All news with #product release tag

AWS HealthOmics Adds Nextflow Task-Level Timeout Support

🕒 AWS HealthOmics now supports the Nextflow time directive, enabling task-level timeout controls to limit runtime for specific Nextflow tasks. Customers can automatically cancel tasks that exceed defined durations to prevent wasted compute and downstream delays. AWS HealthOmics is HIPAA-eligible, and this capability is available in all regions where the service operates.

Microsoft Word to Auto-Save New Documents to Cloud

📝 Microsoft is testing a change that will enable autosave and save new documents to OneDrive by default in Word for Windows, delivered first to Microsoft 365 Insiders in the Beta Channel with Version 2509 (Build 19221.20000) or later. Microsoft says the feature will come to Excel and PowerPoint for Windows later this year. Users can choose a local folder instead or toggle the behavior off via the Save page in Word options. Microsoft lists several known issues being addressed during testing.

AWS IoT ExpressLink Technical Specification v1.3 Released

🔧 AWS IoT ExpressLink technical specification v1.3 introduces expanded Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) capabilities and a new set of I/O control commands that enable host processors to manage module pins. The BLE enhancements make it easier for devices to advertise presence and capabilities and to pair securely within a local Personal Area Network (PAN). The I/O control commands allow an ExpressLink-powered module to act as a flexible digital and analog I/O expander. AWS Partners including Espressif and u‑blox have adopted the update for their Wi‑Fi and BLE qualified modules.

Amazon Connect Adds Generative Text-to-Speech Voices

🔊 Amazon Connect now provides generative text-to-speech voices—20 generative-enhanced voices across English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian. Use them for welcome messages, policy announcements, or dynamic conversational AI, configurable in the drag-and-drop flow designer via the “Set Voice” block or through public APIs. Available in US East (N. Virginia), Europe (Frankfurt), and US West (Oregon). Pricing options include unlimited AI or individual per-use pricing.

Amazon EC2 U7i-12TB High Memory Instances in Seoul

🚀 Amazon EC2 High Memory U7i instances (u7i-12tb.224xlarge) with 12TiB of DDR5 memory are now available in the AWS Asia Pacific (Seoul) Region. Powered by custom fourth-generation Intel Xeon Scalable (Sapphire Rapids) processors, the U7i-12tb offers 896 vCPUs, ENA Express support, and up to 100 Gbps for both EBS and network throughput. These instances are designed for mission-critical in-memory databases and large transactional workloads such as SAP HANA, Oracle, and SQL Server, enabling faster data loading, backups, and higher transaction processing throughput.

AWS launches M8i and M8i-flex EC2 instances, Xeon 6

🚀 AWS has made the new M8i and M8i-flex EC2 instances generally available, powered by custom Intel Xeon 6 processors exclusive to AWS. The instances offer up to 15% better price-performance and 2.5x the memory bandwidth versus previous Intel-based generations, and AWS reports up to 20% higher performance compared with M7i and M7i-flex with larger gains for specific workloads. Initial availability includes US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), and Europe (Spain).

Background Removal: Evaluating Image Segmentation Models

🧠 Cloudflare introduces background removal for Images, running a dichotomous image segmentation model on Workers AI to isolate subjects and produce soft saliency masks that map pixel opacity (0–255). The team evaluated U2-Net, IS-Net, BiRefNet, and SAM via the open-source rembg interface on the Humans and DIS5K datasets, prioritizing IoU and Dice metrics over pixel accuracy. BiRefNet-general achieved the best overall balance of fidelity and detail (IoU 0.87, Dice 0.92) while lightweight models were faster on modest GPUs and SAM was excluded for unprompted tasks. The feature is available in open beta through the Images API using the segment parameter and can be combined with other transforms or draw() overlays.

Cloudflare Launches AI Crawl Control with 402 Support

🛡️Cloudflare has rebranded its AI Audit beta as AI Crawl Control and moved the tool to general availability, giving publishers more granular ways to manage AI crawlers. Paid customers can now block specific bots and return customizable HTTP 402 Payment Required responses containing contact or licensing instructions. The feature aims to replace the binary allow-or-block choice with a channel for negotiation and potential monetization, while pay-per-crawl remains in beta.

Amazon S3 Adds CloudFormation and CDK Support for Tables

🛠️ AWS now supports creating Amazon S3 Tables and namespaces with AWS CloudFormation and the AWS CDK, extending existing support for table buckets. This enables developers and teams to provision, update, and manage S3 Tables resources using infrastructure-as-code workflows, improving repeatability and version control across multiple AWS accounts. The CloudFormation and CDK integrations are available in all Regions where S3 Tables are offered, and AWS points users to the CloudFormation, CDK, and S3 Tables documentation to get started.

Fortinet AI-Driven SecOps: Unified, Faster Threat Response

🔒 Fortinet SecOps unifies telemetry across network, endpoints, cloud, and email into a single data lake, reducing blind spots and simplifying investigation. Powered by FortiGuard AI and integrated tools like FortiSIEM, FortiEDR, FortiNDR, and FortiSOAR, it couples behavior-based detection with automated playbook-driven response. The platform emphasizes analyst-centric dashboards, Security Fabric enforcement, and continuous exposure management to lower false positives and accelerate containment.

