LogiCast AWS News (Video)

Season 3 Episode 34 - Cheap Containers, Backup Visibility & Building in AWS

In Season 3, Episode 34 Karl & Jon are joined by AWS Community Builder, Abhishek Gupta. They discuss Graviton Spot compute, CLI v2 Linux support, AWS Backup visibility, CodeCommit/Cloud9 deprecation, UK AWS investment and they welcome their first guest from outer space.
 
05:09 - Amazon ECS now supports AWS Graviton-based Spot compute with AWS Fargate 
14:05 - Linux Support Updates for AWS CLI v2 
19:08 - Gain visibility of AWS backup activities using Amazon Managed Grafana 
25:50 - Dear AWS, how do I build & develop purely on AWS right now? 
36:04 - Chancellor announces £8 billion Amazon Web Services investment, as she vows to make every part of Britain better off
 
Guest was Abhishek Gupta
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhi8968/
https://medium.com/@abhi133182

Season 3 Episode 33 - AI, more AI and some not AI!

In Season 3, Episode 33 Karl & Jon are joined by AWS Community Builder, Christophe Limpalair. They discuss prompt engineering, CloudWatch Logs, Patch Manager, Magic Quadrant for AI Code Assistants, number of servers used to power EC2 and Karl assumes everything is about AI when it isn't...
 
04:24 - Implementing advanced prompt engineering with Amazon Bedrock 
13:42 - Using Generative AI to Gain Insights into CloudWatch Logs 
21:16 - Visualize AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager information using Amazon QuickSight 
27:46 - AWS named as a Leader in the first Gartner Magic Quadrant for AI Code Assistants 
34:29 - Amazon uses nearly half a million servers to power EC2, researcher estimates 
 
Guest was Christophe Limpalair:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophelimpalair/
https://cybr.com
 

Season 3 Episode 32 - Step Functions Validation, Lambda Layers & Neon Signs

In Season 3, Episode 32 Karl & Jon are joined by AWS Community Builder, Rishab Kumar. They discuss Validation API for Step Functions, Lambda Layers, Quick Setup programmatic deployment, new certifications and courses, Challenger for Observability and the Logicata guys get serious neon sign envy...
 
Articles:
04:53- Announcing Validation API for AWS Step Functions 
The new validation API for AWS Step Functions allows validating state machines before deployment to catch errors early. It was noted this could be useful to integrate into CI/CD pipelines.
09:19 - Why You Should Use AWS Lambda Layers 
Using Lambda layers allows packaging dependencies separately from function code. This enables faster deployments when only code changes, limits package size so the console editor can still be used, and allows sharing dependencies between functions
16:51 - Deploy AWS Systems Manager Quick Setup programmatically across your AWS Organization
AWS Systems Manager Quick Setup can now be deployed programmatically via CloudFormation, CDK, CLI etc. This makes it easier to enable SSM access across an organization or onboard new accounts.
23:35 - New courses and certification updates from AWS Training and Certification in August 2024
New AWS certifications and courses were announced, including AI/ML related ones like Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate. This reflects the growing demand for cloud skills in these areas.
30:37 - AWS named as a Challenger in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Observability Platforms 
AWS was named a Challenger in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Observability, reflecting their improved capabilities and execution in this space even if not yet a leader.
 
Guest was Rishab Kumar:
https://linkedin.com/in/rishabkumar7
https://rishabkumar.com/
https://x.com/rishabincloud
https://youtube.com/@rishabincloud
 

Season 3 Episode 31: Macs, Loops, and Misconfigurations

In Season 3, Episode 31 Karl & Jon are joined by AWS Community Builder, Luis Valdivia. They discuss MacOS CI/CD, Upgrading Lambda Functions, Lambda Loop Detection, Chatbot for Security Events, ALB Misconfiguration Exposure and Jon describes how he's training his kids in the art of medieval combat...
 
Articles:
05:04 - Add macOS to your continuous integration pipelines with AWS CodeBuild 
They discuss a new AWS CodeBuild feature that allows adding MacOS to continuous integration pipelines for building iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and MacOS applications and talk about challenges with using MacOS for builds.
 
15:48 - Leverage Amazon Q to upgrade Lambda runtime functions 
They discuss using Amazon Q to help upgrade Lambda runtimes like moving from Python 3.7 to 3.12 and debate whether AI like Q is ready to fully take over coding.
 
22:35 - AWS Lambda introduces recursive loop detection APIs 
They discuss a new recursive loop detection API in AWS Lambda and whether it is necessary and helpful for developers.
 
