LogiCast AWS News: Cloud Formation Updates, Security Tools, and Fargate Cost Optimization

In the latest episode of Logicast, the AWS News podcast, hosts Karl Robinson and Jon Goodall were joined by guest Ed Craske to discuss recent developments in the AWS ecosystem. The conversation covered a range of topics, from Cloud Formation improvements to security tools and cost optimization strategies for Fargate.

SES Virtual Deliverability Manager Gets Tiered Pricing

The discussion began with an announcement about Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) introducing tiered pricing for its Virtual Deliverability Manager (VDM) feature. Jon shared his insights on SES, noting that while it can be challenging for small and medium businesses to use effectively, the new pricing model could benefit larger enterprises sending high volumes of emails.

Jon explained, “VDM is part of the tooling that allows you to work out not just your bounce and complaints rates, but, um, you know, are things going through, click through rates and all that kind of stuff.” He added that the tiered pricing starts to take effect once an organization is sending over 10 million emails a month, potentially offering significant cost savings for high-volume senders.

Ed expressed a more ambivalent view of SES, noting that while it serves a purpose, particularly for AWS-native applications, it can be problematic to set up and maintain for some organizations.

Cloud Formation: 2024 Year in Review

The conversation then shifted to AWS Cloud Formation, with the hosts discussing a blog post summarizing the service’s improvements in 2024. Ed, admitting his preference for Terraform, noted that many of the new Cloud Formation features were catching up to capabilities already present in Terraform.

Some notable improvements mentioned include:

1. Faster deployments: Up to 40% speed increase for large stack deployments. 2. Early validation: Improved error detection before full deployment attempts. 3. Deployment graphs: A new feature providing visual representation of the deployment process.

While Ed and Jon both favored Terraform, they acknowledged some advantages of Cloud Formation, such as its immunity to API rate limits and its native integration with certain AWS services.

Free Tool for Hunting Exposed AWS Secrets

The hosts discussed a new open-source tool designed to scan public repositories for exposed AWS secrets. Jon pointed out that while such tools already exist, including GitHub’s built-in scanning for enterprise customers, this new tool focuses specifically on AWS keys across the entire public internet.

Jon emphasized that the tool, created for educational purposes, highlights the importance of avoiding long-lived credentials and implementing proper secret management practices. He stated, “Stop using long-lived credentials. That’s my key takeaway from that one.”

Optimizing Fargate Costs

The podcast then covered an article by AWS Hero Danielle Heberling about running AWS Fargate on a budget. The article, based on a real-world business problem, explores strategies for reducing Fargate costs by up to 70%.

Jon praised the article, saying, “This is a nice walkthrough, this is easy to follow, and if it’s a solution that you kind of need to follow, which is I need stuff to run as cheaply as possible, but it’s OK to be interrupted and it happens to be in a container. Give this a look.”

Ed added that while he hasn’t extensively explored Fargate Spot for cost reduction, the article provides valuable insights into optimizing AWS spending.

Security Best Practices for AWS Organizations

The final topic addressed a mysteriously disappeared AWS blog post about security best practices for AWS Organizations. Despite its removal from the official AWS blog, the hosts managed to access an archived version and discussed its contents.

The article covered several key areas of security management:

1. Automating security processes  2. Incident response steps (detect, isolate, contain, mitigate, investigate, notify, and prevent). 3. Utilizing AWS Solutions Library for security guidance  4. Exploring AWS Security Incident Response service

Jon emphasized the importance of these practices, especially for organizations with high security requirements. He noted, “It’s worth looking into if you have these really high kind of security requirements that you need to adhere to.”

Conclusion

This episode of Logicast provided valuable insights into recent AWS developments, from pricing changes in SES to improvements in Cloud Formation and strategies for optimizing Fargate costs. The discussions around security tools and best practices serve as a reminder of the ongoing importance of robust security measures in cloud environments.

As AWS continues to evolve its services and introduce new features, staying informed about these changes is crucial for organizations looking to maximize their cloud investments while maintaining strong security postures.

This is an AI generated piece of content, based on the Logicast Podcast Season 4 Episode 8.