AWS Week in Review – November 9, 2015

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

Monday November 9	We announced the AWS Webinars for November 2015 – Learn About New Services and Best Practices. We announced that AWS Device Farm Now Supports Testing Your Apps Written in Swift. The AWS Windows and .NET Developer Blog discussing Using Amazon Kinesis Firehose. The AWS Mobile Development Blog showed you how to Build Cross-Platform Mobile Games with the AWS Mobile SDK for Unity. Eric Hammond showed you how to Create an Amazon API Gateway With aws-cli for Domain Redirect. Cloudonaut talked about EC2 Auto-Recovery for High Availability.
Tuesday November 10	We announced the City on a Cloud Challenge Winners for 2015. We announced that Amazon RDS Now Supports the m4 Instance Types in 8 Commercial Regions. The AWS Java Blog reviewed AWS re:Invent 2015 Practical DynamoDB Working Together with AWS Lambda. The AWS Startup Collection talked about Accelerating Software Delivery on AWS. We updated the AWS SDK for Java, AWS CLI, AWS SDK for Go, AWS SDK for JavaScript, and the AWS SDK for Ruby. Serverless Code talked about Backing up RDS Instances with Lambda. Evident.io shared AWS Security Best Practice #10: Watch World-Readable and Listable S3 Bucket Policies. Twilio wrote about Sending Selfies Without Servers: How to Use Twilio MMS, Amazon Lambda, and Amazon’s API Gateway. Cloud Academy discussed AWS Security Groups: Instance Level Security.
Wednesday November 11	The AWS Security Blog announced that AWS Security Token Service Will Soon be Active by Default in All AWS Regions. The Amazon Mobile App Distribution Blog announced Single Sign-On and E-Commerce Plugins for Login with Amazon. Steligent announced that they Earned the AWS Partner Network DevOps Compentency (congratulations!). Dome9 announced AWS Network Security Visualization with Dome9 Clarity and VPC Flow Logs.
Thursday November 12	We noted that Effective Renewable Energy Policies Spur Investment and Economic Growth. We Redesigned the DynamoDB Console. The AWS Partner Network Blog introduced AWS Partner Success Videos from Chef, Datapipe, Pegasystems, Smartronix, and Software AG. The AWS Security Blog introduced IAM Console Search. We updated the AWS SDK for Go, AWS CLI, AWS SDK for Ruby, and the AWS SDK for JavaScript. CloudCheckr announced that they are A Listed AWS Cloud Compliance Partner (congratulations!). Cloud Academy compared MariaDB vs. MySQL on Amazon RDS. Cloudability showed you how to Maximize AWS Savings with Automated RI Modifications. OpenSource Connections shared a Recap of AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas. Thinking Mobile showed you how to perform Zero Downtime Updates with AWS.
Friday November 13	We announced that EC2 High I/O Instances are Now Available as Spot Instances. We announced that Amazon ElastiCache Now Supports Redis Version 2.8.23. The AWS Big Data Blog talked about Building a Recommendation Engine with Spark ML on Amazon EMR Using Zeppelin. The AWS Compute Blog published an AWS Lambda Sessions at re:Invent 2015 Wrap up. The Amazon Mobile App Distribution Blog announced New Alexa Skills Kit Features: SSML Audio Tags and Developer Portal Updates. Serverless Code showed you how to Save Money, Live Better with Reserved Instances. Cloud Academy shared Amazon DynamoDB: Ten Things You Really Should Know. Cloudonaut shared 3 Simple Ways of Saving up to 90% of EC2 Costs.

New & Notable Open Source

• AWSTOOLS is a set of tools for AWS.
• image_upload_AmazonS3_Rails uploads images to S3 using Rails, Paperclip, and Imagemagick.
• aws-monocyte destroys your AWS resources in non-European regions (use with care).
• Prescience sets up New Relic monitoring for Elastic Beanstalk.
• aws-lambda-local runs Lambda functions locally.
• kinesis-connector is a Kinesis Connector Plugin for the Reekoh IoT platform.
• aws_role_credentials generates AWS credentials for roles using STS.
• node-aws-lambda helps to automate deployment of AWS Lambda functions.
• ci_lambda_checks is the Cloud Insight Lambda Framework.
• Cloudwatch-Loggly retrieves CloudWatch logs and sends them to Loggly.
• simplerobotservice uses the AWS IoT service to connect a Leap Motion controller to a robot arm.
• aws-bootcamp provides materials for AWS Bootcamps.
• alpha is a continuous deployment tool for Lambda.
• aws-iot-toolkit contains a set of tools and files to configure AWS IoT.
• sheepherding is AWS reporting driven by Lambda scripts.
• reservedinstances is a Reserved Instance analysis and recommendations tool.
• awspec is a set of RSpec tests for your AWS resources.
• lambda-gateway-twilio-demo uses Twilio to save an image from your mobile phone to AWS.
• Minio Go is a library for S3-compatible cloud storage.
• cloudogram is a Meteor app for monitoring AWS infrastructure.
• aws-tools is a set of tools for quick & easy AWS administration.
• aws-ps-scripts contains a set of AWS PowerShell scripts.
• datapackage-validator-awslambda is a Lambda function for validating bulk-loaded data packages (works with bawlk).
• domchk53 is a domain availability checker that uses the Route 53 API.
• igor manages the provisioning of AWS resources and also helps with deployment.

