All news in category "Vendor and Hyperscaler Watch"

AWS Releases Whitepaper: Security Overview of EKS Auto Mode

🛡️ AWS has published a new whitepaper titled Security Overview of Amazon EKS Auto Mode that explains the service’s architecture, core security principles, and built-in protections. The guidance highlights a new approach to node management that leverages Amazon EC2 managed instances to let customers delegate operational control to AWS. Intended for cloud architects, security professionals, and Kubernetes practitioners, the document helps teams understand how EKS Auto Mode reduces infrastructure complexity while maintaining secure operations.

Google Cloud KMS Adds Quantum-Safe Key Encapsulation

🔐 Google Cloud Key Management Service (Cloud KMS) now offers preview support for post-quantum Key Encapsulation Mechanisms (KEMs), enabling customers to begin migrating to quantum-resistant key exchange. Cloud KMS supports ML-KEM-768, ML-KEM-1024, and the hybrid X-Wing (X25519+ML-KEM-768) option. The preview aims to mitigate "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" risks and provide HPKE-compatible integrations via Tink and BoringCrypto. Developers are advised to adopt hybrid deployments and plan for larger key and ciphertext sizes that affect bandwidth and storage.

Microsoft SFI Patterns and Practices: New Security Guides

🔐 Microsoft published a second installment of the Secure Future Initiative (SFI) patterns and practices, delivering six practical, practitioner-built guides that address network isolation, tenant hardening, Entra ID app security, Zero Trust for source code access, software supply chain protection, and centralized log collection. Each article outlines the problem, Microsoft’s internal solution, actionable customer guidance, and trade-offs to help teams apply scalable controls across complex, multi-cloud environments.

Microsoft Blocks More Ways to Bypass Windows 11 MSA

🔒 Microsoft is removing further methods that allow creating local accounts and bypassing the Microsoft account requirement during Windows 11 setup. The change appears in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.6772 (KB5065797) on the Dev Channel and is expected to reach production releases. Microsoft said it will remove known mechanisms in the OOBE experience because they can skip critical setup screens and leave a device not fully configured. Going forward, OOBE will require internet access and a Microsoft account to complete setup.

AWS Marketplace Adds Japan Consumption Tax Support for CPPOs

🧾 Starting today, AWS Marketplace expands Japan consumption tax (JCT) support to Channel Partner Private Offers (CPPOs), improving tax handling for Japan ISVs and Channel Partners. AWS Japan will collect the 10% JCT on the first leg between ISVs and Channel Partners, issue a tax qualified invoice (TQI) to Channel Partners, and disburse the JCT to ISVs. AWS Japan will continue to collect the 10% JCT and issue a TQI on the second leg to buyers, unifying compliance for transactions via the AWS Japan Marketplace Operator.

AWS Marketplace Adds EUR, GBP, AUD, JPY for Private Offers

🌍 AWS Marketplace now supports usage-based private offers priced in four additional local currencies—EUR, GBP, AUD, and JPY. Sellers and Channel Partners can create private offers and receive disbursements in the offer currency for consumption-based and contract pricing, simplifying cash flow and reducing foreign-exchange exposure. For Channel Partner Private Offers, the seller, partner, and buyer must transact in the same currency; public offers remain in USD only.

150 AI Use Cases from Startups Leveraging Google Cloud

🤖 At the AI Builders Forum, Google Cloud highlighted 150 startups using its generative AI stack—Vertex AI, Gemini, GKE, and Cloud Storage—to build agentic systems, healthcare models, developer tools, and media pipelines. The post catalogs companies across sectors (healthcare, finance, retail, security, creative) and describes technical integrations such as fine-tuning with Gemini, inference on GKE, and scalable analytics with BigQuery. It encourages startups to join Google for Startups Cloud and references a new Startup Technical Guide: AI Agents for building and scaling agentic applications.

AWS Marketplace expands pricing dimensions for sellers

🧾 AWS Marketplace has expanded pricing dimension capabilities, raising the per-listing limit from 24 to 200 dimensions for both contract and usage-based pricing. Sellers can immediately use newly added SaaS usage dimensions in public offers, enabling instant access to newly launched features. AWS also removed the 90-day price update restriction for dimensions that have no active subscriptions, and these updates are available in all supported AWS Regions.

AWS Service Quotas Launches Automatic Quota Alerts

🔔 AWS has announced the general availability of AWS Service Quotas automatic quota management, a capability that monitors quota usage and notifies customers before they exhaust allocated limits. Customers can configure preferred notification channels such as email, SMS, or Slack via the Service Quotas console or API. Notifications are also surfaced in AWS Health, and related AWS CloudTrail events can be subscribed to for automation. This capability is available at no additional cost in all AWS commercial regions.

Amazon EC2 Im4gn Instances Now in Asia Pacific (Mumbai)

🚀 Amazon Web Services has launched EC2 Im4gn instances in the Asia Pacific (Mumbai) region. Built on the AWS Nitro System and powered by AWS Graviton2 processors, Im4gn provides up to 30 TB of 2nd Generation Nitro SSD instance storage and up to 100 Gbps networking. These instances are optimized for I/O-intensive workloads—relational and NoSQL databases, search engines, and data analytics—and support Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) for high inter-node communication. Users can provision Im4gn via the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or AWS SDKs.

