All news in category "Vendor and Hyperscaler Watch"

From Military Service to Cybersecurity: Veteran Pathways

🛡️ Fortinet partnered with BCIT, Cyber Catalyst, and Tech Vets Canada to deliver a one-week Industrial Control Systems cybersecurity microcredential intensive for Canadian veterans, providing hands-on labs and practical workshops. Through exercises in network segmentation, access control, and threat detection, participants translated military skills—leadership, discipline, resilience—into cybersecurity capabilities protecting critical infrastructure. The program paired technical training with mentorship, career transition support, and pathways to internships and certification, reflecting Fortinet’s commitment to building a more diverse, skilled cyber workforce.

Arista and Palo Alto Expand Zero-Trust for Data Centers

🔒 Arista Networks and Palo Alto Networks extended their partnership to deliver a framework for zero-trust inside the data center. The integration pairs Arista’s Multi-Domain Segmentation Services (MSS) fabric and full network visibility with Palo Alto’s next-generation firewall (NGFW) to enable an inspect-once, enforce-many model. CloudVision MSS supports dynamic quarantine and can offload trusted high-bandwidth 'elephant flows' after inspection, while the NGFW triggers hardware line-rate isolation when threats are detected. Unified policy orchestration and Arista Validated Designs (AVD) with AVA automation add network-as-code and CI/CD-friendly deployment so NetOps and SecOps can scale independently.

Amazon RDS Blue/Green Deployments for Aurora Global Database

🔁 Amazon RDS Blue/Green deployments now support Aurora Global Database, enabling you to create a staging (green) environment that mirrors production (blue) across primary and all secondary regions. Perform a blue/green switchover to switch primary and secondary regions to the green environment with minimal downtime and no application configuration changes. Aurora automatically renames clusters, instances, and endpoints to preserve production connectivity. This capability covers Aurora MySQL‑ and PostgreSQL‑compatible editions in commercial and AWS GovCloud (US) Regions and is available via the Console, SDK, and CLI.

AWS Marketplace Agreement Events Now via EventBridge

🔔 AWS Marketplace now publishes purchase agreement lifecycle events through Amazon EventBridge, replacing prior Amazon SNS notifications for Software as a Service and Professional Services product types. Sellers (Independent Software Vendors and Channel Partners) and buyers receive notifications for creation, termination, amendment, replacement, renewal, cancellation, and expiration. ISVs also get license-specific events to manage customer entitlements. EventBridge routing supports targets such as AWS Lambda, Amazon S3, Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Step Functions, and can remain compatible with existing SNS-based workflows.

Amazon SageMaker Catalog Adds S3 Read/Write Access

📂 Amazon SageMaker Catalog now supports read and write access to Amazon S3 general purpose buckets, enabling data scientists and analysts to discover, process, and share unstructured data alongside structured datasets. Data publishers can grant read-only or read/write permissions when approving subscriptions or sharing S3 data, allowing processed outputs to be written back to the original bucket or folder. This feature is available in all Regions that support SageMaker Unified Studio and can be accessed via the studio UI, the Amazon DataZone API, SDK, or AWS CLI.

AWS IoT adds VPC Endpoints and IPv6 Connectivity Support

🔒 AWS has expanded AWS IoT Core, AWS IoT Device Management, and AWS IoT Device Defender to support VPC endpoints via AWS PrivateLink and IPv6 for both VPC and public endpoints. Developers can route data plane operations, management APIs, and credential requests entirely within VPCs, keeping traffic off the public internet. Configuration is available through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, and CloudFormation, and the features are GA in all Regions that offer these services.

Google reverses Android developer verification plan

🔁 Google has softened its planned Developer Verification requirements after widespread backlash, saying it will create a dedicated account type for limited app distribution and an advanced sideloading flow for experienced users. The original rule would have blocked installation of apps from unverified developers on certified devices beginning in 2026. Google says these changes respond to concerns from students, hobbyists, and power users who need accessible or higher-risk pathways to install apps.

Google Sues to Dismantle 'Lighthouse' Smishing Kit

🛡️ Google has filed a civil lawsuit in the Southern District of New York to dismantle Lighthouse, a phishing-as-a-service kit used to power large-scale SMS phishing (smishing) campaigns. The company says the kit — likely run from China and marketed on Telegram — offered more than 600 templates mimicking over 400 organizations and targeted more than one million people across 121 countries. Google is pursuing legal remedies and supporting new legislation while deploying technical protections such as AI-powered scam flagging and expanded account recovery options.

Amazon RDS Adds Support for PostgreSQL Major Version 18

🚀 Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL now supports PostgreSQL major version 18.1, bringing community improvements to managed RDS instances. Key performance updates include skip scan for multicolumn B-tree indexes, parallel GIN builds, and better OR/IN handling, while UUIDv7 adds ordered UUIDs for high-throughput systems. Observability and extension support are expanded, and upgrades can use Blue/Green, in-place, or snapshot restore options.

Amazon SQS Adds IPv6 and FIPS 140-3 in GovCloud Regions

🔒 Amazon SQS now supports API requests over IPv6 in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions, with the new endpoints validated under FIPS 140-3. Customers can choose IPv6 or IPv4 when sending requests over dual‑stack public or VPC endpoints. This update brings parity across Regions: Amazon SQS now supports IPv6 in AWS Commercial, AWS GovCloud (US), and China Regions. Refer to the developer guide for configuration details.

