
AWS Podcast
The Official AWS Podcast is a podcast for developers and IT professionals looking for the latest news and trends in storage, security, infrastructure, serverless, and more. Join Simon Elisha and Hawn Nguyen-Loughren for regular updates, deep dives, launches, and interviews. Whether you’re training machine learning models, developing open source projects, or building cloud solutions, the Official AWS Podcast has something for you.
Latest episodes

Mar 3, 2019 • 47min
#301: Getting the most out of the AWS Developer Experience
What does a modern software development look like? What are some of the optimised approaches you can use? What is the state of play when it comes to developer tooling and the cloud? Simon is joined by Adam Larter (Principal Solutions Architect, AWS) to discuss options available to developers using AWS. Links: DevOps and AWS landing page: https://aws.amazon.com/devops/
Keep up to date with the AWS DevOps blog: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/devops/
What is SAM?: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/serverless-application-model/latest/developerguide/what-is-sam.html
SAM on Github: https://github.com/awslabs/serverless-application-model
Invoking a Lambda function locally using SAM CLI: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/serverless-application-model/latest/developerguide/sam-cli-command-reference-sam-local-invoke.html
AWS Toolkits for PyCharm, IntelliJ (Preview), and Visual Studio Code (Preview): https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-aws-toolkits-for-pycharm-intellij-preview-and-visual-studio-code-preview/

Feb 24, 2019 • 26min
#300: Amazon ElasticSearch Update
Do you have lots of data to search, analyze and visualize? The Amazon ElasticSearch service is used by customers large and small to do just that! Simon speaks with Jon Handler (Principal Solutions Architect, AWS) about some exciting new capabilities and also how to size, tune and optimize your clusters.
Links:
Amazon ElasticSearch: https://aws.amazon.com/elasticsearch-service/
T-Shirt size blog: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/get-started-with-amazon-elasticsearch-service-t-shirt-size-your-domain/
How many instances do I need? https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/get-started-with-amazon-elasticsearch-service-how-many-data-instances-do-i-need/
How many shards? https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/get-started-with-amazon-elasticsearch-service-how-many-shards-do-i-need/
Set alarms on CW metrics: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/get-started-with-amazon-elasticsearch-service-set-cloudwatch-alarms-on-key-metrics/
re:Invent Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95kQkS51VnU

