Introduction

AWS pushes the boundaries of cloud innovation each month. December 2025 delivers 12 key updates across compute, storage, security, and emerging technologies—essential knowledge for developers and cloud architects.

1. AWS WAF is now available in the AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region

Released: December 30, 2025

AWS WAF now operates in the AWS Asia Pacific (New Zealand) Region. This web application firewall protects your web apps from common exploits and bots that threaten availability, security, or resources. AWS WAF lets you control content access based on conditions like IP addresses or query strings—serving requested content, blocking with HTTP 403 (Forbidden), or sending custom responses.

Check the full list of AWS WAF regions in the AWS Region Table. Learn more on the AWS WAF page or pricing page.

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2. Amazon Connect dashboards now support filtering metrics based on custom business dimensions

Released: December 29, 2025

Amazon Connect dashboards now filter metrics by custom business dimensions like divisions, product lines, or customer segments. Use predefined attributes to tailor dashboards to your needs—for instance, compare handle times across product lines to identify training gaps in queues.

These dashboards work in all AWS commercial and AWS GovCloud (US-West) Regions offering Amazon Connect. Dive deeper in the Amazon Connect Administrator Guide or visit the Amazon Connect website.

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3. Amazon OpenSearch UI supports CMK and increased metadata size

Released: December 29, 2025

Amazon OpenSearch Service now supports AWS KMS customer managed keys (CMKs) and larger metadata sizes for OpenSearch UI. This managed service unifies dashboarding and analytics across OpenSearch domains, Amazon S3, Amazon CloudWatch, and AWS Security Lake.

Create new OpenSearch UI apps with CMK-encrypted metadata to meet compliance needs. The expanded metadata limit handles complex queries, visualizations, and large dashboards.

These features appear in all OpenSearch UI regions. Explore details in the Amazon OpenSearch UI Developer Guide.

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4. Amazon Connect expands automated agent performance evaluations to 5 additional languages

Released: December 26, 2025

Amazon Connect automates agent evaluations in Portuguese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish using generative AI. Managers set natural-language criteria and get AI-generated scores with justifications in their chosen language. Cross-language support evaluates in English for non-English conversations, standardizing multilingual contact centers.

This runs in 8 regions: US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (London), Canada (Central), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), and Asia Pacific (Singapore). Check pricing, documentation, and the webpage.

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5. Oracle Database@AWS is now available in three additional AWS Regions

Released: December 23, 2025

Oracle Database@AWS now serves US East (Ohio), EU Central (Frankfurt), and AP Northeast (Tokyo). This service runs Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)-managed Exadata systems in AWS data centers, easing migrations for EU and Japan customers with data residency rules.

It now covers five regions: US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), US East (Ohio), EU Central (Frankfurt), and AP Northeast (Tokyo). Request private offers via AWS Marketplace and provision via AWS Management Console.

Visit the Oracle Database@AWS overview and documentation.

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6. NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano now available on Amazon Bedrock

Released: December 23, 2025

Amazon Bedrock now hosts the NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B model. This efficient language model excels in reasoning, tool calling, and 256k token contexts via a hybrid Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture—boosting throughput for agents and coding while rivaling larger models.

Advanced reinforcement learning enhances accuracy for multi-agent workflows, automation, and scientific analysis. Powered by Project Mantle, it offers serverless inference, high quotas, and OpenAI API compatibility.

Available in US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Asia Pacific (Mumbai), South America (Sao Paulo), Europe (London), and Europe (Milan). Start via Amazon Bedrock console, docs, or OpenAI endpoints.

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7. Amazon RDS for MySQL announces Innovation Release 9.5 in Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment

Released: December 23, 2025

Amazon RDS for MySQL supports MySQL Innovation Release 9.5 in the RDS Database Preview Environment. Test this latest community release with managed benefits like easy setup and monitoring.

MySQL 9.5 includes bug fixes, security patches, and new features—supported until the next innovation release (unlike LTS versions like 8.0/8.4 with 8-year support). See MySQL 9.5 notes and RDS notes.