Amazon DocumentDB 8.0 Adds MongoDB 8.0 Compatibility

⚡ Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility) version 8.0 adds support for MongoDB API drivers 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0 while delivering up to 7x improved query latency and up to 5x better compression. The release introduces Planner Version3, new aggregation stages and operators, dictionary-based Zstandard compression, text index v2, and parallel vector index builds. Upgrades from 5.0 instance-based clusters are supported via AWS Database Migration Service, and DocumentDB 8.0 is available in all Regions where the service is offered.

Amazon EventBridge: Enhanced Visual Rule Builder Console

🔧 Amazon EventBridge introduces an enhanced visual rule builder that integrates a comprehensive event catalog with the EventBridge Schema Registry to simplify building event-driven applications. The schema-aware, console-based drag-and-drop canvas lets developers browse and subscribe to events with sample payloads and schemas, and visually construct filter patterns to reduce syntax errors. The feature is available today in all regions where the Schema Registry is launched and is accessible via the EventBridge console at standard usage charges.

AWS Network Firewall Now Available in Auckland Region

🔒 AWS Network Firewall is now available in the AWS New Zealand (Auckland) Region, enabling customers to deploy essential network protections across all Amazon VPCs. As a managed firewall service, it automatically scales with traffic volume and delivers high availability without requiring customers to provision or maintain infrastructure. It integrates with AWS Firewall Manager to provide centralized visibility and policy control across multiple AWS accounts, simplifying governance and enforcement.

AWS Lambda Announces General Availability of Rust Support

🚀 AWS has declared Rust support in AWS Lambda Generally Available, promoting the runtime out of its prior experimental status and making it suitable for production workloads. The GA release is backed by AWS Support and the Lambda SLA and is available in all AWS Regions, including GovCloud (US) and China. Rust on Lambda delivers high performance, memory efficiency, and compile-time safety for serverless functions. Developers can now build business-critical serverless applications in Rust while leveraging Lambda's event integrations, fast scaling from zero, automatic patching, and usage-based pricing.

AWS Lambda Supports Java 25 for Serverless Applications

🚀 AWS Lambda now supports Java 25, using the latest long‑term support distribution from Amazon Corretto. The runtime is available as a managed runtime and as a container base image, and AWS will automatically apply updates to each as they are released. The release introduces new language features and performance improvements, including Ahead‑of‑Time caches and adjusted tiered compilation defaults. Lambda Snap Start and Powertools for AWS Lambda (Java) support Java 25, and the runtime is available in all Regions, including GovCloud (US) and China.

AWS CloudFormation Hooks Add Granular Invocation Details

🔍 AWS CloudFormation Hooks now supports granular invocation details, allowing hook authors to attach per-control findings, severity levels, and remediation guidance to their evaluation responses. The Hooks console displays these details at the individual control level within each invocation so developers can drill down from the summary to see which controls passed, failed, or were skipped. Available in all commercial and GovCloud (US) regions, this follow-up to the September 2025 Hooks Invocation Summary accelerates troubleshooting and streamlines compliance reporting with actionable, control-level insights.

Rust in Android: Faster Development and Fewer Bugs

🦀 Rust adoption in Android is delivering both security and speed gains, with 2025 data showing memory-safety flaws falling below 20% of total vulnerabilities. Android reports a ~1000x reduction in memory-safety vulnerability density for Rust versus C/C++, plus 20% fewer revisions, 25% shorter code review time, and a ~4x lower rollback rate. Expansion includes kernel, firmware, and first-party apps; a near-miss CVE was fixed pre-release and led to improved allocator crash reporting and additional unsafe-Rust training.

Looker Conversational Analytics Reaches General Availability

💬 Google Cloud has made Looker Conversational Analytics generally available, bringing natural-language data queries to all Looker users. Built on the Looker semantic layer and powered by Gemini and Google’s agentic frameworks, the feature provides instant, explainable answers and supports multi-turn exploration across up to five connected Explores. Analysts can build and share agents, use LookML for fine tuning, and rely on a governed foundation that surfaces “How was this calculated?” explanations. Admins can enable the capability now to accelerate data discovery and improve self-service across teams.

Fortinet Named Google Unified Security Recommended Partner

🔒 Fortinet has been named the inaugural Google Unified Security Recommended partner for network protection, integrating FortiSASE and the FortiGate NGFW to run natively on Google Cloud. The integration delivers unified policy and shared telemetry with Google Security Operations, combining FortiGuard Labs and Google threat intelligence for AI-driven detection and response. Customers gain consolidated management, improved performance via Google’s backbone, and simplified procurement through the Google Cloud Marketplace.

Google Announces Unified Security Recommended Program

🔒 Google Cloud is launching the Google Unified Security Recommended program to validate deep integrations between its security portfolio and third-party vendors. Inaugural partners CrowdStrike, Fortinet, and Wiz bring endpoint, network, and multicloud CNAPP capabilities into Google Security Operations. Partners commit to cross-product technical integration, a collaborative support model, and investment in AI initiatives such as the model context protocol (MCP). Qualified solutions will be available via Google Cloud Marketplace for simplified procurement and consolidated billing.