10 Hot New AWS Services For Microsoft, VMware, Kubernetes
From new Microsoft Windows support and VMware Cloud on AWS for NetApp to AWS Outposts and Amazon Managed Blockchain, here’s 10 hot AWS launches in August and September that channel partners should know.
Amazon Web Services’ innovation engine has been roaring over the past month with a slew of launches including new VMware Cloud on AWS offerings, Amazon EKS packages and support for Microsoft Windows.
The Seattle-based worldwide cloud market share leader is now running at a $79 billion annual run rate with no plans of slowing down.
AWS continues to launch new cloud services focusing on support, improved integrations with other technology vendors and increased availability for some of its popular solutions—such as AWS Outposts and Amazon Managed Blockchain—on a weekly basis.
[Related: The 5 Biggest AWS Executive Departures In 2022]
As of July, AWS has more than 200 cloud products and services available.
From blockchain, storage and containers to serverless, analytics and cloud management offerings, the laundry list of AWS managed service offerings is growing at a rapid pace in 2022.
The growing cloud capabilities from AWS is boosting the technology giant into new heights.
In fact, AWS recently reported record-breaking second quarter sales of $19.74 billion, up 33 percent year over year.
AWS has been able to keep its No. 1 market share position in cloud infrastructure services over the years in spite of heavy competition from the likes of Microsoft and Google. AWS owns 34 percent share of the cloud market as of the second quarter 2022, followed by Microsoft at 21 percent market share, then Google at 10 percent share, according to data from IT research firm Synergy Research Group.
CRN takes a look at 10 of the hottest new AWS service offerings the company launched in August and September this year that partners and customers need to know about:
* VMware Cloud on AWS For NetApp ONTAP
* AWS Controllers For Kubernetes
* Amazon Inspector For Microsoft Windows OS
* HIPPA Eligible Amazon MemoryDB for Redis
* AWS Fargate For Microsoft Windows Server 2022
* Amazon EKS Anywhere Packages
* Enterprise On-Ramp For AWS Outposts
VMware Cloud on AWS Integration For NetApp ONTAP
AWS and VMware continue to double down on their joint technology and go-to-market strategic partnership year after year.
In August, AWS and VMware created a jointly engineered network file system (NFS) datastore option for VMware Cloud on AWS to boost migrations to the cloud.
The new Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP is managed service that allows customers to run NetApp ONTAP file systems on AWS. With the integration, customers can attach high-performance storage independent from their compute resources to VMware Cloud on the AWS Software Defined Data Center.
AWS said partners and customers can scale or burst storage-heavy data sets with the flexibility to define performance and storage requirements to meet storage needs without added infrastructure costs.
Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP supports ONTAP’s data management capabilities such as snapshots, cloning, and replication, as well as its storage efficiency features such as deduplication and compression.
5 New AWS Controllers For Kubernetes Now Available
AWS recently made five AWS Controllers for Kubernetes (ACK) service controllers generally available.
Customers can now provision and manage AWS resources using ACK controllers for: Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), AWS Lambda, AWS Step Functions, Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus (AMP), and AWS Key Management Service (KMS).
AWS Controllers for Kubernetes lets customers define and use AWS service resources directly from Kubernetes clusters.
With ACK, partners can take advantage of AWS managed services for their Kubernetes applications without needing to define resources outside of the cluster or run services that provide supporting capabilities such as databases or message queues within the cluster.
In total, ACK now supports 12 AWS service controllers with an additional 13 in preview, according to AWS.
Amazon Inspector Support For Microsoft Windows OS
Amazon and Microsoft are the two most dominant forces in the cloud world today via AWS and Azure. Although the two technology giants go toe-to-toe for global market share leadership, both companies need to offer support for their joint customers.
In September, Amazon added support for Microsoft Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, and 2019, 2022 to its Inspector offering for continual EC2 vulnerability scanning.
Amazon Inspector is a vulnerability management service that continually scans AWS workloads for software vulnerabilities and unintended network exposure.
Windows instances will now automatically and continually be scanned for software vulnerabilities and unintended network exposure.
New customers can get started with Inspector with a single click in the AWS Management Console to start assessing for software vulnerabilities in their EC2 instances—both Windows and Linux—along with their container images in the Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR). Inspector provides a highly contextualized vulnerability risk score by correlating vulnerability information with environmental factors such as external network accessibility to help customers prioritize the highest risks.
Amazon MemoryDB for Redis Now HIPPA Eligible
For AWS channel partners focused on the healthcare industry, Amazon MemoryDB for Redis is now a HIPAA-eligible service.
Amazon MemoryDB for Redis is an in-memory database service promising ultra-fast performance that is purpose-built for modern applications with microservices architectures.
Partners and customers can now use MemoryDB to store, process, and access protected health information (PHI) and power secure healthcare and life sciences applications.
The new HIPAA eligibility applies to all AWS Regions where MemoryDB is available.
