AWS

Amazon RDS has extended cross-region automated backup replication to four additional AWS Regions, including Mexico Central, Taipei, New Zealand, and Thailand. This update enables point-in-time recovery capabilities across specific regional pairings, such as replicating backups from Mexico to Ireland or US West, and from Asia Pacific regions to Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, or Jakarta. The feature ensures mission-critical databases can be restored to a specific point in time within the retention period, even if the primary region experiences an outage.

• Cross-region replication now covers Mexico Central, Taipei, New Zealand, and Thailand.
• Mexico Central can replicate to Europe (Ireland) or US West (N. California).
• Taipei backups replicate to Singapore or Tokyo for enhanced regional resilience.
• New Zealand and Thailand regions replicate to Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, or Jakarta.
• Enables point-in-time recovery across regions for mission-critical RDS workloads.

AWS has updated ECS Express Mode to allow the use of custom task definitions, enabling teams to keep existing application configurations and advanced task-level settings. This change allows users to reuse task definitions from current CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code workflows without losing the simplified deployment experience. Express Mode continues to automate load balancing, networking, auto-scaling, and monitoring while now accommodating these specific customizations.

• Reuse existing ECS task definitions in Express Mode instead of rewriting them
• Maintain advanced task-level customizations while using simplified deployment
• Keep current CI/CD and IaC workflows intact with the new support
• Automate load balancing, networking, and scaling without manual config

Amazon EKS now allows reverting to the previous Kubernetes minor version within a seven-day window following an upgrade. This feature acts as a safety net for validating new versions in production, accessible via the console, CLI, or SDKs. Before execution, the service performs automated readiness checks covering API compatibility, version skew, add-on status, and cluster health. For EKS Auto Mode clusters, worker node rollbacks are handled automatically prior to control plane reversion.

• Rollback window is strictly limited to 7 days after the upgrade operation.
• Pre-flight checks validate API compatibility, version skew, and add-on status.
• EKS Auto Mode automatically handles worker node rollback before control plane changes.
• Initiate rollbacks via Console, AWS CLI, or SDKs with full automation support.

Amazon Time Sync Service has expanded to support microsecond-accurate time on 26 additional EC2 instance types across all commercial regions. This capability leverages the AWS Nitro System's reference clocks and Precision Time Protocol hardware clock (PHC) to enable nanosecond precision timestamps. Users can access this feature by launching instances within a new Precision Time Placement Group (PTPG).

• Enables microsecond time accuracy on 26 new EC2 instance types globally.
• Requires launching instances in a Precision Time Placement Group (PTPG).
• Leverages Nitro System reference clocks for nanosecond precision hardware timestamps.
• Supports ordering events, measuring one-way latency, and boosting distributed transaction speed.

Amazon EC2 Dedicated Hosts now support AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Secure Nested Paging, allowing customers to run confidential computing workloads on physical servers dedicated to their use. This feature enables instance placement control and host affinity, ensuring instances remain on the same physical server over time. The physical host is provisioned with updated AMD security firmware during allocation to maintain a secure environment.

• Enable SEV-SNP on Dedicated Hosts to isolate confidential workloads from the hypervisor and cloud provider.
• Leverage host affinity to keep sensitive instances on the same physical server for compliance and performance.
• Control instance placement to meet regulatory requirements for data residency and hardware isolation.
• Security firmware is automatically updated during host allocation to ensure a secure baseline.