AWS re:Invent 2021 has come to a close, and all cloud enthusiasts now have a wealth of new tools in their cloud toolboxes. So far, in part-I of AWS re: Invent 2021, we have come across updates from services like Compute, Analytics, Architecture, and Databases. Let us continue our tour on new AWS services and exciting announcements from other services categories.

1. Migration & Transfer

AWS Mainframe Modernization:

AWS introduced the Mainframe Modernization service by highlighting that many financial institution customers using outdated legacy mainframe machines are looking to modernize. Developers can migrate their legacy mainframe infrastructure to the cloud using a lift-and-shift model or refactoring process. If using the Mainframe Modernization service, AWS will automatically generate Java-based code out of the standard COBOL-based code typically used for mainframes.

2. Networking & Content Delivery

AWS Private 5G:

Last year another new service announced by Amazon was AWS private 5G. This new managed service is one of the most innovative and exciting services. Talking about Private 5G allows you to set up and scale private 5G networks using AWS infrastructure. While utilizing this service, AWS provides hardware and configuration and limits the number of devices connecting to the network. In addition to this, private 5G also offers a flexible pay-as-you-go model and operates on a shared spectrum. It will be exciting to see how enterprise-grade consumers use this new service. In addition, it applies to many industries looking for lightning-fast connectivity to the cloud. Also, it is exciting to see how it is leveraged in the future.

AWS Direct Connect SiteLink:

SiteLink is a new direct connect feature that enables access or communication between two direct connect points present globally. Before SiteLink, all direct connect traffic went from the point of presence anywhere to one or more regions. So, it is always from your on-prem to the region or many regions and back. With SiteLink, we enable top-to-top communications. It allows you to create a network between your own premises network using the AWS backbone so that you can get a direct connection to any of our hundred points of presence globally.

Amazon VPC Network Access Analyzer:

Earlier this week, AWS introduced its Amazon VPC Network Access Analyzer, allowing users to identify configurations that could result in unintended access to their networks. This tool taps into the same automated reasoning technology used to power the AWS IAM Access Analyzer, Amazon VPC Reachability Analyzer, Amazon Inspector Network Reachability, and other devices that provide security. Network Access Scopes are used in this new tool to define the connectivity between AWS resources.

3. Storage

Recycle Bin for EBS Snapshots:

Let us now look at a new excellent feature Amazon has added to EBS Snapshots. This feature is called Recycle Bin for EBS Snapshots. As a result, you will no longer have to worry about accidentally deleting EBS snapshots by using the recycle bin. This new feature works with a rule called the Retention rule. In this rule, one can specify types of resources, and if any of the resource types specified gets deleted, they will be moved to the recycling bin instead of deleting them permanently. Also, we can specify the number of days those resources to keep in recycle bin before permanently deleting them.

Amazon EBS Snapshots Archive:

The following announcement in the storage category is Amazon EBS Snapshots Archive. It is a new storage tier for storing snapshots of your Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes for long periods. This new feature is cost saving as it saves up to 75% of the cost for Amazon EBS Snapshots that need to be retained for months or years.  In addition, with a single application programming interface call now, it is possible to move snapshots to the EBS snapshots archive and reduce the cost of archival pictures while retaining visibility alongside other Amazon EBS snapshots.

Preview – AWS Backup Adds Support for Amazon S3:

Moving further, let us look at the following announcement in the storage category. It is about AWS Backup that adds support to Amazon S3, which is in preview. The benefit of AWS backup is now going to take care of your continuous point-in-time backups along with periodic backup of an object and data object tags, ACLs, and user-defined metadata. Backups are incremental after the first full backup. An S3 object is restored to a new or existing S3 bucket if a data disruption occurs.

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval Storage Class:

In AWS re: invent 2021, AWS has announced a new storage class under S3, i.e., the Instant retrieval storage class. Earlier, S3 had storage classes such as S3 Standard, S3 intelligent Tiering, S3 Standard-IA, S3 One Zone-IA, where low-latency access was provided. Also, Archival storage classes such as S3 Glacier flexible retrieval, S3 glacier deep archive, and S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval will be an addition to this category. As the name suggests, if you store any data in the instant retrieval storage class, you will access the data immediately. In the S3 instant retrieval storage class, the data retrieval time is milliseconds. It makes this storage class the fastest among all. It provides the same latency and high throughput as the S3 standard and S3 standard-IA storage classes. It also offers 11 nines durability and 99.9% availability.

