Okay. Hello, Cloud Gurus. How y'all doing?
I'm Scott Pletcher and welcome back to another episode of AWS This Week.
S3 finally gets proper PrivateLink support,
GovTech startups can apply for some AWS love,
and we get revved up for DeepRacer 2021. And oh yeah,
some guy named Bezos did something.
All coming up on AWS This Week.
Well,
some big news was made on February 2nd when Amazon announced that later this
year,
Jeff Bezos will be handing over the CEO role to current AWS head,
Andy Jassy.
Mr Jassy is a long-time Amazonian and most analysts consider this transition
to be perfectly sensible.
As at press time no successor has yet been announced to replace Jassy in the
top spot at AWS.
So what does this change mean for our use of AWS?
Absolutely nothing.
Well run companies like AWS have succession plans and processes specifically
designed for leadership transition, especially at the executive level.
And you can bet this move has been in the works for a while.
Whoever steps into that role at AWS probably won't be keen on
upsetting the apple cart,
because AWS accounts for most of Amazon's total operating profits.
I for one will gladly welcome our new AWS overlord and want to
mention that this show would be an excellent outlet for this,
and many more exclusive AWS announcements. Call me.
AWS PrivateLink for Amazon S3 is now available.
But wait, didn't S3 already support VPC endpoints? Well,
yes and no. For a while now,
you've been able to connect to S3 from your private VPC,
using the safe and secure back corridors of AWS's own network
versus having to venture out into the scary and dangerous internet.
You were able to do this by setting up a VPC gateway endpoint.
Now, gateway endpoints use some routing sleight of hand to redirect VPC
traffic headed to the public S3 IP addresses.
Thus keeping that traffic off the internet.
Only problem is that this gateway method didn't work for private on-prem
systems without some additional proxy shenanigans.
By being able to use a VPC interface endpoint,
we can now provide all our systems access to S3 using a proper private
IP address. So what does PrivateLink have to do with any of this? Well,
PrivateLink is the collective trade name of the AWS service that
runs all the private connection stuff. Recently,
AWS announced the launch of the AWS GovTechStart program.
This program, modeled after AWS's EdStart program,
hopes to inspire commercial government technology startups to make
AWS their cloud home of choice.
Creating technology products and services for local,
state and federal agencies has its own unique set of challenges,
but also tends to be fertile ground for problems that really need to be solved.
Where there are problems, there's usually someone willing to pay for a solution.
Eligible GovTech startups can receive equity free AWS promotional
credits, technical training,
and support from AWS GovTech experts. Well,
the DeepRacer 2021 pre-season is now open.
New this year are two skills-based racing divisions designed to give competitors
more opportunities to win prizes. If you're new to machine learning,
DeepRacer is an excellent way to learn about a specific type of machine learning
called reinforcement learning through gamification.
If you were one of the OG racers and haven't checked out DeepRacer recently,
it might be worth taking another look.
The tools and instrumentation have greatly improved,
allowing for what should be some remarkable runs.
I hope to see you at the track. Finally,
a big thank you to the AWS Community Builders program for a nifty swag
drop this week.
The Community Builders program is designed to support and encourage those within
the AWS builder ecosystem to share their knowledge and strengthen the
AWS builder community at large.
In exchange community builders get special access to product teams,
previews of new features and services, mentorship,
and promotional credits. Now to be part of the program,
you do need to apply.
We'll include the link to where you can sign up to be notified when
applications open again. Also,
congratulations to all those who took part in the January Cloud Guru challenge.
Watch for an ACG Project coming soon to see how I tackled that challenge.
And that my friends is all the AWS news that's fit to print this week.
Stay safe, take care of one another and keep being awesome Cloud Gurus.