AWS Podcast Episode #713 Summary: AWS News – Meet the Next Generation of Amazon SageMaker, Multi-Agent Collaboration on Bedrock

Release Date: March 24, 2025
Hosts: Les Schuberthy and Gillian Ford

Introduction

In Episode #713 of the AWS Podcast, hosts Les Schuberthy and Gillian Ford delve into the latest updates and innovations from Amazon Web Services. Skipping over the usual advertisements and introductions, this episode focuses on significant advancements in AI/ML services, analytics, compute, customer engagement, databases, developer tools, and more. The discussion is rich with insights, expert opinions, and detailed explanations of new features and their implications for developers and IT professionals.

Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio Goes GA

Les Schuberthy (Les) and Gillian Ford (Gillian) kick off the episode by celebrating the general availability (GA) of SageMaker Unified Studio, a comprehensive environment that unifies data and AI development.

Les [00:20]: "SageMaker Unified Studio has gone GA... people that do tell me that this is a big deal. Like to have it all in the one place. Saves a lot of time."

Gillian echoes the significance of this release, emphasizing the seamless integration of data engineering and AI.

Gillian [01:27]: "The delineation between data engineering and AI is really just starting to become just one unified all on the same team here."

Key Features:

• Integrated Tools: Incorporates Athena, EMR, Glue, Redshift, Bedrock, and more, facilitating streamlined workflows.
• SQL Editor: Enhances data manipulation with a built-in SQL editor.
• S3 Tables Integration: Continues to integrate with SageMaker Lakehouse, allowing direct queries from S3.
• Data Governance: Utilizes Amazon DataZone for secure data and model publishing with precise access controls.

This unified approach promises to enhance productivity and collaboration among data scientists and engineers by providing a centralized platform for all AI and data-related tasks.

Amazon Bedrock Enhances Multi-Agent Collaboration

The conversation transitions to Amazon Bedrock, highlighting its new support for multi-agent collaboration, now available in GA.

Les [02:37]: "Amazon Bedrock now supports multi agent collaboration in ga... agents with supervisors and specialized sub agents that can each do their own thing and do them well."

Gillian points out the benefits of selecting appropriate models based on tasks, optimizing both cost and performance.

Gillian [03:18]: "Picking the right model based on what the task is and being able to cost optimize because maybe you want a smaller model that will be cost less, maybe be faster."

Advanced Features:

• Supervisor Modes: Includes both supervisor mode and supervisor with routing mode for efficient task management.
• Inline Agents: Allows dynamic role adjustments at runtime based on workflow requirements.
• External Data Integration: Facilitates referencing external data sources without embedding them directly into requests.

Applications:
This multi-agent system is poised to revolutionize industries like healthcare by enabling complex workflows, such as patient request triage, through specialized agent collaboration.

Les [05:42]: "The ability for multiple agents to perform a complicated team-based task in a synthesized way that then has human oversight... it's really interesting."

Comprehensive AWS Service Updates

The hosts provide a rundown of numerous AWS service updates across various domains:

Analytics

• AWS Glue Catalog Views: Now supported with AWS Glue 5.0, enabling the creation of views from Spark jobs for multi-engine queries.
• Amazon Kinesis Data Streams: Adds IPv6 support.
• Amazon EMR on EKS: Incorporates Amazon EKS POD identity for enhanced security.

Application Integration

• AppSync Events: Introduces WebSocket publishing for real-time Pub/Sub, allowing both publishing and subscribing over a single WebSocket connection.
• AWS Step Functions: Debuts Workflow Studio for the VS Code IDE, enabling visual creation, editing, and debugging of state machine workloads locally.

Compute

• Amazon ECR: Launches ECR-to-ECR pull-through cache for reduced latency and cost-effective image syncing across regions/accounts.
• Amazon ECS & EKS: Introduces GPU-optimized AMIs and supports Nvidia Multi-Instance GPU (MIG) for Kubernetes workloads.
• Bottlerocket: Now supports AWS Neuron accelerated instance types, simplifying deployment and management of ML workloads.

Gillian [17:16]: "AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed continuous integration service that compiles source code, runs tests, and produces software packages ready for deployment."

Customer Engagement

• Amazon Connect: Expands global telephony coverage, adds dynamic evaluation forms in Contact Lens, and enhances agent proficiency targeting.
• Amazon Workspaces: Now supports FIPS142 validated endpoints for enhanced security.

Databases

• Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL & Amazon RDS: Extends integration capabilities and supports new minor versions for SQL Server and MySQL.
• Amazon Redshift Data API: Introduces single sign-on with AWS IAM Identity Center.

