Welcome to above the clouds

GCP – Firestore integration with Eventarc reaches GA with Auth Context
Creating event-driven architectures using Eventarc together with Firestore is an increasingly popular pattern. Recently, the Firestore integration with Eventarc became generally available, adding new functionality. You can now register multiple Cloud Functions in different regions against a multi-regional Firestore database for increased reliability, and there are new event types, including the Auth Context extension for […]

GCP – Data democratization with Dataplex: Implementing a data mesh architecture
Editor’s note: Today’s blog post was written in collaboration with Google Cloud Premier Partner Virtusa, which specializes in building cloud-native, microservices-based, pre-built solutions and APIs on Kubernetes, as well as machine learning and data-oriented applications, as well as offering managed cloud services and cloud operations design. In the ever-evolving world of data engineering and analytics, […]

GCP – Built with BigQuery: Making data activation and monetization accessible with Optable
Editor’s note: The post is part of a series showcasing tech companies and data providers that are Built with BigQuery. In recent years, changes in consumer privacy regulations have created disruption within the media and advertising ecosystem. Publishers have felt some of the biggest impact, needing to change the way they think about ad monetization […]

AWS – Amazon S3 will no longer charge for several HTTP error codes
Amazon S3 will make a change so unauthorized requests that customers did not initiate are free of charge. With this change, bucket owners will never incur request or bandwidth charges for requests that return an HTTP 403 (Access Denied) error response if initiated from outside their individual AWS account or AWS Organization. To see the […]

AWS – Amazon EMR 7.1 now supports Trino 435, Python 3.11
Amazon EMR is the industry-leading cloud big data solution for petabyte-scale data processing, interactive analytics, and machine learning using open-source frameworks such as Apache Spark, Apache Hive, and Presto. Today, we are excited to announce that Amazon EMR 7.1 release is now generally available and includes the latest versions of popular open-source software. Amazon EMR […]

AWS – AWS Security Hub announces support for version 3.0 of the CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark
Today, AWS Security Hub announces support for version 3.0 of the Center for Internet Security (CIS) AWS Foundations Benchmark. The CIS v3.0 standard contains 37 security controls, including 7 new controls which are unique to this standard. Security Hub has satisfied the requirements of the CIS Security Software Certification and has been awarded the certification […]

AWS – AWS IAM Identity Center adds PKCE-based authorization for AWS applications
AWS IAM Identity Center now supports OAuth 2.0 authorization code flows using the Proof Key for Code Exchange (PKCE) standard. This provides AWS applications, such as Amazon Q Developer Pro, a simple and safe way to authenticate users and obtain their consent to access AWS resources from desktops and mobile devices with web browsers. IAM […]

AWS – Amazon EMR 7.1 now supports additional metrics for enhanced monitoring
Amazon EMR 7.1 introduces the capability to configure Amazon CloudWatch Agent to publish additional metrics for Apache Hadoop, YARN, and Apache HBase applications running on your Amazon EMR on EC2 clusters. This feature provides comprehensive monitoring capabilities, allowing you to track the performance and health of your cluster more effectively. Amazon EMR automatically publishes a […]

GCP – AlloyDB vs. self-managed PostgreSQL: a price-performance comparison
PostgreSQL is an advanced open-source, relational database management system that empowers businesses with robust, reliable, and scalable database solutions. It has a rich set of features including security, availability, and performance that ensure data integrity and business continuity. With its extensive extensibility and vibrant community support, PostgreSQL offers a flexible and cost-effective alternative to proprietary […]
GCP – Breaking barriers: How BigQuery data insights boosts the data exploration journey
Most data analysis starts with exploration — finding the right dataset, understanding the data’s structure, identifying key patterns, and identifying the most valuable insights you want to extract. This step can be cumbersome and time-consuming, especially if you are working with a new dataset or if you are new to the team. To address this […]