AWS

AWS has introduced a new execution block for Amazon Application Recovery Controller (ARC) Region switch, specifically targeting Amazon RDS databases running Oracle Data Guard. This addition automates the manual steps previously required to reverse roles between a primary instance and its read replica during a regional impairment. The feature enables bounded recovery times for multi-region workloads by orchestrating the failover process without human intervention.

• Automates Oracle Data Guard role reversal in RDS during regional outages
• Integrates directly with ARC Region switch for end-to-end orchestration
• Eliminates manual promotion steps, reducing recovery time objectives (RTO)
• Specifically supports multi-region Oracle workloads on Amazon RDS

Fleet impact: For ExaCC/RAC and Aurora fleets, this confirms AWS is standardizing automation hooks for Oracle Data Guard across managed RDS. Ensure your ARC recovery plans explicitly include this new execution block to achieve consistent RTOs during regional failovers of your Oracle RDS instances.

Amazon EC2 P6-B300 instances are now available in the Asia Pacific (Seoul) Region, offering 8x NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs with 2.1 TB of high-bandwidth memory. This new instance type delivers 2x networking bandwidth and 1.5x GPU memory compared to the P6-B200, specifically targeting the training and deployment of trillion-parameter foundation models. The configuration includes 6.4 Tbps EFA networking and 300 Gbps dedicated ENA throughput to accelerate token throughput and reduce training times.

• P6-B300 instances enable training of trillion-parameter FMs with 2.1 TB GPU memory per node.
• Networking bandwidth doubled and GPU memory increased by 50% over the previous P6-B200 generation.
• Seoul region availability expands low-latency access to Blackwell Ultra GPUs for APAC-based AI workloads.
• 6.4 Tbps EFA networking supports high-throughput distributed training for large language models.

AWS Storage Gateway now allows Tape and Volume Gateways to connect to FIPS 140-3 validated endpoints over AWS PrivateLink. Previously, FIPS-compliant traffic was restricted to the public internet, but this update enables secure data transfer entirely within the private AWS network. Users can configure interface VPC endpoints to maintain compliance while leveraging private connectivity for regulated workloads.

• FIPS 140-3 endpoints are now accessible via AWS PrivateLink for Tape and Volume Gateways.
• Traffic stays on the private AWS network, reducing exposure compared to public internet access.
• Configure interface VPC endpoints and select the FIPS option during gateway activation.
• Simplifies compliance for regulated workloads requiring strict encryption standards.

Amazon Redshift has added native support for retaining system table data beyond the previous 7-day limit by writing it to Amazon S3 Tables. The service automatically formats this data as Apache Iceberg and handles partitioning, compaction, and retention policies. This eliminates the need for custom ETL pipelines previously required to archive system metrics for auditing and compliance.

• Native S3 Tables integration removes the need for custom ETL pipelines to archive Redshift system tables.
• Data is automatically stored in Apache Iceberg format within S3 for long-term retention.
• Retention limits are no longer capped at 7 days, supporting extended compliance and auditing needs.
• AWS manages underlying partitioning and compaction, reducing operational overhead for DBAs.
• Use cases include monitoring query performance history and auditing warehouse activity over time.

Amazon Timestream for InfluxDB now allows users to specify a symmetric AWS KMS customer managed key for encrypting data at rest. This feature applies to InfluxDB 2 database instances, InfluxDB 2 Read Replicas, and InfluxDB 3 clusters. The selected key must reside in the same AWS account and region as the resource and is immutable after creation.

• Use AWS KMS customer managed keys for InfluxDB 2 and 3 data at rest encryption
• Key selection occurs during resource creation via Console, CLI, or API
• The KMS key must be in the same AWS account and Region as the DB resource
• Encryption keys cannot be changed after the database resource is created