In Season 4, Episode 7 Karl & Jon are joined by AWS Community Builder, Ryan Cormack. They discuss AWS Step Functions, reshaping AWS CloudFormation stacks with stack refactoring, AWS Verified Access support for non-HTTP resources, AWS's full-year profit and revenue growth, AWS documentation updates and future plans and the guys think Mark Zuckerberg's AI predictions are about as accurate as his metaverse hype – both seem to exist in a virtual reality!

05:43 - AWS Step Functions expands data source and output options for Distributed Map

This update allows Step Functions to process different file formats from S3, including JSONL and delimited files (semicolon and tab). It improves the ability to handle large datasets and reduces the need for data manipulation before processing. The distributed map feature can now handle up to 10,000 concurrent executions, making it powerful for big data processing.

10:45 - Reshape your AWS CloudFormation stacks seamlessly with stack refactoring

This new feature allows users to more easily break down large CloudFormation stacks into smaller, more manageable stacks. It addresses the issues of slow updates and potential errors in large stacks. While not entirely seamless, it provides a much-needed solution for those stuck with large CloudFormation stacks and offers a way to improve infrastructure management.

16:19 - AWS Verified Access support for non-HTTP resources is now generally available

This feature allows users to connect to private resources like databases without needing bastion hosts or jump boxes. It provides a more secure, token-scoped access method integrated with single sign-on providers. While it requires a client on the user's machine and currently lacks Windows support, it's a step towards simplifying secure access to private resources in AWS.

23:25 - AWS sees full-year profit and revenue growth as AI and public cloud demand soars

AWS reported significant growth in revenue (19% to $28.8 billion) and profits (up to $10.6 billion) compared to the previous year. The growth is attributed to increased demand for AI and public cloud services. While the exact contribution of AI services to this growth is unclear, the company plans to invest heavily in infrastructure to support AI and related technologies.

31:59 - AWS Documentation update — progress, challenges, and what’s next for 2025

AWS is improving its documentation with new features like decision guides to help users choose the right services. The company is also exploring AI integration to enhance documentation searchability and summarization. While AWS documentation is generally considered good, there's room for improvement in areas like search functionality and providing more comprehensive examples.