AWS Podcast #734: AWS News – OpenAI Models, Amazon Elastic VMware Service, and More (Released August 25, 2025)

Overview

In episode #734, hosts Jillian Ford and Shruti Gopalkar deliver a detailed rundown of the newest AWS cloud service updates, launches, and enhancements. The episode covers significant advances in AI/ML, analytics, compute, storage, databases, networking, security, developer tools, and more—highlighting key new features like open OpenAI models in Bedrock, Amazon Elastic VMware Service, AI-powered search, scalable compute for ML workloads, database version upgrades, and improvements in operational efficiency and governance.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. High Availability & Disaster Recovery

Amazon Application Recovery Controller Region Switch

• AWS users can now orchestrate automated multi-region application failover steps.
• Available across all commercial AWS regions.
• Automates what were previously complex manual processes for disaster recovery.
• [00:29] Jillian Ford:
  “It’s not a matter of if you’ll adopt a multi region strategy... it’s really a matter of when. And this just makes it simple.”

2. AI/ML Developments

OpenAI Open-Weight Models in Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker JumpStart

• OpenAI’s open-weight models (GPT OSS 120B, GPT OSS 20B) are now accessible in Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker JumpStart.
• Features: 128k context window, adjustable reasoning levels, supports fine-tuning/customization.
• [02:17] Shruti Gopalkar:
  “One of the primary value propositions for Amazon Bedrock is the choice... OpenAI models have been much sought by a lot of customers.”

Anthropic Claude Updates (Available in Amazon Bedrock)

• Claude Opus 4.1: Improved coding and agentic task performance.
• Claude Sonnet 4: 1 million-token context window for extensive reasoning and analysis.

Amazon Q Business Agentic RAG

• Q Business now can handle complex, multi-step retrieval augmented generation (RAG) queries, with improved transparency in chat responses.

SageMaker HyperPod & Ultra-Scale Training

• Support for P6E GB200 Ultra, 72 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, enabling trillion-parameter model training.
• Enhanced cluster management: topology-aware scheduling, continuous provisioning, support for custom AMIs, trusted identity propagation.
• Fine-grained quota allocation for compute resources is introduced.

Automated Reasoning Checks in Bedrock Guardrails

• Enterprise-grade, mathematically verified safeguards:
  “Automated Reasoning Checks deliver up to 99% accuracy at detecting correct responses from LLMs, giving you provable assurance in detecting AI hallucinations...”
  — [15:02] Shruti Gopalkar

3. Analytics & Search Enhancements

Amazon CloudWatch Natural Language Query (GenAI)

• Enables natural language to generate queries for analyzing logs via OpenSearch PPL and SQL.

OpenSearch Serverless New Features

• Hybrid search (lexical, neural, KNN), semantic enrichment, AI connectors (Bedrock, SageMaker), automatic backup, new data types.
• Makes semantic search and relevant result retrieval easier and automatic.

Amazon QuickSight

• Adds native support for Apache Impala connectivity.

4. Compute and Infrastructure

Amazon Elastic VMware Service (EVS) General Availability

• Run VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) directly in your VPC without re-platforming or refactoring applications.
• [23:32] Jillian Ford:
  “It allows you to leverage the scale, elasticity, and performance of AWS while maintaining familiar VCF software and skills.”

Amazon EC2 Updates

• New P5 single GPU instances (Nvidia H100) now available, cost-effective scaling for ML workloads.
• “Force Terminate” option for stuck EC2 instances.
• On-demand capacity reservations enhancements for placement groups.

AWS Batch & Graviton Spot Compute with Fargate

• Save up to 70% on ARM-based batch workloads.

AWS Deadline Cloud & Beanstalk

• Cost-saving compute options for render workloads; Beanstalk supports FIPS143 VPC Endpoints.

Amazon ECS, ECR, EKS Enhancements

• Real-time log streaming, increase in ECR images per repo, cluster deletion protection, Cilium networking updates for EKS hybrid nodes.

5. Database & Storage Innovations

Aurora Serverless v2

• Up to 30% performance improvement, scales from 0–256 Aurora capacity units.

