AWS Developers Podcast

Ever dreamed of stepping back in time to the golden age of personal computing? In this episode of the AWS Developers Podcast, we journey back to the 1980s with Ricardo Sueiras, where we explore the iconic Commodore 64. Discover the challenges and triumphs of programming on this legendary machine, from the limitations of hardware to the vibrant community that formed around it. We'll delve into the unique sound capabilities of the C64, explore how modern tools like Amazon Q Developer can assist with retro programming, and learn how to tackle the challenges of converting basic programs to assembly language. This isn't just a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Join us as we discuss how the experiences of early programmers, with their deep understanding of hardware and reliance on community support, continue to shape modern software development. Learn how generative AI tools like Amazon Q can enhance your coding experience, whether you're working on a retro project or building the next big thing. Prepare to be inspired by the ingenuity of early programmers and discover how the past can inform the future of software development.

In this episode of the AWS Developers Podcast, we dive into the world of aquatic analytics! We explore how Swimming Australia leverages the power of data, analytics, and computer vision with AWS Panorama to deliver real-time training pool insights. Join us as we uncover how machine learning helps coaches optimize swimmer performance and streamline pool operations, all powered by the cloud.

In this special episode of the AWS Developers Podcast, Tiffany and Seb sit down with Jeff Barr, VP and Chief Evangelist at AWS, to celebrate 20 incredible years of the AWS News blog. Jeff shares the origin story of the blog, the values that shaped its growth, and his unique approach to making technical concepts accessible to developers worldwide. Jeff also reflects on some of the blog’s milestone moments, from covering the beta release of Amazon SQS in 2004 to the launches of Amazon S3 and EC2 in 2006. With the announcement of his decision to step away from the AWS News blog to focus on deep-dive development activities, Jeff opens up about what’s next for him and his passion for technology. Join us as we celebrate two decades of impactful blogging and gain insights into Jeff’s remarkable journey at AWS.

In this episode, cloud analyst and observer Corey Quinn shares his observation about trends and news from this week's AWS re:Invent conference,

In this episode of the AWS Developers Podcast, Tiffany and Seb discuss with Salih aboutthe new capabilities of AWS Amplify AI Kit, focusing on how it simplifies the process of building cloud-powered applications with generative AI. They explore the features of Amplify, including its ease of use for front-end developers and the integration of AI capabilities. The conversation also touches on cost considerations, future developments for the Amplify AI Kit, and practical examples of applications that can be built using this technology.

In this episode of the AWS Developers Podcast, Seb and Ran Isenberg discuss the automation of IAM policies across multiple AWS accounts. They explore the challenges faced in managing security and access in a multi-account environment, the design and implementation of an automation architecture that simplifies these processes, and the significant improvements in developer experience and operational efficiency achieved through this automation. Ran shares insights into the open-source project that supports this automation and discusses future enhancements and community engagement.

In this episode of the AWS Developers Podcast, we discuss the Multi-Agent Orchestrator, an open-source framework designed to facilitate the orchestration of multiple AI agents. The conversation covers the challenges of building generative AI solutions, the need for specialized agents, and how the orchestrator functions as a smart router for directing user queries to the appropriate agents. They explore real-world use cases, including an e-commerce support system, and discuss the integration of new agents into the framework. The episode also compares the orchestrator with Amazon Bedrock's Converse API, highlighting the unique capabilities of the orchestrator in managing multiple agents.

In this episode of the AWS Developers Podcast, Seb speaks with Peter Lavelle and Edward Sun about Twilio, and the complexities of authorization in cloud applications. They discuss the evolution of Twilio Flex, the challenges faced in implementing a sophisticated authorization model, and the decision-making process behind choosing between graph-based and policy-based authorization systems. The conversation also highlights the benefits of Amazon Verified Permissions (AVP) and the Cedar Policy Language, emphasizing the importance of decoupling authorization logic from business logic for better scalability and maintainability. This conversation delves into the implementation and benefits of AWS Verified Permissions (AVP) and the Cedar policy language. The speakers discuss the Quick Start experience for users, the challenges of policy-based systems, and the importance of automated reasoning in policy verification. They also explore metadata management, the flexibility of local versus central evaluation in authorization, and the implementation timeline for Twilio's use of AVP. The discussion highlights the growing adoption of these technologies and their potential future applications.