29:01 - Manage security events in Slack, Teams, or Amazon Chime using AWS Chatbot and Amazon Q
They discuss using AWS Chatbot with Amazon Q to manage security events in Slack/Chime.
 
 33:28 -Thousands of Apps Using AWS ALB Exposed to Attacks Due to Configuration Issue 
They discuss a report about potential misconfigurations exposing thousands of AWS environments due to issues with Application Load Balancers. 
 
Guest was Luis Valdivia:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-valdivia-humareda/
 

Season 3 Episode 30 - Serverless Security, Multicloud and AWS Earnings

In Season 3, Episode 30 Karl & Jon are joined by AWS Community Builder, Warren Parad. They discuss AWS Step Functions Encryption, AWS Parameter Store Sharing, AWS Touts Multi-Cloud Capabilities, AWS Quietly Freezes Services, AWS Q2 2022 Earnings and Jon has a proper rant about the deprecation of CodeCommit...   
 
Articles:
04:03 - Strengthening data security in AWS Step Functions with a customer-managed AWS KMS key 
They discuss a recent AWS blog post about encrypting AWS Step Functions state machines using AWS KMS keys. They debate the usefulness and security implications of this new feature.
 
11:57 - Introducing Parameter Store cross-account sharing 
They discuss a new capability from AWS to share Parameter Store parameters across accounts. They debate whether this simplifies operations or creates potential security issues.
 
17:39 - AWS and Multicloud: Existing capabilities & continued enhancements 
They discuss a recent AWS blog post about their multi-cloud capabilities and tools. They consider whether the major cloud providers are becoming commoditized.
 
25:16 - AWS quietly freezes CodeCommit, Cloud9, SimpleDB and more, customers complain about lack of notice 
They discuss AWS deprecating several services like CodeCommit and Cloud9 without notice. They express frustration at the lack of communication.
 
34:12 - Amazon’s cloud unit reports 19% revenue growth, topping estimates 
Thy discuss Amazon's latest quarterly earnings report, which exceeded expectations largely driven by AWS growth.
 
Guest was Warren Parad: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-parad/
https://warrenparad.nethttps://dev.to/wparad

Season 3 Episode 29: Graviton Benchmarks, SnapStart Java, and New Exam Formats

In Season 3, Episode 29 Karl & Jon are joined by AWS Community Builder, Girish Mukim. They discuss new Lambda snap start support for Java ARM functions, new question types being added to some AWS certification exams, using DynamoDB with Amazon OpenSearch Service for near real-time analytics without ETL, dedicated log volumes for RDS to improve database performance, benchmark results showing Graviton CPUs outperforming AMD and Intel and finally there is an update on Jon's leaking tap...
 
Articles Discussed:
 
03:43 - Lambda snap start for Java ARM  
07:52 - New AWS exam question types 
14:17 - DynamoDB and OpenSearch for near real-time analytics 
19:55 - RDS dedicated log volumes 
25:00 - Graviton CPU benchmarks 
 
Guest was Girish Mukim: 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/girish-mukim/
https://www.youtube.com/@AWSLearn
https://dev.to/girishmukim
 

Season 3 Episode 28 - Simplified OIDC, Redshift Serverless, and AI Content Localisation

In Season 3, Episode 28 Karl & Jon are joined by AWS Community Builder, Joshua Walker. They discuss AWS IAM OpenID Connect, Amazon Redshift serverless, AWS WAF challenge and capture actions, Media content localization with AWS AI services, Top 10 AWS news stories of 2024 and Jon challenges AWS' definition of Serverless, again...
 
Articles Discussed:
04:40 - AWS Identity and Access Management simplifies management of OpenID Connect identity providers 
The article discusses how AWS IAM is simplifying the management of OpenID Connect identity providers by automating certificate management. This will make it easier to securely connect external identity providers.  
 
10:26 - Amazon Redshift Serverless with lower base capacity available in the Europe (London) Region
The article announces that Amazon Redshift serverless now has a lower base capacity available in the London region. This allows users to run analytics more cost-effectively.  
 
15:11 - Protect against bots with AWS WAF Challenge and CAPTCHA actions 
The article explains how to use AWS WAF challenge and capture capabilities to protect against bots by requiring suspicious traffic to solve a challenge. This is less disruptive than blocking all traffic. 
 
21:16 - Media content localization with AWS AI services and Amazon Bedrock
The article demonstrates using AWS AI services like Transcribe and Translate to automatically localize text content from English to Korean. This makes it easier to reach broader audiences. 
 
26:40 - The 10 Biggest AWS News Stories Of 2024 (So Far) 
The hosts each highlight one of their favorite stories from a list of the top 10 AWS news items in 2022 so far. These include the CEO change, sustainability efforts, global data center expansion, and more.
 