New SlideShare Presentations

• Earth Observation in the Cloud.
• Digital Globe Presentation for Earth Observation in the Cloud Demo Day.
• developmentSEED Presentation for Earth Observation in the Cloud Demo Day.
• Real-Time Event Processing.
• Big Data Collection & Storage.
• Cloud HPC at AWS.
• Data Processing and Analytics.
• AWS Big Data Platform.
• Increase Speed and Agility with Amazon Web Services.
• Amazon Redshift Masterclass.
• Protecting Your Data in AWS.
• Network Security & Access Control in AWS.
• Account Separation and Mandatory Access Control on AWS.
• Shared Responsibility Deep Dive.
• Cloud Security Guidance from CESG and AWS.
• Event-Driven Programming with DynamoDB Streams and AWS Lambda.
• IoT Hack Day: AWS Pop-up Loft Hack Series.
• Licensing considerations for Enterprise Applications in the AWS Cloud.
• Best practices: Backup and Recovery for Windows Workloads.
• Running Active Directory in the AWS Cloud.
• AWS LA Media & Entertainment Event:
  • Shoot the Bird: Linear Broadcast on AWS.
  • Cloud Analytics for Audience Engagement.
  • Security of Digital Media Content & Applications on AWS.
• AWS Enterprise Summit Manila:
  • Welcome.
  • Enterprise Innovations.
  • Understanding Security and Compliance on AWS.
• AWS Seminar Series 2015:
  • Auckland.
  • Brisbane.
  • Sydney.
• AWS October Webinar Series:
  • Introducing Amazon QuickSight.
  • Introducing AWS Import / Export Snowball.
  • Introduction to AWS WAF.
  • Getting Started with AWS IoT.
  • Introducing Amazon Kinesis Firehose.
  • Introducing AWS Mobile Hub.
  • Using Spot Instances to Save up to 90% off Your EC2 Bill.
  • AWS Lambda Best Practices: Python, Scheduled Jobs, and More.

New Customer Success Stories

• 3DVIA.
• Kuoni France.
• OpenClassrooms.
• Veolia Water France.
• Aire.
• Beatpacking.
• The BMW Group.
• BuildFax.
• Burt.
• Canary.
• Capital One.
• The Center for American Progress.
• Decisyon.
• Eataly.
• General Electric.
• Go Energy.
• Holiday Extras.
• Interflora.
• itsNOON.
• John Deere.
• Krux.
• LiteracyPlanet.
• MLB Advanced Media.
• Manipal Global.
• Matchmove.
• Omise.
• OutSystems.
• Pinterest.
• PocketMath.
• Remind.
• SEAT Pagine.
• Securitas Direct.
• Segment.
• Stripe.
• The Seattle Times.
• Tictail.
• Trax.
• Unali.
• The University of Pennsylvania.
• Talen Energy.

New YouTube Videos

• AWS Elastic Beanstalk Deployment Walkthrough.
• What is Amazon DynamoDB?

Upcoming Events

• AWS Webinars for November 2015 – New Services and Best Practices.
• November 20 (Partner Webinar) –The Reserved Instance lifecycle: Maximizing Savings Post-Purchase.
• December 1 (Meetup in Chicago, IL) – APIs and IPAs.
• AWS Lofts:
  • San Francisco.
  • New York.

Help Wanted

• Stelligent – DevOps Automation Engineer (Advanced, Senior, Principal).
• Senior Leader: AWS VPC (Virtual Private Cloud).
• EC2 Systems Engineering Leader.
• Senior Software Development Manager, EC2 Networking.
• AWS Careers.

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

— Jeff;