19 new AWS Public Datasets are now available for researchers and developers interested in life sciences, environmental science, machine learning, multimedia, civic tech, and cyber security.

The AWS Deep Learning AMIs  for Ubuntu  and Amazon Linux  now come with optimized builds of TensorFlow 1.11 , Chainer 4.5 , Keras 2.2.4 , and Theano 1.0.3 .

With AWS Elemental MediaStore, you can now write objects up to 25 megabytes (MB) in size. This means you can originate higher bitrate content and support Ultra High Definition (UHD) 4K quality live video streams with predictable latency and scaling to the demand of audience size while providing consistent quality and viewing experience.

Amazon Athena is an interactive query service that makes it easy to analyze data in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. Athena is serverless, so there is no infrastructure to manage, and you pay only for the queries that you run. Athena uses the Glue Data Catalog, a managed repository, integrated with Amazon EMR, Amazon Athena, Amazon Redshift Spectrum, and AWS Glue ETL, to store metadata information, and automate schema discovery and schema version history. With the recent release of resource-based policies and resource-level permissions for the AWS Glue Data Catalog, you can restrict or allow Athena access to Data Catalog Objects such as databases and tables. Please note that you still need S3 policies to govern access to data stored in Amazon S3. Click here to learn more

Today, Amazon Lightsail announces the addition of managed databases to its easy-to-use cloud platform, allowing you to create a fully configured database in minutes for a low, predictable price. Lightsail databases bundle together a database instance, SSD-backed storage, a data transfer allocation, and management tools, starting at $15/month.

AWS Marketplace announces the launch of Flexible Payment Scheduler, a new feature that enables you to negotiate details such as the number of units, payment amounts, payment dates, and end-user licensing in their payment schedule.

AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory , also known as AWS Managed Microsoft AD, now gives you an additional option to implement the principle of least privilege by reducing the scope of access through the Active Directory (AD) trusts between AWS Managed Microsoft AD and your existing Microsoft AD. As an alternative to forest-wide trust, you can now use external trusts to connect to specific child or tree domains in your existing Microsoft AD forest.

Details: Amazon CloudFront announces two new Edge locations: Fujairah, United Arab Emirates and Paris, France. Fujairah is our second Edge location in the United Arab Emirates; the first, Dubai, was launched last month. Customers delivering content within the United Arab Emirates can expect to see up to 90% latency improvements on average. The addition of a new Edge location in Paris, France increases our capacity by 50% within the area. A full list of CloudFront’s global locations is available on the CloudFront Details webpage.