AWS Extends VPC Traffic Mirroring to Nitro v4 Instances

🛡️ Amazon Web Services announced expanded support for VPC Traffic Mirroring, enabling the feature on a broader set of EC2 instance types. With this update, Traffic Mirroring can now be enabled on all Nitro v4 instances and is available across all regions. The capability replicates instance network traffic to security and monitoring appliances for use cases such as content inspection, threat monitoring, and troubleshooting; consult the AWS documentation for the complete supported instance lists and Nitro system mappings.

Integrating Code Insight into Reverse Engineering Workflows

🔎 VirusTotal has extended Code Insight to analyze disassembled and decompiled code via a new API endpoint that returns a concise summary and a detailed description for each queried function. The endpoint accepts prior requests as a history input so analysts can chain, correct, and refine context across iterations. An updated VT-IDA plugin for IDA Pro demonstrates integration inside an analyst notebook, allowing selection of functions, iterative review, and acceptance of insights into a shared corpus. The feature is available in trial mode; results have been promising in testing but are not guaranteed complete or perfectly accurate, and community feedback is encouraged.

Amazon OpenSearch Service Adds i8g Storage Instances

🚀 Amazon OpenSearch Service now supports i8g instances, the latest generation of storage-optimized instances powered by AWS Graviton4 processors. i8g delivers up to 60% better compute and uses third-generation Nitro NVMe SSDs for up to 65% better storage performance per TB, lower latency, and reduced latency variability. Supported for OpenSearch and Elasticsearch 7.9/7.10 across multiple regions.

Amazon CloudWatch RUM GA Now in US GovCloud Regions

📣 Amazon has made CloudWatch RUM generally available in AWS GovCloud (US-East) and AWS GovCloud (US-West). The service collects client-side performance and error telemetry in real time and provides curated dashboards showing page load steps, core web vitals, JavaScript and HTTP errors across geolocations, browsers, and devices. It integrates with CloudWatch Application Signals to correlate front-end telemetry with backend metrics, and usage is billed per collected RUM event.

EC2 Mac Dedicated Hosts: Host Recovery & Maintenance

🔧 AWS now offers two new capabilities for EC2 Mac Dedicated Hosts: Host Recovery and Reboot-based Host Maintenance. Host Recovery detects potential hardware issues and transparently migrates Mac instances to replacement hosts to minimize disruption. Reboot-based Host Maintenance automates instance stop and restart on replacement hosts during scheduled maintenance, eliminating manual intervention. These features support all EC2 Mac instance families on both Intel and Apple silicon and are available in regions that support EC2 Mac instances.

Gemini Available On-Premises with Google Distributed Cloud

🚀 Gemini on Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) is now generally available for customers, bringing Google’s advanced Gemini models on‑premises with GA for air‑gapped deployments and a connected preview. The solution provides managed Gemini endpoints with zero‑touch updates, automatic load balancing and autoscaling, and integrates with Vertex AI and preview agents. It pairs Gemini 2.5 Flash and Pro with NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell accelerators and includes audit logging, access controls, and support for Confidential Computing (Intel TDX and NVIDIA) to meet strict data residency, sovereignty, and compliance requirements.

Amazon EKS adds on-demand cluster insights refresh

🔁 Amazon EKS now supports on-demand refresh of cluster insights, enabling operators to retrieve the latest detection results immediately after making changes. The capability complements existing periodic checks that identify upgrade warnings and configuration recommendations. By allowing immediate verification, teams can accelerate upgrade testing, confirm that remediations took effect, and shorten the feedback loop for cluster configuration changes.

AWS Client VPN adds Windows Arm64 support in v5.3.0

🔐 AWS announced that AWS Client VPN version 5.3.0 adds official support for Windows Arm64, enabling the AWS-supplied desktop VPN client to run on the latest Arm64-based Windows devices. The client remains free of charge and is available in all regions where the service is generally available. Client VPN is a managed service that connects remote users securely to AWS and on-premises networks and continues to support macOS 13–15, Windows 10 (x64), Windows 11 (Arm64 and x64), and Ubuntu Linux 22.04 and 24.04 LTS. Administrators can download and deploy the updated client to bring Arm64 Windows endpoints into supported VPN configurations.

AWS Network Firewall adds ReceivedBytes metric in CloudWatch

🔍 AWS has added the new ReceivedBytes metric for AWS Network Firewall to Amazon CloudWatch, giving customers per-firewall visibility into total incoming bytes inspected. The metric differentiates counts for the stateless and stateful engines, enabling more granular analysis of processing and performance. Available in all Regions where Network Firewall is supported, the data can be integrated into existing monitoring, alerting, and optimization workflows to support capacity planning and cost reduction.

Amazon EC2 C7i Instances Now Available in Osaka Region

🚀 Amazon EC2 C7i instances powered by custom 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors are now available in the Asia Pacific (Osaka) Region. C7i delivers up to 15% better performance versus comparable x86-based Intel processors and up to 15% improved price-performance over C6i. Instances scale to 48xlarge and provide two bare-metal sizes with Intel accelerators, support Intel AMX, and allow up to 128 EBS volumes to better handle compute-intensive workloads.