Preview supports Single-AZ/Multi-AZ on latest instances, with 60-day retention and snapshot limits. Pricing matches US East (Ohio) production. Learn more in Working with Database Preview or the RDS console.

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8. AWS Transform enables network conversion for hybrid data center migrations

Released: December 23, 2025

AWS Transform automates network conversion from hybrid data centers, skipping manual mapping for VMware and non-VMware workloads. It analyzes VLANs and IPs, mapping them to AWS VPCs, subnets, and security groups.

This AI-powered service accelerates VMware migrations via tools like modelizeIT, generating Infrastructure as Code. Available in all AWS Transform target regions.

Explore the product page, user guide, or web experience.

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9. Amazon ECS Service Connect enhances observability with Envoy access logs in AWS GovCloud (US) Regions

Released: December 22, 2025

Amazon ECS Service Connect now delivers Envoy access logs for request-level visibility into traffic and interactions—ideal for tracing, debugging, and compliance.

Service Connect simplifies secure service communication with AWS-managed Envoy sidecars for discovery, routing, and balancing. Logs capture metadata (query strings redacted), output to STDOUT, and support HTTP, HTTP2, gRPC, and TCP.

Enable via ServiceConnectConfiguration in Fargate/EC2 modes across AWS GovCloud (US-West/East). Details in the Amazon ECS Developer Guide.

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10. Amazon GameLift Streams launches Gen6-based stream classes and enhanced autoscaling for better performance and pricing

Released: December 22, 2025

Amazon GameLift Streams introduces Gen6 stream classes and enhanced autoscaling with warm buffers to balance performance and cost.

Seven Gen6 classes, powered by EC2 G6 with NVIDIA L4 GPUs, double Gen4 performance. Pro/ultra suit AAA games; medium/small target casual titles (e.g., gen6n_small at $0.16/hour in us-east-2).

Autoscaling dynamically adjusts capacity with min/max/target-idle controls for optimal utilization and start times.

Gen6 available in US West (Oregon), US East (Ohio/N. Virginia), Europe (Frankfurt), Asia Pacific (Tokyo). Autoscaling spans all regions. See docs on Gen6 classes, autoscaling, and API.

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11. AWS Storage Gateway now supports Nutanix AHV hypervisor

Released: December 22, 2025

AWS Storage Gateway now runs on Nutanix AHV hypervisor for S3 File, Tape, and Volume gateways. Nutanix users gain seamless access to unlimited cloud storage via NFS, SMB, iSCSI, or iSCSI-VTL.

Nutanix AHV, a KVM-based platform in hyper-converged infrastructure, joins VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, Linux KVM, and EC2 options.

Deploy on-premises or in AWS for backups, archiving, and low-latency access. Available in all regions. Check the User Guide or console.

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12. AWS Wickr launches admin APIs for programmatic network management at scale

Released: December 22, 2025

AWS Wickr introduces admin APIs for automated management of secure networks. Handle user lifecycles, configurations, and security groups programmatically—integrating with identity systems for scalable control.

This security-first service encrypts messaging, calls, file sharing, and more, with admin controls like SSO, policies, and data retention.

Available in all Wickr regions, including AWS GovCloud (US-West), via SDKs, CLI, or REST. Reference the API docs, product page, and Administrator Guide.

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Key Insights

Update Distribution

These 12 updates span four categories, underscoring AWS priorities:

  • Enhanced Performance: Faster compute, throughput, and lower latency

  • Security First: Robust controls and compliance tools

  • Developer Productivity: Streamlined integrations and automation

  • Cost Optimization: Efficient pricing and resources

  • AI/ML Capabilities: Broader generative AI and ML support

Business Impact

Organizations gain:

  1. Faster Time-to-Market: Reduced development complexity
  2. Improved Reliability: Better monitoring and recovery
  3. Stronger Security: Automated threat detection
  4. Cost Efficiency: Optimized utilization

Looking Ahead

December 2025 updates make AWS infrastructure more accessible, secure, and potent for microservices, pipelines, and AI. Track future releases on the AWS What’s New page and service announcements.

This post was compiled on January 21, 2026 from official AWS announcements.