Amazon Redshift Serverless Lowers Base Capacity to 8 RPUs

⚙️ Amazon Redshift Serverless now offers a reduced minimum base capacity of 8 Redshift Processing Units (RPUs) in the AWS Asia Pacific (Seoul) and Canada (Central) regions. Each RPU provides 16 GB of memory and billing remains per-second for RPU-hours; the prior minimum was 32 RPUs. Capacity can be adjusted in 8-RPU increments, making Redshift Serverless more cost-effective and flexible for small production, test, and development workloads.

Inside Microsoft Threat Intelligence: Calm in Chaos

🔎 Microsoft’s Incident Response (IR) team emphasizes calm, clarity, and rapid action when customers encounter major breaches. Adrian Hill explains how IR establishes trust within the first 30 seconds and coordinates with other vendors and stakeholders to stabilize compromised environments. Field discoveries are fed back into Microsoft Threat Intelligence, enabling new detections and product protections. Follow-up recovery, containment, and strategic guidance turn response into lasting partnership.

Azure AI Foundry Brings Multimodal OpenAI Models at Scale

🚀 Azure AI Foundry now integrates new OpenAI models—GPT-image-1-mini, GPT-realtime-mini, and GPT-audio-mini—alongside safety upgrades to GPT-5. The rollout, with most customers able to get started on October 7, 2025, targets efficient, low-latency multimodal workloads for developers and enterprises. Microsoft also highlighted the open-source Microsoft Agent Framework, multi-agent workflows, unified observability, Voice Live API GA, and Responsible AI enhancements to accelerate production-grade agentic solutions.

Microsoft bug: Multiple Office apps break Copilot pane

🔧 Microsoft is investigating a bug that prevents the Copilot pane and other WebView2-dependent features from launching when multiple Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher, Access) run concurrently. The issue occurs when one app initializes a WebView2 instance and a second app attempts to start another; closing the first app allows the pane to open normally. The Office team is working on a resolution and will provide updates when available.

Amazon EKS and EKS Distro Add Kubernetes 1.34 Support

🚀 AWS announced that Amazon EKS and EKS Distro now support Kubernetes version 1.34. Starting today, you can create new clusters or upgrade existing clusters via the EKS console, eksctl, or infrastructure-as-code tools, with EKS Distro images available in ECR Public Gallery and GitHub. Kubernetes 1.34 introduces projected service account tokens for kubelet image credential providers, Pod-level resource requests and limits for simpler multi-container resource management, and Dynamic Resource Allocation prioritized alternatives to improve device scheduling and workload placement. AWS recommends using EKS Cluster Insights and consulting EKS version lifecycle guidance before upgrading.

AWS Incident Detection and Response Now in GovCloud

🛡️ AWS Incident Detection and Response is now available in the AWS GovCloud (US-West) and GovCloud (US-East) Regions for eligible AWS Enterprise Support customers. The service provides proactive incident engagement and collaborative access to AWS expertise to detect issues earlier and reduce impact. Customers work with AWS to develop customized runbooks and response plans for each onboarded workload. The capability is intended to lower failure risk and accelerate recovery for critical workloads operating in GovCloud.

Cost-Saving Strategies When Migrating to Google Cloud

💡 Google Cloud presents practical strategies to lower Compute Engine and block storage costs during migration and modernization. The article recommends adopting latest-generation VMs and specialized instance families, right-sizing or using custom machine types, and tuning storage with Hyperdisk and storage pools to align capacity and performance. It also emphasizes financial levers—committed use discounts, Spot VMs, autoscaling, and recommender-driven actions—to reduce spend while preserving performance.

AWS launches compute-optimized EC2 C8i and C8i-flex

🚀 AWS announced general availability of C8i and C8i-flex compute-optimized EC2 instances powered by custom Intel Xeon 6 processors exclusive to AWS. The new families deliver up to 15% better price-performance and 2.5x more memory bandwidth versus prior Intel-based instances, and up to 20% higher CPU performance compared with C7i. AWS cites up to 60% faster performance for NGINX, ~40% for deep-learning recommendation models, and ~35% for Memcached. C8i-flex covers common sizes (large–16xlarge) for cost-efficient use; C8i provides 13 sizes including two bare-metal options and a new 96xlarge. Instances are initially available in N. Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, and Spain and can be purchased via Savings Plans, On-Demand, or Spot.

Amazon Connect introduces case-linking and search APIs

🔗 Amazon Connect now exposes new APIs within Amazon Connect Cases that let developers link related cases, attach custom related items, and search across those relationships programmatically. Agents get consolidated context to resolve issues faster and coordinate responses. Typical uses include airlines grouping flight-related tickets and retailers attaching order or shipment records to refund cases. The capability is available in multiple AWS regions.

Vertex AI Model Garden Adds Self-Deploy Proprietary Models

🔐 Google Cloud’s Vertex AI now supports secure self-deployment of proprietary third-party models directly into customer VPCs via the Model Garden. Customers can discover, license, and deploy closed-source and restricted-license models from partners such as AI21 Labs, Mistral AI, Qodo and others, with one-click provisioning and managed inference. Deployments adhere to VPC-SC controls, selectable regions, autoscaling, and pay-as-you-go billing. This central catalog brings Google, open, and partner models together for enterprise-grade control and compliance.