Developer Tools

• AWS CodeConnections: Enables secure sharing of connection resources across AWS accounts using AWS Resource Access Manager.
• AWS CodePipeline & CodeBuild: Introduces new features for improved pipeline execution and secure runner group assignments.
• Serverless LAN Integration: Brings extensive application pattern libraries directly into Visual Studio Code, enhancing serverless application development.

Les [15:17]: "AWS CodeConnections now allows you to securely share your connection resource across individual AWS accounts or within your AWS organization."

Front End Web and Mobile

• AWS Amplify Hosting: Announces Deployment SKU Protection Support to ensure frontend requests are consistently routed to the correct server backend version, enhancing deployment reliability.

Internet of Things (IoT)

• AWS IoT SiteWise: Introduces MQTT-enabled edge gateways with an MQTTv5 broker for streamlined connectivity and data management.

Networking and Content Delivery

• Amazon Route 53 Traffic Flow: Features a new visual editor for DNS policy editing.
• AWS Application Load Balancer: Allows customers to provide pools of public IPv4 addresses for enhanced load balancer node management.

Security, Identity, and Compliance

• Amazon S3 Access Grants: Simplifies authentication by integrating IAM and Identity Provider permissions.
• Amazon Inspector & Eventbridge: Enhances container image scanning and expands IAM execution role support.
• AWS WAF: Adds PCI DSS 4.0 compliance protection and advanced fingerprinting techniques for improved security measures.

Gillian [08:27]: "Graph Rag so it automatically is going to generate and store vector embeddings in Amazon Neptune analytics along graph representation of entities and their relationships."

Storage

• Amazon S3 Enhancements: Reduces pricing for S3 object tagging by 35% and adds Apache Iceberg Rest Catalog APIs for S3 Tables.
• AWS Backup: Introduces logically air-gapped vault support for Amazon FSx, allowing secure backup sharing and reduced recovery times.
• Amazon Data Firehose: Now delivers real-time streaming data directly into Amazon S3 Tables.

Les [17:16]: "AWS Amplify Hosting Announces Deployment SKU Protection Support... eliminates what's called version skew and makes your deployments more reliable."

Exciting Developments in Game Tech

Gillian shares updates on Amazon GameLift, particularly the Game Server Wrapper and GameLift Streams, facilitating easier game server deployment and high-quality game streaming.

Gillian [18:12]: "Amazon GameLift Streams allows developers to stream games at up to 180p resolution and 60 frames per second to any device with a WebRTC enabled browser."

Key Highlights:

• Game Server Wrapper: Simplifies server SDK integration with zero code changes.
• GameLift Streams: Enables instant game streaming to various devices without lengthy downloads, enhancing player accessibility and experience.

Final Thoughts and Community Engagement

Closing the episode, Les and Gillian emphasize the breadth of AWS's latest offerings, highlighting the mix of infrastructure, storage, and developer tools tailored for diverse needs.

Les [24:16]: "It's meaningful. How do folks reach out to you?"

Gillian [24:18]: "Gillian Ford on LinkedIn."

They encourage listeners to submit more questions for future mailbag episodes via awspodcaston.com and sign off with a motivational message to keep building.

Les [24:19]: "And awspodcaston.com is the way also. And of course, until next time, keep on building."

Notable Quotes

• Les [00:20]: "SageMaker Unified Studio has gone GA... people that do tell me that this is a big deal."
• Gillian [01:27]: "The delineation between data engineering and AI is really just starting to become just one unified all on the same team here."
• Les [02:37]: "Amazon Bedrock now supports multi agent collaboration in ga... agents with supervisors and specialized sub agents."
• Gillian [03:18]: "Picking the right model based on what the task is and being able to cost optimize..."
• Les [05:42]: "The ability for multiple agents to perform a complicated team-based task in a synthesized way..."
• Gillian [08:27]: "Graph Rag so it automatically is going to generate and store vector embeddings in Amazon Neptune analytics..."
• Les [15:17]: "AWS CodeConnections now allows you to securely share your connection resource..."
• Gillian [18:12]: "Amazon GameLift Streams allows developers to stream games at up to 180p resolution..."

This episode of the AWS Podcast serves as a comprehensive update on the latest AWS innovations, providing valuable insights for developers, IT professionals, and businesses looking to leverage AWS's expanding suite of services. From advanced AI capabilities to streamlined developer tools and enhanced security features, AWS continues to empower its users with robust and scalable solutions.