AWS Weekly Roundup: Amazon EC2 G7e instances, Amazon Corretto updates, and more (January 26, 2026) | Amazon Web Services

AWS’s January 26, 2026 roundup highlights new GPU infrastructure, Java updates, container optimization, expanded observability, and more flexible Amazon Connect workflows. The main launch is EC2 G7e, powered by NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs and designed for demanding AI inference, spatial computing, and scientific workloads. AWS also announced regional expansions and upcoming community and re:Invent-focused events.

Amazon EC2 G7e Instances

• Generally available in US East (N. Virginia) and US East (Ohio).
• Powered by NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs.
• Deliver up to 2.3× the inference performance of G6e instances.
• Provide twice the GPU memory and support configurations with up to eight GPUs and 768 GB of total GPU memory.
• Can run medium-sized models of up to 70 billion parameters using FP8 precision on a single GPU.
• Target generative AI inference, spatial computing, and scientific computing.

Amazon Corretto Security Updates

• AWS released January 2026 quarterly security and critical updates for supported OpenJDK versions.
• New releases include:
  • Corretto 25.0.2
  • Corretto 21.0.10
  • Corretto 17.0.18
  • Corretto 11.0.30
  • Corretto 8u482
• Updates provide current security patches and performance improvements for Java applications.

Amazon ECR Layer Sharing

• Amazon Elastic Container Registry now supports cross-repository layer sharing through blob mounting.
• Common image layers can be reused across repositories rather than uploaded repeatedly.
• This can speed up image pushes and reduce storage costs by storing shared layers once.

CloudWatch Database Insights Expansion

• On-demand Database Insights is now available in:
  • Asia Pacific (New Zealand)
  • Asia Pacific (Taipei)
  • Asia Pacific (Thailand)
  • Mexico (Central)
• The machine-learning-powered feature helps identify database performance bottlenecks and recommends remediation steps.

Amazon Connect Guided Experiences

• Step-by-Step Guides now support conditional logic and real-time data updates.
• Managers can configure interfaces that show or hide fields, change default values, and modify required fields based on earlier inputs.
• Automatic refreshes from Amazon Connect resources help agents work with current information.

Upcoming AWS Events

• Best of AWS re:Invent: A free virtual event on January 28–29 featuring curated announcements, technical sessions, leadership insights, and live Q&A.
• AWS Community Day Ahmedabad: A free, community-led conference on February 28, 2026, with technical talks, demos, networking, and real-world use cases.
• AWS encourages builders to use the AWS Builder Center to discover additional virtual and in-person events.

AWS customers working with AI should consider evaluating G7e instances, while Java teams should apply the latest Corretto updates. ECR users can also benefit from shared layers to improve container delivery efficiency and reduce costs.