Guest was Joshua Walker
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwtechdev/

Season 3 Episode 27 - ECS Features, AWS Open Sourcing, and AI IAC

In Season 3, Episode 27 Karl & Jon are joined by AWS Community Builder, Jenn Bergstrom. They discuss Amazon ECS, AWS Secrets Manager, Amazon CodeWhisperer, Security Hub and Jon was worried that the new Amazon Bedrock AI agent would replace him as Karl's Lead Cloud Engineer...
 
Articles Discussed:
03:54 - Amazon ECS now enforces software version consistency for containerized applications 
- Prevents issues when deploying containers using mutable tags like 'latest'
- Happens automatically, users don't need to make any changes
 
10:02 - Amazon ECS provides enhanced stop task error messages for easier troubleshooting 
 - Helps debug issues when deploying containers to ECS
- Available automatically in all regions, no user changes needed
 
12:40 - Open source release of Secrets Manager agent for AWS Secrets Manager 
- Allows retrieving secrets without writing custom integration code
- Exciting for serverless/container workloads like Lambda
 
18:35 - Using AI agents in Amazon CodeWhisperer to generate IaC from architecture diagrams 
- Upload a diagram, chat with the AI, get Terraform or CloudFormation code
- Useful but not a complete replacement for experienced engineers yet
 
29:30 - Top 4 ways to improve your Security Hub score 
- Mostly common sense security tips
- Highlights the need for better security practices
 
Guest was Jenn Bergstrom
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenn-bergstrom/

Season 3 Episode 26 - GuardDuty, Serverless and Sovereign Cloud

In Season 3, Episode 26 Karl & Jon are joined by AWS Community Builder, Igor Soroka. They discuss Amazon GuardDuty, New Lambda Logging Controls, Refactoring to Serverless, Aurora Global Database, the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, and the guys get sidetracked by Catalan taps...
 
Articles Discussed:
5:33 Amazon GuardDuty Runtime Monitoring Now Supports Ubuntu and Debian Operating Systems 
Key points:
- Previously only supported Amazon Linux
- Helps monitor and respond to potential threats like suspicious network activity, crypto mining, etc.
- Uses existing security agent, 30 day free trial
- Pricing is $1.50 per vCPU for first 500 vCPUs per month, drops for larger volumes
 
12:45 - New Lambda Logging Controls 
 Key points:
- Can now choose JSON or plaintext formatting
- Can set log levels like debug, error, etc.
- Supported in Python, Java, and Node.js
- Makes logging easier without needing additional libraries
- Can aggregate logs from different functions
 
18:21 - Refactoring to Serverless from Application to Automation 
Key points:
- Discusses "service factoring", replacing app code with automation
- Serverless allows abstracting away infrastructure details
- Entire architectures can be built using serverless components
- Improves apps through increased automation
 
24:11 - Using Aurora Global Database for Multi-Region Applications 
Key points:
- Provides hot-hot disaster recovery to secondary region
- Local endpoints provide fast response times
- Engineering to replicate globally is complex
- Useful but expensive to run dual full infrastructure
 
29:16 - Initial Services for AWS Europe Sovereign Cloud 
Key points:
- New sovereign cloud being built in Germany - Announces initial services like EC2, EKS, Lambda, etc.
- Functionally similar to AWS US GovCloud
- Provides data residency for EU regulations
- Impressive initial service list, no major omissions
 
Guest was Igor Soroko
https://www.linkedin.com/in/igor-soroka/
https://www.soroka.tech/blog/graphql-serverless-appsync
 
 

Season 3 Episode 25: Security, Sustainability, and Speed - How AWS Powers AI's Future

In Season 3, Episode 25 Karl & Jon are joined by Amazon Alumni & returning guest, Steve Woodard. They discuss AWS CloudShell, AWS Compute Optimizer, SQS, carbon footprint and optimising workloads, AWS engineering infrastructure to power generative AI and the guys go off on tangents about travelling t-shirts, cat bed hats and hair care products...
 
The articles discussed in this week episode are:
05:43 - AWS CloudShell now supports Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) 
12:35 - New – Rightsizing Recommendations for Amazon RDS MySQL and RDS PostgreSQL in AWS Compute Optimizer 
18:42 - Optimizing Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) for speed and scale 
26:14 - AWS can help reduce the carbon footprint of AI workloads by up to 99%. Here’s how. 
33:28 - 4 ways AWS is engineering infrastructure to power generative AI 
 
Guest was Steve Woodard
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevewoodardpi/
https://techtravels.buzzsprout.com/