda and Cloudwatch events.. CloudHealth Technologies published a 2-part blog on the new RI types and features. This is Part 1. Cloudadvisors wrote about Docker on AWS with ECS and ECR(Part 2) The AWS Government, Education, & Nonprofits Blog wrote about Whiteboard with an SA: Tags. We published The ISV Business Case for Building SaaS on Amazon Web Services (AWS), an August 2016 commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of AWS. Flux7 wrote A Review of AWS CloudFormation Cross-Stack References.
Friday September 30	I advised you to Prepare for re:Invent 2016 by Attending our Upcoming Webinars. We announced that Amazon Redshift has a New Data Type with Support for Time Zones in Time Stamps. We announced that Amazon Elastic Transcoder is Now Available in the Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region. CloudHealth Technologies published a 2-part blog on the new RI types and features. This is Part 2. We enabled P2 instance support in CfnCluster. Details here. The Customer Success Team at Cloudability explains how Amortizing Reserved Instance Costs Works, and why it can matter to your organization. SingleStone Consulting wrote about secrets management in AWS with KMS and S3. cloudonaut.io wrote about marbot, our submission to the AWS Serverless Chatbot Competition.
Saturday October 1	Andrej Kazakov wrote about Elasticsearch in AWS Scott Johnson wrote a tutorial on how to use Ansible to automate installation of the CloudWatch Memory Monitoring scripts.
Sunday October 2	Colin Percival wrote about EC2-related improvements in the upcoming FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE.

New & Notable Open Source

• dynamodb-continuous-backup sets up continuous backup automation for DynamoDB.


• lambda-billing uses NodeJS to automate billing to AWS tagged projects, producing PDF invoices.


• vyos-based-vpc-wan is a complete Packer + CloudFormation + Troposphere powered setup of AMIs to run VyOS IPSec tunnels across multiple AWS VPCs, using BGP-4 for dynamic routing.


• s3encrypt is a utility that encrypts and decrypts files in S3 with KMS keys.


• lambda-uploader helps to package and upload Lambda functions to AWS.


• AWS-Architect helps to deploy microservices to Lambda and API Gateway.


• awsgi is an WSGI gateway for API Gateway and Lambda proxy integration.


• rusoto is an AWS SDK for Rust.


• EBS_Scripts contains some EBS tricks and triads.


• landsat-on-aws is a web application that uses Amazon S3, Amazon API Gateway, and AWS Lambda to create an infinitely scalable interface to navigate Landsat satellite data.

New SlideShare Presentations

• AWS Enterprise Summit Toronto:
  
  
  
  • Keynote – Future of Enterprise IT.
  
  
  • Getting Started with Amazon Aurora.
  
  
  • Getting Started with The Hybrid Cloud – Enterprise Backup and Recovery.
  
  
  • Cost Optimization at Scale.
  
  
  • Protecting Your Data in AWS.
  
  
  • Getting Started with Amazon Redshift.
  
  
  • DevOps on AWS – Deep Dive on Continuous Delivery.
  
  
  • DevOps on AWS – Deep Dive on Infrastructure as Code.
  
  
  • AWS Business Essentials.
  
  
  • Database Migration.
  
  
  • Getting Started with Amazon WorkSpaces.
  
  
  • Creating Your Virtual Data Center.
  
  
  • Breaking Down the Economics and TCO of Migrating to AWS.
  
  
  • Keeping Cloud Transformations on Track.
  
  
  • Getting Started with AWS Security.
  
  
  • Architecting Microservices on AWS.
  
  
  • Getting Started with Windows Workloads on EC2.
  
  
  • Another Day, Another Billion Packets.
  
  


• AWS September 2016 Webinars:
  
  
  
  • AWS Services Overview.
  
  
  • Amazon Aurora New Features.
  
  
  • Building Real-Time Data Analytics Applications on AWS.
  
  
  • Getting Started with Managed Database Services on AWS.
  
  
  • Getting Started with AWS IoT.
  