Feb 17, 2019 • 31min
#299: February 2019 Updates
Simon guides you through lots of new features, services and capabilities that you can take advantage of. Including the new AWS Backup service, more powerful GPU capabilities, new SLAs and much, much more!
Chapters:
Service Level Agreements 0:17
Storage 0:57
Media Services 5:08
Developer Tools 6:17
Analytics 9:54
AI/ML 12:07
Database 14:47
Networking & Content Delivery 17:32
Compute 19:02
Solutions 21:57
Business Applications 23:38
AWS Cost Management 25:07
Migration & Transfer 25:39
Application Integration 26:07
Management & Governance 26:32
End User Computing 29:22
Links:
Topic || Service Level Agreements 0:17
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose Announces 99.9% Service Level Agreement | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-kinesis-data-firehose-announces-99-9-service-level-agreement/
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams Announces 99.9% Service Level Agreement | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-kinesis-data-streams-announces-99-9-service-level-agreement/
Amazon Kinesis Video Streams Announces 99.9% Service Level Agreement | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-kinesis-video-streams-announces-99-9-service-level-agreement/
Amazon EKS Announces 99.9% Service Level Agreement | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/-amazon-eks-announces-99-9--service-level-agreement-/
Amazon ECR Announces 99.9% Service Level Agreement | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-ecr-announces-99-9--service-level-agreement/
Amazon Cognito Announces 99.9% Service Level Agreement | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-cognito-announces-99-9-service-level-agreement/
AWS Step Functions Announces 99.9% Service Level Agreement | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-step-functions-announces-service-level-agreement/
AWS Secrets Manager Announces Service Level Agreement | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/AWS-Secrets-Manager-announces-service-level-agreement/
Amazon MQ Announces 99.9% Service Level Agreement | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-mq-announces-service-level-agreement/
Topic || Storage 0:57
Introducing AWS Backup | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/introducing-aws-backup/
Introducing Amazon Elastic File System Integration with AWS Backup | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/introducing-amazon-elastic-file-system-integration-with-aws-backup/
AWS Storage Gateway Integrates with AWS Backup - Amazon Web Services | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-storage-gateway-integrates-with-aws-backup-to-protect-volume/
AWS Backup Integrates with Amazon DynamoDB for Centralized and Automated Backup Management | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-backup-integrates-with-amazon-DynamoDB-for-centralized-and-automated-backup-management/
Amazon EBS Integrates with AWS Backup to Protect Your Volumes | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-ebs-integrates-with-aws-backup-to-protect-your-volumes/
AWS Storage Gateway Volume Detach & Attach - Amazon Web Services | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-storage-gateway-introduces-volume-detach-and-attach-feature-/
AWS Storage Gateway - Tape Gateway Performance | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-storage-gateway-announces-increased-throughput-performance-for-tape-gateway/
Amazon FSx for Lustre Offers New Options and Faster Speeds for Working with S3 Data | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/amazon-fsx-for-lustre-offers-new-options-and-faster-speeds/
Topic || Media Services 5:08
AWS Elemental MediaConvert Adds IMF Input and Enhances Caption Burn-In Support | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-elemental-mediaconvert-adds-imf-input-enhances-caption-burn-in-support/
AWS Elemental MediaLive Adds Support for AWS CloudTrail | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-elemental-medialive-adds-support-for-aws-cloudtrail/
AWS Elemental MediaLive Now Supports Resource Tagging | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/aws-elemental-medialive-now-supports-resource-tagging/
AWS Elemental MediaLive Adds I-Frame-Only HLS Manifests and JPEG Outputs | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-elemental-medialive-add-i-frame-only-hls-manifest-and-jpeg-outputs/
Topic || Developer Tools 6:17
Amazon Corretto is Now Generally Available | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-corretto-is-now-generally-available/
AWS CodePipeline Now Supports Deploying to Amazon S3 | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-codepipeline-now-supports-deploying-to-amazon-s3/
AWS Cloud9 Supports AWS CloudTrail Logging | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-cloud9-supports-aws-cloudtrail-logging/
AWS CodeBuild Now Supports Accessing Images from Private Docker Registry | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-codebuild-now-supports-accessing-images-from-private-docker-registry/
Develop and Test AWS Step Functions Workflows Locally | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/develop-and-test-aws-step-functions-workflows-locally/
AWS X-Ray SDK for .NET Core is Now Generally Available | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/aws-x-ray-net-core-sdk-generally-available/
Topic || Analytics 9:54
Amazon Elasticsearch Service doubles maximum cluster capacity with 200 node cluster support | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-elasticsearch-service-doubles-maximum-cluster-capacity-with-200-node-cluster-support/
Amazon Elasticsearch Service announces support for Elasticsearch 6.4 | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-elasticsearch-service-announces-support-for-elasticsearch-6-4/
Amazon Elasticsearch Service now supports three Availability Zone deployments | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/amazon-elasticsearch-service-now-supports-three-availability-zone-deployments/
Now bring your own KDC and enable Kerberos authentication in Amazon EMR | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/now_bring_your_own_kdc_and_enable_kerberos_authentication_in_amazon_emr/
Source code for the AWS Glue Data Catalog client for Apache Hive Metastore is now available for download | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/source-code-for-the-aws-glue-data-catalog-client-for-apache-hive-metatore-is-now-available-for-download/
Topic || AI/ML 12:07
Amazon Comprehend is now Integrated with AWS CloudTrail | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-comprehend-is-now-integrated-with-aws-cloudtrail/
Object Bounding Boxes and More Accurate Object and Scene Detection are now Available for Amazon Rekognition Video | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/object-bounding-boxes-and-more-accurate-object-and-scene-detection-are-now-available-for-amazon-rekognition-video/
Amazon Elastic Inference Now Supports TensorFlow 1.12 with a New Python API | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-elastic-inference-supports-tensorflow-1-12-with-a-python-api/
New in AWS Deep Learning AMIs: Updated Elastic Inference for TensorFlow, TensorBoard 1.12.1, and MMS 1.0.1 | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-deep-learning-amis-now-support-elastic-inference-for-tensorflow-tensorboard1-12-1-mms101/
