Amazon RDS for SQL Server is announcing new enhancements to its backup and restore capabilities. You can restore a backup file to the same DB instance that was used to create the file, and you can restore the same backup file to a DB instance multiple times. To learn more, visit our documentation on importing a SQL Server Database into Amazon RDS .

Amazon RDS for MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and Oracle now allow you to stop and start database instances that are running in a Multi-AZ configuration. This makes it easy and affordable to use databases for development and test purposes that match the configuration of your production databases but are not required to be running all of the time.

Stopping and starting a database instance requires just a few clicks in the AWS Management Console, or a single call using the AWS API or AWS Command Line Interface, and takes just a few minutes. While your database instance is stopped, you are charged for provisioned database storage and backup storage, but not for database instance hours.

While a database instance is stopped, Amazon RDS does not delete any of your automatic backups or transaction logs. This means you can do a point-in-time restore to any point within your specified automated backup retention window, even after an instance is re-started. Starting an instance restores it to the same configuration as it had when stopped, including its endpoint, DB parameter group, security group, and option group membership.

You can stop a database instance for up to 7 days at a time. After 7 days, it will be automatically started. For more details on stopping and starting a database instance, please refer to Stopping and Starting a DB Instance in the Amazon RDS User Guide.  

Amazon API Gateway launched the Serverless Developer Portal, a hub that empowers API publishers to connect with API subscribers who want to discover and quickly leverage APIs in the applications they build.

This Quick Start deploys a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud in about 15 minutes, to automatically test AWS CloudFormation templates from a GitHub repository.

Amazon Translate is a neural machine translation service that delivers fast, high-quality, and affordable language translation. Today, we are launching 113 new language pairs. Customers can now translate between currently supported languages , such as French to Spanish for example, with a single API request. With this update, we are expanding the number of supported language pairs from 24 to 137. All supported language pairs are based on state-of-the-art neural machine translation algorithms. See the full list of supported language pairs on this documentation page . 

Kyocera has introduced a clamshell-style branch connector for automotive electronics that features a locking structure for waterproof connections, ensuring reliability in harsh conditions. Samples of the Sheltap 9715 Series Waterproof Electronic Branch Connector are available upon request. Kyocera designed the Sheltap branch connector series to provide a high level of waterproof functionality and reliability — …

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Schneider Electric has announced a range of preassembled distribution boards. Premade at Schneider Electric’s low voltage (LV) manufacturing plant in Telford, the Quick Build Units (QBU) will save time and cut the costs of installation for contractors and end users. Distribution boards are an essential part of a building’s electrical network, supplying power to its …

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Renesas is aiming at industrial robots by adding support for DDS-XRCE (data-distribution service for extremely resource constrained environments), one of the protocols planned for the ROS 2 communication standard. Specifically an XRCE-DDS client (‘Micro XRCE-DDS’ from eProsima) has been implemented on Renesas’ 32bit RX65N MCUs. “Robot Operating System – ROS – is a key framework …

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Your chance to help determine the destination of an Elektra 2018 Award, for the Consumer Product Innovation category.

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Good old Philippines – they have the world’s cheapest beer, according to Deutsche Bank, The bank has done a survey of the price of a pint across the planet, and this is the result:

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