A Day in the Life of Server #47B-2: An AWS Data Center Memoir
Or: Surprise! I Contain Multitudes and Also Your “Serverless” Functions
Cloud Repatriation is Getting Complicated
Five years ago, I fairly confidently stated that Cloud Repatriation Isn’t a Thing, and I by and large stand by what I wrote. That said, it’s 2025, and the story has changed somewhat.
AWS Announces Some Service Deprecations: Great!
AWS has announced a round of service deprecations, and I couldn’t be happier—but I do have some quibbles.
The One-Way Door of AWS Transform: a Secret 24-month Lock-Up
At the same time as AWS Transform has hit General Availability, AWS updated its service terms with a new requirement.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s 2024 Letter to Shareholders—annotated
Here’s a thing I’ve always wanted to do: take Andy Jassy’s annual shareholder letter and translate it into human.
AWS Chatbot’s Rename to Amazon Q Developer is a Step Backward
Changing AWS Chatbot to Amazon Q Developer presumably serves internal AWS purposes that may or may not resemble empire-building, but it serves no customers.
Is AWS Delivering on Its 3-Layer Approach to AI?
Here’s how AWS is doing at each of the three layers the business has identified for its approach to AI.
The Cold, Hard Truth About Your Cloud DR Strategy
Disaster recovery / business continuity / “backups” are always an interesting subject for very large scale cloud environments. Many of the old data-center strategies that grumpy old sysadmins (that’s me!) relied upon don’t hold water anymore.
AWS’s Valkey Play: When a Fork Becomes a Price Cut
In a move that’s equal parts predictable and surprising, AWS has decided to make their Valkey-based services significantly cheaper than their Redis counterparts.
Amazon GenAI Services
I was in New York this week for the AWS Summit, and while it’s always great to catch up with readers (thanks to those of you who came out to the drinkup!), AWS friends, and others, I found myself rather taken aback by the overwhelming strength behind the Generative AI theme of the entire event. […]
“Apparently I Stuttered: A Compute Optimizer Clarification”
There have been some noises about this week’s newsletter issue in which I criticized the release of AWS Compute Optimizer offering RDS recommendations…Let me clarify my position and commentary on this feature announcement.
Changing of the Guard: “AWS Appoints Matt Garman as CEO”
This morning’s announcement that Adam Selipsky would be stepping down as AWS CEO, with longtime Amazonian Matt Garman stepping into the role, feels like a natural correction. Garman has long been seen as the heir apparent to AWS’s leadership. When Selipsky was named CEO in the last succession, my initial reaction was a baffled, “I’m sorry, who?”