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AWS Weekly Roundup: AWS Local Zones in Istanbul, open-source ExtendDB, Kiro Web, and more (May 25, 2026) | Amazon Web Services (opens in new tab)

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AWS’s latest updates focus on expanding regional infrastructure, improving developer workflows, and making cloud and AI services more portable. The Istanbul Local Zone strengthens data residency and low-latency capabilities in Türkiye, while tools such as ExtendDB, OpenAI-compatible SageMaker APIs, and Kiro Web reduce migration and development friction. Together, these releases emphasize flexibility, operational resilience, and easier local testing.

AWS Local Zone in Istanbul

  • AWS opened a new Local Zone in Istanbul, Türkiye.
  • It provides nearby compute, storage, and networking with single-digit millisecond latency.
  • Organizations can keep and process data within Turkish borders to support residency and compliance requirements.
  • The zone supports latency-sensitive workloads in sectors such as finance, government, telecommunications, and healthcare.
  • Applications can combine Istanbul infrastructure with the broader AWS Region, enabling hybrid architectures without operating a private data center.

Security and AI Service Updates

  • Security Hub Extended now integrates with 21 curated partner solutions across nine security categories, including endpoint protection, threat intelligence, and cloud security posture management.
  • Amazon SageMaker AI supports OpenAI-compatible inference APIs, allowing existing OpenAI-based applications to use SageMaker with minimal or no SDK changes.
  • Secrets Manager Agent can pre-fetch secrets at startup, reducing cold-start delays, and can assume IAM roles for workloads with different permission boundaries.
  • Amazon Bedrock introduced tools for advanced prompt optimization and migration across foundation models.

Open-Source and Local Development Tools

  • AWS open-sourced ExtendDB, a DynamoDB-compatible adapter for alternative storage backends.
    • It supports local development and testing without a live AWS connection.
    • It can help teams retain DynamoDB API semantics while controlling the underlying storage layer.
  • AWS SAM CLI now supports CloudFormation Language Extensions locally, improving consistency between local testing and production deployments.

Developer Experience and Reliability

  • Kiro Web brings AWS’s AI-assisted, spec-driven development environment to browsers, providing access to chat and agent capabilities without installing the desktop IDE.
  • AWS updated default retry behavior across SDKs and CLI tools.
    • Improvements include smarter backoff and better throttling handling.
    • Production applications should become more resilient to transient failures without additional configuration.

Container Image Changes

  • Bitnami images are being removed from Amazon ECR Public.
  • Teams currently using those images should review the migration timeline and update image references to Bitnami’s own registry to avoid interruptions.

Upcoming AWS Events

  • AWS Summit Amsterdam: May 27
  • AWS Summit Bangkok: May 28
  • AWS Summit Milan: May 28

Builders should evaluate the Istanbul Local Zone for residency- or latency-sensitive systems, consider ExtendDB and SAM improvements for local workflows, and review the Bitnami registry change before images are removed from ECR Public.