Welcome to above the clouds
AWS – AWS X-Ray introduces Adaptive Sampling for automatic optimized error detection
AWS X-Ray, a service that helps developers analyze and debug distributed applications by providing request tracing capabilities, now offers adaptive sampling to solve a common challenge for DevOps teams, Site Reliability Engineers (SREs), and application developers. These customers often face a difficult trade-off: setting sampling rates too low risks missing critical traces during incidents, while […]
AWS – You can now preview Amazon S3 Tables in the S3 console
You can now preview your Amazon S3 Tables directly in the S3 console without having to write a SQL query. You can view the schema and sample rows of your tables stored in S3 Tables to better understand and gather key information about your data quickly, without any setup. You can preview tables in the […]
GCP – The global harms of restrictive cloud licensing, one year later
A year ago today, Google Cloud filed a formal complaint with the European Commission about Microsoft’s anti-competitive cloud licensing practices — specifically those that impose financial penalties on businesses that use Windows Server software on Azure’s biggest competitors. Despite regulatory scrutiny, it’s clear that Microsoft intends to keep its restrictive licensing policies in place for […]
AWS – Announcing AWS Lambda Support for Code Signing in GovCloud Regions
AWS Lambda now offers Code Signing in GovCloud Regions (AWS GovCloud (US-West) and AWS GovCloud (US-East)), which allows administrators to ensure that only trusted and verified code is deployed to Lambda functions. This feature uses AWS Signer, a managed code signing service. When code is deployed, Lambda checks the signatures to confirm the code hasn’t […]
GCP – Meet the new GKE: Extending Autopilot to all qualifying clusters
Autopilot is an operational mode for Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) that provides a fully managed environment and takes care of operational details, like provisioning compute capacity for your workloads. Autopilot allows you to spend more time on developing your own applications and less time on managing node-level details. This year, we upgraded Autopilot’s autoscaling stack […]
AWS – Application Recovery Controller Region switch is now available in Asia Pacific (New Zealand)
Region switch in Amazon Application Recovery Controller (ARC) is now available in the Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region. Region switch allows you to orchestrate the specific steps to operate your cross-AWS account application resources out of another AWS Region. It provides dashboards for real-time visibility into the recovery process and gathers data from across resources […]
GCP – Launching Gemini CLI extensions for Google Data Cloud
In June, Google introduced Gemini CLI, an open-source AI agent that brings the power of Gemini directly into your terminal. And today, we’re excited to announce open-source Gemini CLI extensions for Google Data Cloud services. Building applications and analyzing trends with services like Cloud SQL, AlloyDB and BigQuery has never been easier — all from […]
GCP – The new data scientist: From analyst to agentic architect
The role of the data scientist is rapidly transforming. For the past decade, their mission has centered on analyzing the past to run predictive models that informed business decisions. Today, that is no longer enough. The market now demands that data scientists build the future by designing and deploying intelligent, autonomous agents that can reason, […]
GCP – Another BRICKSTORM: Stealthy Backdoor Enabling Espionage into Tech and Legal Sectors
Written by: Sarah Yoder, John Wolfram, Ashley Pearson, Doug Bienstock, Josh Madeley, Josh Murchie, Brad Slaybaugh, Matt Lin, Geoff Carstairs, Austin Larsen Introduction Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) is tracking BRICKSTORM malware activity, which is being used to maintain persistent access to victim organizations in the United States. Since March 2025, Mandiant Consulting has responded […]
GCP – Indiana DOT saved 360 hours of manual effort to meet a 30-day executive order with Google AI
Public sector agencies are under increasing pressure to operate with greater speed and agility, yet are often hampered by decades of legacy data. Critical information, essential for meeting tight deadlines and fulfilling mandates, frequently lies buried within vast collections of unstructured documents. This challenge of transforming institutional knowledge into actionable insight is a common hurdle […]