In this episode of the AWS Developers Podcast, Julian Wood hosts a discussion with Marc Brooker, a distinguished engineer involved in the creation of AWS Lambda. They explore the origins of Lambda, its evolution, and the impact of serverless technology on modern computing. The conversation delves into customer-centric innovations, the challenges of event-driven architectures, and the future of serverless in the context of generative AI. Mark reflects on the journey of Lambda, the lessons learned, and the exciting possibilities that lie ahead for serverless technology.

In this conversation, Vadym Kazulkin discusses AWS Lambda Snap Start, a feature designed to reduce cold start latency for Java applications in AWS Lambda. The discussion covers the challenges of cold starts, how Snap Start works, its impact on performance, and optimization techniques such as priming. Kazulkin shares insights from his extensive benchmarking and the implications for developers using AWS Lambda. The discussion also touches on challenges developers may face when using Snap Start, particularly in relation to randomness and caching mechanisms. Kazulkin encourages developers to revisit Java on Lambda with the new optimizations available, highlighting the evolving landscape of serverless computing.

In this episode of the AWS Developers Podcast, Seb and Arthur discuss the Graviton processors and the Arm64 architecture. They explore the evolution of AWS's custom hardware, the benefits of adopting Arm architecture for AWS and developers, and the ease of porting applications to Arm64. The conversation also covers the challenges faced during migration, strategies for performance optimization, and the future of Graviton in AWS.

In this episode of the AWS Developers Podcast, the hosts discuss trusted identity propagation with Joseph De Clerck and Raphael Koike. Trusted identity propagation (TIP) allows organizations to propagate the actual user identity downstream to AWS services. It enhances IAM roles with the actual user identity, enabling fine-grained access control and simplifying IAM role management. The benefits of TIP include improved security posture, fine-grained access control, simplified user experience, and support for various OAuth 2.0 flows. Services that currently support TIP include Lake Formation, S3 Access Grants, Redshift Query Editor, EMR Studio, Athena, and Amazon QuickSight.

In this episode of the AWS Developers Podcast, Seb and Brooke are joined by Massimo Refere, a senior principal product manager in the Amazon Q team. They discuss how generative AI can help developers and introduce Amazon Q Developer, a generative AI assistant for work. They explore the different capabilities of Amazon Q Developer, including troubleshooting, coding assistance, and task assignment. They also discuss the conversational coding experience and the ability to customize models based on an organization's codebase. The episode concludes with a discussion on how developers can get started with Amazon Q Developer. The conversation covers topics such as the overlap between Q business and Q Developer, customization and personalization, the challenges of demoing customizations, the minimum amount of code required for customization, evaluating customized models, data security and protection, and the future direction of Amazon Q Developer.

In this week's episode, we dive deep into the world of AWS Identity Center and explore how it changed workforce identity access management within the AWS ecosystem. Join us as we discuss the key differences between IAM and Identity Center, unraveling how this powerful service is specifically designed to manage human user access to AWS accounts. Discover the diverse use cases for Identity Center, from managing employee access to AWS accounts to providing seamless access to various AWS applications. We'll discuss the importance of choosing the right region and seamlessly integrating with your preferred identity providers. Additionally, we'll shed light on common pitfalls and scenarios to be aware of when leveraging Identity Center.