  
  • Serverless Geospatial Mobile Apps with AWS.
  
  
  • Coding Apps in the Cloud to Reduce Costs up to 90%.
  
  
  • Addressing Amazon Inspector Assessment Findings.
  
  
  • Automating Compliance Defense in the Cloud.
  
  
  • Overview and Best Practices for Amazon Elastic Block Store.
  
  
  • AWS Infrastructure as Code.
  
  


• Building a Recommendation Engine Using Amazon Machine Learning in Real-time.


• Create Cloud Services on AWS.


• Alexa IoT Skills Workshop.


• Connecting to AWS IoT.


• Best Practices of IoT in the Cloud.


• Programming the Physical World with Device Shadows and Rules Engine.


• Overview of IoT Infrastructure and Connectivity at AWS & Getting Started with AWS IoT.


• Optimize Developer Agility & App Delivery on AWS.


• The New Normal: Benefits of Cloud Computing and Defining your IT Strategy.


• Security and Compliance.

New AWS Marketplace Listings

• Application Development:
  
  
  
  • KloudGin Mobile and Web Cloud Platform, sold by KloudGin Inc
  
  
  • LAMP Stack With Virtualmin, sold by Aurora
  
  
  • SmartAMI SQLSplitter powered by MarioDB MaxScale, sold by AT-NET
  
  
  • WinDocks Community Edition with SQL Server 2014 Express (HVM), sold by Code Creator
  
  


• Business Intelligence:
  
  
  
  • Simego Data Synchronisation Studio, sold by Simego Ltd
  
  
  • WebFOCUS Business User Edition, sold by Information Builders
  
  


• Content Management:
  
  
  
  • Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise 2016 for AWS Business, sold by Data Resolution
  
  


• CRM:
  
  
  
  • SuiteCRM powered by Symetricore, sold by Symetricore
  
  


• Databases:
  
  
  
  • FileMaker Cloud (5 users, 10 users, 25 users, 100 users, or BYOL), sold by Orbitera
  
  
  • Pivotal Greenplum Database (BYOL), sold by zData Inc.
  
  


• HR:
  
  
  
  • Sentrifugo (HRMS), sold by Code Creator
  
  


• Network Infrastructure:
  
  
  
  • FreePBX powered by Symetricore (Centos Edition), sold by Symetricore
  
  


• Security:
  
  
  
  • Database Security and Compliance – On Demand, sold by HexaTier
  
  

Upcoming Events

• October 6 (Hull, England) – AWS User Group Hull: Running Containerised Apps on AWS.


• October 10 (Oslo, Norway) – AWS User Group Norway: Say Hello to Alexa!.


• October 10 (Seoul, Korea) – AWS Partner-led Hands-on Labs.


• October 11 (Redwood City, California, USA) – AWS Bay Area Meetup #21. A focus on Spinnaker from Netflix.


• October 13 (Edinburgh, Scotland) – 7th AWS User Group Edinburgh Meetup.


• October 13 (Seoul, Korea) – AWS Enterprise Summit.


• October 13 (Warsaw, Poland) – Meetup of the Public Cloud User Group in Warsaw, Poland.


• October 14 (Seoul, Korea) – AWS Lambda Zombie Workshop.


• October 19 (Seoul, Korea) – AWS Korea User Group Monthly Seminar – Database Service.


• October 26 (Cambridge, England) – Meetup #9 of the Cambridge AWS User Group: Everything Mobile.


• October 26 (Dublin, Ireland) – Meetup #16 of the AWS User Group Network in Dublin.


• November 23 (Cardiff, Wales) – Meetup #4 of the AWS South Wales User Group.

Help Wanted

• Linux Cloud Engineer at Red Wire Services (100% AWS Role, AWS Advanced Consulting Partner).


• Teridion Sales Engineer (Cloud Optimized Routing for SaaS).


• AWS Careers.

Stay tuned for next week! In the meantime, follow me on Twitter and subscribe to the RSS feed.