AWS

Amazon EC2 U7i instances featuring 12TiB of DDR5 memory are now available in the AWS Europe (Zurich) region. Powered by fourth-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, these instances provide 896 vCPUs and support up to 100Gbps for both network and EBS bandwidth. This expansion targets mission-critical in-memory database workloads such as SAP HANA, Oracle, and SQL Server.

• 12TiB DDR5 memory supports massive in-memory datasets for SAP HANA and Oracle.
• 896 vCPUs on Sapphire Rapids deliver high transaction processing throughput.
• 100Gbps EBS and network bandwidth accelerate data loading and backups.
• ENA Express support ensures low-latency communication for critical apps.

AWS Security Hub now features Network Scanning to detect resources actually reachable from the internet by probing them directly. This active verification complements existing findings that only assess configuration risks like security group rules. The tool discovers public IPs, VMs, and load balancers across AWS and Azure environments, identifying open ports and running services.

• Active scanning confirms real internet reachability, not just theoretical risk from config analysis.
• Supports multi-cloud coverage, scanning both AWS and Azure resources for public exposure.
• Generates specific Security Hub findings for each detected reachable port and service.
• Reduces false positives by validating if resources are truly accessible from the public internet.

AWS Security Hub has extended its unified security management capabilities to include Microsoft Azure environments. The service automatically discovers key Azure assets such as VMs, container images, Function Apps, and identities to evaluate them for misconfigurations and internet exposure. This update allows organizations to consolidate risk analytics, posture management, and vulnerability assessments into a single interface across both clouds.

• Eliminates tool fragmentation by unifying AWS and Azure security monitoring in one console.
• Auto-discovers Azure VMs, ACR images, Function Apps, and identities for continuous evaluation.
• Enables holistic risk prioritization and consistent response actions across hybrid cloud workloads.
• Centralizes cloud security posture management and vulnerability detection for multi-cloud fleets.

Amazon Redshift has extended support for Graviton-based rg.4xlarge and rg.xlarge instances to the trailing track (P201). This update allows customers prioritizing stability to leverage AWS Graviton performance, which offers up to 2.4x faster query speeds than RA3 instances at a 30% lower price per vCPU. Deployment is supported via the console, CLI, and SDKs for both new clusters and existing resize operations.

• Graviton RG instances are now available on the stable P201 trailing track.
• Expect up to 2.4x faster query performance compared to RA3 instances.
• Cost reduction of 30% per vCPU makes Graviton attractive for production.
• Resize existing clusters or provision new ones using rg.xlarge/rg.4xlarge.
• Provisioning supported via Console, AWS CLI, and SDKs.

Amazon EMR Serverless now supports worker configurations up to 32 vCPUs and 244 GB of memory, doubling the previous maximum of 16 vCPUs and 120 GB. These larger instances are designed to improve runtime performance and cost efficiency for compute and memory-intensive Spark jobs. The update specifically addresses challenges like shuffle-heavy operations, data skew, and caching requirements by reducing data transfer overhead and lowering out-of-memory failure risks.

• Max worker size doubled to 32 vCPUs and 244 GB RAM for heavier workloads
• Shuffle-heavy jobs benefit from reduced inefficient data transfers between executors
• Data skew scenarios see fewer out-of-memory failures due to increased memory headroom
• Data caching performance improves as larger workers can hold more data in memory
• Recommended for compute and memory-intensive Spark and Trino jobs