You can now use Amazon S3 as a data store for Apache HBase on Amazon EMR using the EMR File System . Apache HBase is a distributed, non-relational database built for random, strictly consistent realtime access for tables with billions of rows and millions of columns. By using Amazon S3 as a data store for Apache HBase, you can separate your cluster’s storage and compute nodes. This enables you to save costs by sizing your cluster for your compute requirements instead of paying to store your entire dataset with 3x replication in the on-cluster Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS).

We are excited to announce that Amazon Route 53 health checks now support endpoints with Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) addresses. Last month, Amazon Route 53 began rolling out support for DNS queries over IPv6. With today’s release, customers can now use Amazon Route 53 health checks to monitor resources with IPv6 addresses.  

You now have two new options to retrieve data from Amazon Glacier that allows you to access all the archives you need, when you need them, and for a simple, low price. Starting today, you can use Expedited retrievals to access data in 1 – 5 minutes for a flat rate of $0.03 per GB retrieved. Expedited retrievals allow you to quickly access your data when occasional urgent requests for a subset of archives are required. And when you have large amounts of data to retrieve, even petabytes, you can use Bulk retrievals to access your data in approximately 5 – 12 hours for a flat rate of just $0.0025 per GB retrieved. Bulk retrievals allow you to cost-effectively access significant portions of your data for things like big data analytics and media transcoding. 

Amazon ECS now sends container instance and task state changes to CloudWatch Events. In the past, in order to obtain updates on the state of a running Amazon ECS cluster, customers have had to rely on periodically polling the state of container instances and tasks using the AWS CLI or an SDK. With the new Amazon ECS event stream feature, it is now possible to retrieve near real-time, event-driven updates on the state of your Amazon ECS tasks and container instances. Events are delivered through Amazon CloudWatch Events, and can be routed to any valid CloudWatch Events target, such as an AWS Lambda function or an Amazon SNS topic. 

AWS Lambda is now available in US West (N. California) region.

Amazon WorkMail now offers SMTP journaling, which allows you to record all email communication sent or received by your Amazon WorkMail organization. By enabling journaling, you can integrate with third party compliance solutions for email archiving and e-discovery, allowing you to meet your data security and information protection policies.  

Today, AWS announced that we are collapsing Amazon S3 price tiers and reducing storage prices across Amazon S3 and Amazon Glacier. We will collapse the number of Amazon S3 price tiers from six to three – 0-50 TB; 50 TB-500 TB; and 500+ TB – making it easier to understand your bill and project future costs. We will also reduce Amazon S3 and Amazon Glacier storage prices by more than 20% in most regions. Together, these changes will help AWS customers even further reduce their cost of storage while still enjoying the simplicity, durability, and massive scalability of Amazon’s object storage services.

AWS customers will see the effect of these prices in their billing effective December 1, 2016. Check out the AWS blog for further detail.  

French chap came in today wanting to know what terms we’d be offering if he set up his factory in the UK. Of course, post Brexit, we can offer any terms we like. He wants a five year tax holiday followed by 10% in perpetuity, freedom from labour protection legislation, access to our universities for …

Read full article: Ed Meets A Kindred Spirit

Seven in 10 firms plan to maintain or increase spending on innovation says a CBI survey.

Read full article: 70% of companies maintaining or increasing post-Brexit innovation investment, says CBI

For many design engineers and purchasers, the area of US mains power cables can be a minefield as, unlike in the UK, the American standards are rather complicated.

Read full article: Only Connect: On US mains power cable specifications