AWS rolled out some awesome upgrades and announcements this week, including being able to build build big data applications without having to manage servers, updates to the NoSQL Workbench improve the DynamoDB developer experience, and new EC2 instance types for better price performance. Let’s dive in.

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EMR Serverless lets you build big data applications without having to manage servers

This week AWS announced that Elastic Map Reduce Serverless is now generally available. With this new EMR deployment model, you will be able to run big data analytics applications using open-source frameworks like Hive or Apache Spark – without needing to configure, manage, or scale clusters or servers.

Historically, EMR clusters could be launched on EC2 or EKS. Now AWS can handle all autoscaling logic without the need for complex customization. If you find that you have to over-provision your EMR clusters to meet spikes in demand, you may find some cost savings by switching your deployment model to EMR Serverless. 

NoSQL Workbench updates improve the DynamoDB developer experience 

Developers have long lamented the lack of tooling provided by AWS around DynamoDB. Earlier this week, AWS took a step in the right direction by expanding the functionality of their NoSQL Workbench. NoSQL Workbench is a client-side GUI application for modern database development and is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

With NoSQL Workbench, users can now Create, Update, or Delete tables, in addition to queries on your DynamoDB tables. It looks like AWS may be investing in NoSQL Workbench as its premier DynamoDB Client-side developer tool. It’s certainly worth keeping an eye on if you’re actively developing with DynamoDB. 

New EC2 instance types give you better price performance 

AWS just released a new generation of M- and C-class EC2 instances. M6id and C6id instance types are now available for your memory and compute-intensive EC2 applications. These instance types are powered by Intel Ice Lake scalable processors, which come equipped with up to 7.6 TB of SSD block-level storage. Both instance types are ideal for intense log processings.

The new M6id and C6id instance types also offer up to 15% better price performance than their previous generation counterparts, so they’re definitely worth your consideration if your EC2 bill could use a trim! 

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