Amazon SageMaker Batch Transform Now Supports TFRecord Format | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-sagemaker-batch-transform-now-supports-tfrecord-format/
Amazon Transcribe Now Supports US Spanish Speech-to-Text in Real Time | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/amazon-transcribe-now-supports-us-spanish-speech-to-text-in-real-time/
Topic || Database 14:47
Amazon Redshift now runs ANALYZE automatically | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-redshift-auto-analyze/
Introducing Python Shell Jobs in AWS Glue | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/introducing-python-shell-jobs-in-aws-glue/
Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL Now Supports T3 Instance Types | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-rds-postgresql-now-supports-t3-instance-types/
Amazon RDS for Oracle Now Supports T3 Instance Types | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-rds-for-oracle-now-supports-t3-instance-types/
Amazon RDS for Oracle Now Supports SQLT Diagnostics Tool Version 12.2.180725 | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-rds-oracle-now-supports-sqlt-diagnostics-tool-122180725/
Amazon RDS for Oracle Now Supports January 2019 Oracle Patch Set Updates (PSU) and Release Updates (RU) | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/amazon-rds-oracle-supports-jan-2019-oracle-psu/
Amazon DynamoDB Local Adds Support for Transactional APIs, On-Demand Capacity Mode, and 20 GSIs | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/amazon-dynamodb-local-adds-support-for-transactional-apis-on-demand-capacity-mode-and-20-gsis/
Topic || Networking & Content Delivery 17:32
Network Load Balancer Now Supports TLS Termination | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/network-load-balancer-now-supports-tls-termination/
Amazon CloudFront announces six new Edge locations across United States and France | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/cloudfront-feb2019-6locations/
AWS Site-to-Site VPN Now Supports IKEv2 | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/aws-site-to-site-vpn-now-supports-ikev2/
VPC Route Tables Support up to 1,000 Static Routes | https://forums.aws.amazon.com/ann.jspa?annID=6554
Topic || Compute 19:02
Announcing a 25% price reduction for Amazon EC2 X1 Instances in the Asia Pacific (Mumbai) AWS Region | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/announcing-a-25-percent-price-reduction-for-amazon-ec2-x1-instances-in-the-asia-pacific-mumbai-aws-region/
Amazon EKS Achieves ISO and PCI Compliance | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-eks-achieves-iso-and-pci-compliance/
AWS Fargate Now Has Support For AWS PrivateLink | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/aws-fargate-now-has-support-for-aws-privatelink/
AWS Elastic Beanstalk Adds Support for Ruby 2.6 | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-elastic-beanstalk-adds-support-for-ruby-26/
AWS Elastic Beanstalk Adds Support for .NET Core 2.2 | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-elastic-beanstalk-adds-support-for-net-core-22/
Amazon ECS and Amazon ECR now have support for AWS PrivateLink | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-fargate--amazon-ecs--and-amazon-ecr-now-have-support-for-aws/
GPU Support for Amazon ECS now Available | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/gpu-support-for-amazon-ecs-now-available/
AWS Batch now supports Amazon EC2 A1 Instances and EC2 G3s Instances | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/aws-batch-now-supports-amazon-ec2-a1-instances-and-ec2-g3s-insta/
Topic || Solutions 21:57
Deploy Micro Focus Enterprise Server on AWS with New Quick Start | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/deploy-micro-focus-enterprise-server-on-aws-with-new-quick-start/
AWS Public Datasets Now Available from UK Meteorological Office, Queensland Government, University of Pennsylvania, Buildzero, and Others | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-public-datasets-now-available/
Quick Start Update: Active Directory Domain Services on the AWS Cloud | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/quick-start-update-active-directory-domain-services-on-aws/
Introducing the Media2Cloud solution | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/introducing-the-media2cloud-solution/
Topic || Business Applications 23:38
Alexa for Business now offers IT admins simplified workflow to setup shared devices | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/alexa-for-business-now-offers-it-admins-simplified-workflow-to-s/
Topic || AWS Cost Management 25:07
Introducing Normalized Units Information for Amazon EC2 Reservations in AWS Cost Explorer | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/normalized-units-information-for-amazon-ec2-reservations-in-aws-cost-explorer/
Topic || Migration & Transfer 25:39
AWS Migration Hub Now Supports Importing On-Premises Server and Application Data to Track Migration Progress | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/AWSMigrationHubImport/
Topic || Application Integration 26:07
Amazon SNS Message Filtering Adds Support for Multiple String Values in Blacklist Matching | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/amazon-sns-message-filtering-adds-support-for-multiple-string-values-in-blacklist-matching/
Topic || Management & Governance 26:32
AWS Trusted Advisor Expands Functionality With New Best Practice Checks | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-trusted-advisor-expands-functionality/
AWS Systems Manager State Manager Now Supports Management of In-Guest and Instance-Level Configuration | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-systems-manager-state-manager-now-supports-management-of-in-guest-and-instance-level-configuration/
AWS Config Increases Default Limits for AWS Config Rules | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/aws-config-increases-default-limits-for-aws-config-rules/
Introducing AWS CloudFormation UpdateReplacePolicy Attribute | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/introducing-aws-cloudformation-updatereplacepolicy-attribute/
Automate WebSocket API Creation in Amazon API Gateway Using AWS CloudFormation | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/automate-websocket-api-creation-in-api-gateway-with-cloudformation/
AWS OpsWorks for Chef Automate and AWS OpsWorks for Puppet Enterprise Now Support AWS CloudFormation | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/aws-opsworks-for-chef-automate-and-aws-opsworks-for-puppet-enter/
Find And Update Access Keys, Password, And MFA Settings Easily Using The AWS Management Console | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/my-security-credentials/
Amazon CloudWatch Agent Adds Support for Procstat Plugin and Multiple Configuration Files | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/amazon-cloudwatch-agent-adds-support-for-procstat-plugin-and-multiple-configuration-files/
Improve Security Of Your AWS SSO Users Signing In To The User Portal By Using Email-based Verification | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/email-based-verification-for-sso/
Topic || End User Computing 29:22
Introducing Amazon WorkLink | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/01/introducing-amazon-worklink/
AppStream 2.0 enables custom scripts before session start and after session termination | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/02/appstream-2-0-enables-custom-scripts-before-session-start-and-af/

