AWS has launched over a thousand major service updates in 2020 and launched nearly a dozen new services. (And it’s only April.)

As services are announced, the team at Logicworks immediately tries out new features and enjoys discusses them with our clients. Here are the top services that our AWS Certified Engineers are talking about from last quarter:

New: Amazon Detective

Amazon Detective is a new service that uses the power of machine learning to identify the root cause of potential security issues. It automatically collects log data from your AWS resources and builds a model that allows you to conduct faster security investigations. 

How is Amazon Detective different from Amazon GuardDuty or Macie, which are also machine learning-powered security services? t GuardDuty and Macie are both built to detect security issues, whileAmazon Detective allows you to see the context and activity related to the finding and drill down into historical activity to determine root cause. The two products integrate with each other in Amazon Security Hub. For more information about how it works, check out this AWS blog post here. 

You can enable Amazon Detective with the click of a button in the console, and there’s a free trial. 

New: AWS DeepComposer

If you want to learn machine learning in a fun way, try AWS DeepComposer — a keyboard that uses machine learning to build music.

DeepComposer uses Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), which are 2 machine learning models competing against each other to autonomously create music. The “discriminator” model continuously evaluates the quality of music created by the “generator” model.

Our team recently tried AWS DeepComposer and really enjoyed it. The keyboard itself is available on Amazon.com for $99. 

Customizations for AWS Control Tower 

We’ve talked pretty extensively about AWS Landing Zone (here, here, and here). AWS Control Tower replaces AWS Landing Zone by simplifying the process of setting up a new landing zone with predefined security baseline templates.

Last month, AWS released Customizations for AWS Control Tower, formerly delivered as AWS Landing Zone “add-ons”. It allows you to use AWS CloudFormation templates to deploy new resources to existing and new accounts, and apply custom service control policies (SCPs) on top of those already provided by AWS Control Tower. 

We’ve built nearly a dozen Landing Zone and Control Tower solutions, and can attest that these custom SCPs are crucial to creating a complete soution. To learn more about Control Tower, visit AWS’ documentation. 

Launch Constraints in AWS Service Catalog

If you use multiple accounts — like a Control Tower — it’s very useful to be able to host AWS Service Catalog products in the “hub” and govern how products can be launched in “spoke” accounts. Local launch constraints allow you to provide self-service access to “spoke” accounts while staying compliant with organizational governance policies. Read more about Service Catalog portfolio sharing in AWS’ documentation.

New Digital Course: Architecting Serverless Solutions

AWS just released a 3-hour digital training course on serverless. While more of a presentation training than a hands-on workshop, it’s ideal for people who have some understanding of AWS architectures, but little understanding of serverless. Check out the training course here. 

Migration Acceleration Program for Windows

If you’re an enterprise with a large on-premises Windows deployment, then AWS has significant funding programs to make it easier for you to migrate to AWS. The Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) has been around for several years, but now has a special designation for Windows workloads. 

The program starts with a TCO Assessment (which is free for qualified users through Logicworks) and includes credits and funding for full-scale migrations. To learn more, contact Logicworks. 

New Certifications: Database and Updated Solutions Architect Exam

AWS has launched many new Specialty certifications in the last year, including Alexa Skill Builder, Data Analytics, and now Database. 

The new AWS Certified Database Specialty certification covers comprehensive database concepts, including design, migration, deployment, access, maintenance, automation, monitoring, security, and troubleshooting. Learn more about the exam here. 

AWS also released a new version of its most popular exam, AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, which includes more content across new AWS services. They’ve also updated the practice test. 

Want to keep an eye on AWS product announcements? Contact Logicworks to get the latest announcements in Logicworks’ newsletter or on AWS’ new announcements page.