Simplify Access Management for Data Stored in Amazon S3:

AWS has announced a new security feature for Amazon S3. You can completely turn off access role lists on your S3 buckets. Access control lists, or ACLs, have been used to safeguard files and objects in the S3 bucket from unauthorized access. AWS has introduced numerous new services and has built up a vast set of features for authenticating users and controlling access to various resources. AWS identity and access management or IAM has become the standard mechanism using IAM policies. And the old ACLs aren’t used anymore by most customers as they are unreliable compared to IAM policies. This new Amazon S3 object ownership settings bucket owner enforced lets you disable all the ACL associated with the bucket and the objects in it. After disabling the ACLs, we can only specify access to the bucket and its objects using policies.

AWS Backup – Support for VMware and VMware Cloud on AWS:

AWS Backup service for VMware now offers a new capability that enables you to centrally manage and automate data protection of virtual machines (VMs) running on VMware on-premises and VMware Cloud on AWS. VMware environments can be protected with a single, centrally managed policy in AWS Backup, combined with 12 other AWS compute, storage, and database services already available. VMware workloads can then be restored to on-premises data centers and VMware Cloud on AWS using AWS Backup.

Amazon FSx for OpenZFS:

AWS has announced the launch of Amazon FSx for OpenZFS, the newest addition to its FSx family of managed file storage services. AWS offers customers the option of creating, running, and scaling fully managed file systems to replace Zettabyte File System (ZFS) on-premises or other Linux-based file servers with Amazon FSx for OpenZFS. AWS Graviton family of processors and AWS SRD (Scalable Reliable Datagram) Networking power FSx for OpenZFS, which can deliver up to 1 million IOPS with latencies of 100-200 microseconds, as well as up to 4 GB/second uncompressed throughput, up to 12 GB/second compressed throughput, and up to 12.5 GB/second cached data throughput.

Enhanced Amazon S3 Integration for Amazon FSx for Lustre:

AWS has introduced two new abilities of Amazon FSx for Lustre, the first being a full bi-directional synchronization of file systems, deleted files, and objects with S3, and synchronizing file systems with multiple S3 buckets or prefixes is another facility. With these new capabilities, you can concurrently process data in S3 buckets and share results near real-time between a file-based workflow and an object-based workflow.

4. Machine Learning

Amazon SageMaker Canvas:

The following announcement is made about Amazon SageMaker canvas. SageMaker is a service that allows us to create machine learning models in the cloud. In addition, AWS has released a studio-style editor for other services such as AWS Glue and Step functions, which SageMaker canvas piggybacks on. With this new capability, developers may drag and drop items into their canvas to create powerful machine learning workflows using the point and click studio.

5. Conclusion

Amazon hosts the AWS re: Invent for the global cloud computing community. Here is a sneak peek of AWS re: Invent 2021 Highlights Part I where you get to learn about the newly launched tools. Throughout the article, you have found most of the innovative and groundbreaking announcements from AWS re: invent 2021, but this is not the end of all your excitement as you can read on further for all the fine details features about these new services.

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FAQs

• What is the AWS re:Invent conference?

AWS re:Invent is a knowledge dissemination conference conducted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for the entire cloud computing community across the globe. This in-person event comprises keynote address, training and certification opportunities, 1,500+ technical sessions, the Expo, after-hours events, and many other sessions

• What was your favorite aspect of AWS re:Invent 2021?

The re:Invent 2021 introduced new services from Analytics, Application Integration, Architecture, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning, Compute, Database, Developer Tools, Internet of Things (IoT), Management Tools, Messaging, Migration & Transfer Services, Robotics, Security, Storage, and Quantum Technologies. Here is detailed information on services introduced in re:Invent 2021

WRITTEN BY Aishwarya Joshi

Aishwarya works as a Research Associate (AWS Media services) with CloudThat. She is an enthusiastic individual and a good team player. A positive attitude is her way of dealing with everything. She enjoys learning new technologies and exploring various ways of problem-solving. As of late, she has become proficient in cloud services and enjoys writing technical blogs.