Feb 13, 2019 • 17min
#298: [Public Sector Special Series #6] - Bringing the White House to the World
Dr. Stephanie Tuszynski (Director of the Digital Library - White House Historical Association) speaks about how they used AWS to bring the experience of the White House to the world. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/

Feb 10, 2019 • 29min
#297: Reinforcement Learning with AWS DeepRacer
How are ML Models Trained? How can developers learn different approaches to solving business problems? How can we race model cars on a global scale? Todd Escalona (Solutions Architect Evangelist, AWS) joins Simon to dive into reinforcement learning and AWS DeepRacer!
AWS DeepRacer: https://aws.amazon.com/deepracer/
Open Source DIY Donkey Car: http://www.donkeycar.com/
re:Invent 2017 Robocar Hackathon - https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/build-an-autonomous-vehicle-on-aws-and-race-it-at-the-reinvent-robocar-rally/
AWS DeepRacer Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD0Z9D9Y0Sc

Feb 6, 2019 • 17min
#296: [Public Sector Special Series #5] - Creating Better Educational Outcomes Using AWS
Cesar Wedemann (QEDU) talks to Simon about how they gather Education data and provide this data to teachers and public schools to improve education in Brazil. They developed a free-access portal that offers easy visualization of brazilian Education open data.http://www.qedu.org.br (http://www.qedu.org.br/)

Feb 2, 2019 • 18min
#295: Creating a DevOps Workflow for Machine Learning Models
Training your ML model is just one part of the puzzle; retaining it and deploying into production on a regular basis is key for great business outcomes. Simon speaks with John Calhoun (Machine Learning Specialist, AWS) about how to implement this in your business using the open source AWS Sagemaker Build CloudFormation.
Shownotes:
Source Code: https://github.com/aws-samples/aws-sagemaker-build
Blog Post: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/automated-and-continuous-deployment-of-amazon-sagemaker-models-with-aws-step-functions/

Jan 30, 2019 • 14min
#294: [Public Sector Special Series #4] - Using AI to make Content Available for Students at Imperial College of London
How do you train the next generation of Digital leaders? How do you provide them with a modern educational experience? Can you do it without technical expertise? Hear how Ruth Black (Teaching Fellow at the Digital Academy) applied Amazon Transcribe to make this real. https://www.england.nhs.uk/digitaltechnology/nhs-digital-academy/

Jan 27, 2019 • 14min
#293: Diving into Data with Amazon Athena
Do you have lots of data to analyze? Is writing SQL a skill you have? Would you like to analyze massive amounts of data at low cost without capacity planning? In this episode, Simon shares how Amazon Athena can give you options you may not have considered before.
Shownotes:
Amazon Athena: https://aws.amazon.com/athena
Top 10 Performance Tips: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/big-data/top-10-performance-tuning-tips-for-amazon-athena/
Using CTAS for Performance: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/big-data/using-ctas-statements-with-amazon-athena-to-reduce-cost-and-improve-performance/

Jan 23, 2019 • 24min
#292: [Public Sector Special Series #3] - Moving to Microservices from an Organisational Standpoint
Jeff Olson (VP & Chief Data Officer at College Board) talks about his experiences in fostering change from an organisational standpoint whilst moving to a microservices architecture. https://www.collegeboard.org/