AWS Fargate Support For Microsoft Windows Server 2022
Another new AWS offering for Microsoft recently launched is AWS Fargate support for the Microsoft Windows Server 2022 runtime platform for applications running on Amazon Elastic Container Services (Amazon ECS).
AWS Fargate is a serverless containers platform where customers do not need to set up automatic scaling groups or manage host instances for their application running on containers.
By running Windows Server 2022 with AWS Fargate, customers can reduce their server core container image RTM [reverse time migration] layer by up to 33 percent, according to AWS, enabling a reduction in the overall image size.
With the new AWS support for Microsoft, customers also receive benefits such as improved networking and a longer support cycle of five years for mainstream and five years of extended support.
The new support adds to AWS’ list of already supported Windows Server 2019 runtime platforms for AWS Fargate, and helps customers take advantage of the latest Windows features on AWS Fargate.
New Amazon EKS Anywhere Packages
AWS recently launched the Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Services (EKS) Anywhere Curated Packages for partners and customers.
The new software packages are open-source and extend the core functionalities of Kubernetes.
Customers can now install the Harbor package as a local container registry; the Emissary-Ingress package as the ingress controller; and the MetalLB package as the service type load balancer.
The EKS Anywhere Curated Packages are container images that Amazon built from open-source source code and test for compatibility at each new EKS Anywhere release.
The list of curated packages starts with networking software and container registry, but AWS plans to add more software in the future to allows customers to monitor the health of the EKS Anywhere clusters, manage certificates and secretes, and deploy stateful applications with CSI drivers.
The EKS Anywhere Curated Packages are only available to customers with the Amazon EKS Anywhere Enterprise Subscription.
New On-Ramp Support For AWS Outposts
Starting on Sept.1, customers now have the ability to leverage AWS’ Enterprise On-Ramp Support or Enterprise Support to satisfy the prerequisite for ordering AWS Outposts.
AWS Outposts provides AWS infrastructure and services to nearly any on-premises or edge location for a consistent hybrid IT experience.
With the addition of Enterprise On-Ramp Support, customers now have more flexibility in selecting the AWS support plan that best suits their Outposts workloads and needs.
Enterprise On-Ramp Support is a relatively new AWS Support tier to help customers who are starting their cloud journey and need expert guidance, including 24/7 access to support engineers.
Customers also get access around consultative architectural guidance, operations reviews, cost optimization recommendations, and event management support delivered by technical account managers.
Amazon Managed Blockchain Now Available In U.S. West
AWS partners working with U.S. government agencies or private enterprises that work for government agencies in the western part of the U.S. can now leverage Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB) Hyperledger Fabric.
With the launch of AMB in AWS GovCloud (US-West) Region, customers in both public and commercial sectors can create and manage production-grade blockchain infrastructure with just a few clicks.
The company’s GovCloud regions are designed to host sensitive data, regulated workloads and address stringent U.S. government security and compliance requirements.
This marks the first time AMB is generally available to customers in AWS’ GovCloud U.S.-West region.
The Amazon Managed Blockchain service makes it easy to join public networks or create and manage scalable private networks using the popular open-source frameworks Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum.
With the Hyperledger Fabric private blockchain offering, once a customers’ network is up and running, AMB helps make it simple to manage and maintain the blockchain network, including critical tasks like managing certificates and facilitating network governance to add or remove member organizations from the blockchain network.
Public sector customers—including government agencies and private enterprises that work for government agencies—will now be able to leverage the benefits of blockchain technology and deploy production workloads to achieve various outcomes such as track-and-trace of supply chains, trade finance, as well as clearing and settlement of financial assets.
Amazon Connect Now Detects Fraud Risk
Amazon Connect’s Voice ID feature uses machine learning to provide real-time caller authentication and fraud risk detection to make voice interactions faster and more secure.
In September, AWS created a new capability for Amazon Connect Voice ID to now detect fraud risk from voice-based deception techniques such as voice manipulation during customer calls.
The revamped Amazon Connect Voice ID can detect in real-time if an imposter is using a speech synthesizer to spoof a caller’s voice and bluff the agent or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.
When a fraud is detected, Voice ID flags these calls as high risk in the Amazon Connect agent application, enabling customers to take additional security measures or precautions.
This new feature works out-of-the-box once Voice ID fraud detection is enabled for a contact with no additional configuration is required.
New AWS Step Functions To Better Process Data
AWS Step Functions is a low-code, visual workflow service that developers use to build distributed applications, automate IT and business processes, and create data and machine learning pipelines.
AWS recently expanded Step Functions support for manipulation of input and output data with 14 new intrinsic functions.
The new functions help simplify a customers’ data processing, reduce calls to downstream services, and enable less code to be written.
AWS Step Functions is now easier to perform data processing tasks such as array manipulation, JSON object manipulation, and math functions within workflows without having to invoke downstream services or add Task states. With Step Functions new intrinsic functions, customers can perform basic data processing and data manipulations such as merging two JSON objects using states.
Step Functions supports integrations with over 220 AWS services, 10,000 API actions, and now 18 intrinsic functions.