AWS is pleased to announce an enhancement to the AWS Well-Architected (WA) Tool integration with AWS Service Catalog AppRegistry (AR). This integration allows customers to now filter their AWS Trusted Advisor checks based on resources defined within application, helping surface the most relevant checks in the Well-Architected console.

Amazon WorkSpaces is now available in the AWS GovCloud (US-East) Region, an isolated AWS Region designed to host sensitive data and regulated workloads in the cloud for customers who have U.S. federal, state, or local government security and compliance requirements. For a list of regions where WorkSpaces is available, see the AWS Region Table. With this launch, you can now use Amazon WorkSpaces cloud desktops to help address data sovereignty requirements without the cost and complexity of building on-premises Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

Amazon Rekognition content moderation is a deep learning-based feature that can detect inappropriate, unwanted, or offensive images and videos, making it easier to find and remove such content at scale. Starting today, Amazon Rekognition content moderation comes with an improved model for image and video moderation that significantly improves the detection of explicit, violence, and suggestive content. Customers can now detect explicit and violence content with higher accuracy to improve the end-user experience, protect their brand identity, and ensure that all content complies with their industry regulation and policies.

AWS Network Firewall now allows you to override the Suricata HOME_NET variable making it easy to use AWS managed rule groups in firewalls that are deployed in a centralized deployment model. Managed rule groups are collections of predefined, ready-to-use rules that AWS writes and maintains for you. The Suricata HOME_NET variable of the managed rule group has the Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) range which is inspected by the AWS Network Firewall. Previously, you were unable to override HOME_NET variable as it used the CIDR ranges of VPC where the firewall is deployed. If your firewall uses a central inspection VPC, AWS Network Firewall populates HOME_NET with CIDR ranges of the inspection VPC, instead of the application (spoke) VPCs which you want to filter. 

Today, Amazon OpenSearch Service announces Multi-AZ with Standby, a new deployment option that enables 99.99% availability and consistent performance for business-critical workloads. With Multi-AZ with Standby, OpenSearch Service domains are resilient to potential infrastructure failures, such as a node or an Availability Zone (AZ) failure. Multi-AZ with Standby also ensures OpenSearch Service domains follow recommended best practices, simplifying configuration and management.

Today, AWS CloudFormation has expanded the availability of AWS CloudFormation Hooks to the Middle East (Dubai) and Asia Pacific (Jakarta) Regions. With this launch, customers can deploy Hooks in these newly supported AWS Regions to help keep resources secure and compliant.

Amazon Aurora Serverless v2, the next version of Aurora Serverless, is now available in 26 regions including AWS GovCloud (US-West) and AWS GovCloud (US-East) Regions.

Starting today, Bring Your Own IP (BYOIP) is available in Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) Region.

AWS AppSync is a fully managed service that enables developers to build scalable, performant APIs that connect applications to data and events. Today, we announce the general availability of Private API support for AWS AppSync. With Private APIs, you can now create GraphQL APIs that can only be accessed from your Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (“VPC”).

Starting today, you can use Common Access Card (CAC) and Personal Identity Verification (PIV) smart cards to authenticate users into Amazon WorkSpaces through your self-managed Active Directory (AD) and AWS Directory Service AD Connector in the AWS GovCloud (US-East) Region. Additionally, you can now use the AWS Management Console to configure smart card authentication with AWS Directory Service.