Amazon Connect now provides an API to programmatically create and manage user hierarchies. User hierarchies are a way for you to organize users into groups such as what location they work in or which department they are a part of. With this launch, you can now programmatically mirror your organization’s hierarchy in Amazon Connect as changes are made in your internal systems of record, such as HR systems. Additionally, you can extract all hierarchy and agent data as a point-in-time snapshot and copy it into a different instance. To learn more, see the API documentation .

AWS Firewall Manager now supports AWS Network Firewall, making it easy for security administrators to centrally configure and deploy Network Firewall rules across their organization. AWS recently launched AWS Network Firewall, a highly available, managed firewall service that gives customers enhanced control and visibility of all traffic leaving and entering their network. With Firewall Manager support, customers can centrally manage the deployment of Network Firewall rules across accounts, organizational units (OUs), and Amazon virtual private clouds (VPCs) in their organization.

The AWS Snowcone service is now available for order for customers in the AWS Europe (Frankfurt) Region. With this launch, Snowcone is now available for order in EU (Frankfurt), EU (Ireland), US East (N. Virginia), and US West (Oregon) Regions. AWS Snowcone is the smallest member of the AWS Snow Family of edge computing, edge storage, and data transfer devices. Snowcone is portable, rugged, and secure – small and light enough to fit in a backpack, and able to withstand harsh environments. Customers use Snowcone to deploy applications at the edge, and to collect data, process it locally, and move it to AWS either offline (by shipping the device to AWS) or online (by using AWS DataSync on Snowcone to send the data to AWS over the network).

CloudWatch Synthetics now supports customizing the default launch settings on the Chrome browser with a new minor runtime version, syn-nodejs-2.1. This allows for more flexibility in the canary launched browser settings such as viewport, setting chromium flags, and handling errors. With syn-nodejs-2.1, you can also configure canary scripts to not take screenshots on a canary step, thereby reducing costs, and avoiding screenshots for sensitive data. 

AWS IQ has released two new features to support firms: Project Manager role and group chat. The project manager role allows any US based individual in a firm to view requests, speak with customers, submit proposals, and request payments, without requiring an AWS Certification. Project Managers can then add an AWS Certified expert to the conversation to complete the hands on work in the customer’s account.  

The Amazon Chime SDK is a service that makes it easy for developers to add real-time audio, video, and screen sharing capabilities to their applications. Starting today, the service connects to the global phone network so that attendees can dial into an Amazon Chime SDK meeting using a telephone. The feature also lets you programmatically place an outbound call to a phone number and connect the call to a meeting session. Previously, attendees were able to join Amazon Chime SDK meeting audio using voice over IP (VoIP) in mobile and web applications.

AWS CloudFormation is extending change sets to support applications modeled with nested stacks, enhancing the predictability of update operations. With this launch, you can now preview the changes to your application and infrastructure resources across the entire nested stack hierarchy and proceed with the update only when you confirm that all the changes are as intended.  

Session Manager, a capability of AWS Systems Manager, now offers customers greater control over how long sessions remain idle before being terminated automatically. This feature can help you meet compliance requirements, such as PCI Requirement 8.1.8, which requires that users reauthenticate if a session is idle for more than 15 minutes.

Starting today, you can launch R5, C5, and T3 instance types when using AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to migrate your databases. You can easily scale up to these new instance classes by modifying your existing replication instance through the AWS DMS, AWS CLI, or AWS SDK.

AWS IoT Device Management customers use Secure Tunneling to securely access and troubleshoot remote devices located behind a restricted firewall. Now, customers can make concurrent client connections to a single device over a secure tunnel using the new multiplexing capability. Multiplexing enables customers to perform more advanced device troubleshooting, such as modifying parameters via a web application on the device while simultaneously issuing remote shell commands to verify the device is working properly.