RDS and DocumentDB

• Extended support for older MongoDB (3.6) versions in DocumentDB, new minor/patch updates for MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server.
• Advanced godriver generally available for improved RDS/Aurora connectivity and authentication.

DynamoDB

• More frequent throughput mode updates (provisioned ↔ on-demand), new Console to Code automation via Amazon Q Developer.

Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP & OpenZFS

• Can now decrease SSD storage capacity to optimize cost.
• IPv6 support for FSx for OpenZFS.

Amazon S3 Access Points

• Now support attribute-based access control with tags.

6. Application Integration & Business Applications

Amazon SQS

• Increased message payload size (now up to 1MiB).

Amazon Connect Enhancements

• Account-based outbound campaigns (sequence contacts per account, fallback numbers).
• New API returns real-time queue position.
• SES supports isolated tenants and reputation policies.

7. Developer Tools, Gaming & End User Computing

AWS Lambda

• Direct integration with GitHub Actions for simplified function deployment.

Amazon Location Service

• Multi-polygons and exclusion zones for complex boundary geofencing.

Amazon Gamelift Streams

• Launch of Proton 9 runtime, improved default service limits for cross-platform game support.

Amazon Workspaces

• Streamlined Bring Your Own License (BYOL) import process.

8. IoT, Management, Security, and Quantum Updates

IoT Core

• Delete Connection API for programmatic MQTT disconnects.

Management & Governance

• Billing view in AWS Budgets (org-wide without management account access).
• AWS Config supports more resource types.
• Organization-wide auto-enablement of VPC Flow Logs.
• Resource Explorer: expanded filtering/resource type support.

Security

• AWS Directory Service Hybrid Edition for unified Active Directory.
• IAM Identity Center supports SageMaker Studio background sessions.

Networking & Content Delivery

• AWS Cloud Map cross-account service discovery.
• AWS Private Certificate Authority support for PrivateLink.

Quantum

• Amazon Braket adds Program Sets for faster, more complex quantum tasks.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “[OpenAI models] are now available. … The other thing that stands out ... is that they both feature 128k context window and adjustable reasoning levels...”
  — [02:17] Shruti Gopalkar
• “Automated Reasoning Checks deliver up to 99% accuracy at detecting correct responses from LLMs, giving you provable assurance...”
  — [15:02] Shruti Gopalkar
• “It allows you to leverage the scale, elasticity, and performance of AWS while maintaining familiar VCF software and skills...”
  — [23:32] Jillian Ford
• “[Single GPU P5 instance] is for you ... definitely going to make it really cost effective for those that just need one gpu.”
  — [24:29] Jillian Ford
• “You can provision SSD capacity upfront ... and then easily decrease SSD capacity to reduce storage costs.”
  — [39:17] Shruti Gopalkar
• On new developer/geospatial features:
  “Let’s say you want to define California’s boundaries and include offshore territories like the Catalina Islands. These enhanced geofences are fully integrated with existing workflows...”
  — [30:59] Jillian Ford

Timestamps for Major Segments

• Application Recovery Controller Multi-Region – 00:29
• OpenAI Open-Weight Models in Bedrock/SageMaker – 02:17
• Analytics & AI Search (CloudWatch, OpenSearch) – 04:04
• AI/ML Hardware & SageMaker Upgrades – 08:30–17:00
• Business Apps (Connect, SES) – 18:17
• Compute Infrastructure (VMware, EC2, Containers) – 22:30
• Databases & Storage – 25:29–29:10
• Developer Tools, Geo, Gaming, EUC – 30:51
• IoT & Management – 32:40
• Networking, Quantum, Security – 37:34
• Storage – 39:10

Conclusion & Where to Learn More

To engage or give feedback, visit the AWS Podcast page or find the hosts on LinkedIn (Shruti Gopalkar and Jillian Ford).

“We are really customer obsessed here at AWS and the podcast team is no different. ... We would love to hear from you on formats that you like or specific services … and want deeper dives.”
— [41:56] Shruti Gopalkar

Summary prepared for those who want concise yet thorough insight into the latest AWS cloud development and innovation news.