In this episode, we dive deep into the world of AWS certifications, specifically the prestigious Solutions Architect - Professional exam. Join us as we interview Patrick, a seasoned solution architect with extensive experience in preparing for and passing this challenging certification. Patrick breaks down the key differences between the Associate and Professional levels, emphasizing the advanced knowledge and experience required for the latter. He shares valuable insights into the four domains covered by the exam: designing for organizational complexity, designing for new solutions, continuously improving existing solutions, and accelerating workload migration and modernization. We explore the intricacies of the exam format, including the types of questions, time management strategies, and the importance of understanding the AWS Well-Architected Framework. Patrick also discusses the best resources for exam preparation, such as official AWS documentation, practice exams, and his own book, 'AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional Exam Guide.' Whether you're a seasoned AWS professional looking to advance your career or just starting your cloud journey, this episode offers invaluable guidance on how to tackle the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional exam and achieve your certification goals.

In this episode of the AWS Developers Podcast, Seb and Brooke Jamieson interview Halim Qarroum, the head of application prototyping at AWS, about the document processing pipeline. They discuss the concept of a document processing pipeline, the typical use cases for processing documents, and how Lake Chain, an open-source framework developed by Halim and his team, simplifies the process of building document processing pipelines. They also explore the architecture of Lake Chain, including the use of SQS and SNS as the messaging system, and the integration of various AWS services and open-source machine learning models. The episode concludes with a discussion on future plans for Lake Chain and how developers can contribute to the project.

In this episode, we delve into the world of database performance optimization with Scott Lynn, product manager for Amazon RDS. We discuss the essential factors that can significantly impact your database performance, ensuring your applications run smoothly and efficiently. We explore effective strategies for scaling your relational databases to meet growing demands and maintain optimal performance. We also delve into the differences between provisioned IOPS, General Purpose SSD, and magnetic drives, helping you determine the best storage option for your specific workload. Discover why io2 Block Express storage is the ideal choice for demanding databases that require high performance and low latency. Join the discussion as we weigh the pros and cons of using self-managed databases on EC2 versus fully managed databases on RDS. Don't miss this informative episode! Tune in to learn how to optimize your database performance and achieve maximum efficiency with Amazon RDS.

This week on the AWS Developers Podcast, we're joined by AWS Serverless Hero Luc van Donkersgoed to explore the incredible story behind aws-news.com! Luc takes us on a journey from a personal project fueled by curiosity about new APIs like Bedrock for Generative AI, to a platform with over 600 subscribed users. We'll delve into the technical behind aws-news.com, a 100% serverless architecture powered by EventBridge, Lambda, DynamoDB, and other AWS services. Join us as Luc unveils the challenges he conquered along the way, the secrets to his cost-effective operation, and how he's turned his passion project into a success story through subscriptions and sponsorships. Get ready to discover how serverless technologies empowered Luc to build a scalable platform for the future!

In this conversation, Seb and Yan Cui discuss the definition of serverless and its key characteristics. They also address the misconception that serverless is dead and clarify that it is still a thriving technology. Yan shares his experience with serverless projects and highlights the importance of focusing on one or two major changes at a time to avoid failure. They also discuss the use of relational databases with Lambda and the benefits of using Aurora Serverless and the Data API. The conversation covers good patterns for building serverless applications, including taking smaller steps in migrations, splitting applications into services, and designing event-driven architectures. It emphasizes the importance of visibility, testing, and observability in serverless applications. The guest recommends using remote testing for most projects and highlights the benefits of using Lumigo for observability. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the future of serverless and the need for high-performance options in Lambda.

This episode delves into applying Domain-Driven Design (DDD) to cloud automation, specifically for event-based integration systems. Author Gregor Hohpe emphasizes the importance of domain languages for clearly expressing core system concepts. He illustrates how Amazon Web Services (AWS) EventBridge can benefit from a domain model to differentiate between Pipes and Buses services. Hohpe argues that cloud automation languages like CDK and Pulumi should harness the power of object-oriented languages to provide developers with affordances. This means using types and interfaces to guide developers towards valid cloud resource combinations, catching errors at compile time rather than deployment. This episode explores how to implement DDD in cloud automation, the benefits of strongly typed automation languages, and how to leverage affordances for more efficient cloud automation.