AWS Updates 2026-05-14 | Cloud Provider News
Lower your compute and licensing costs with AWS’s newest instance and pricing updates
AWS rolled out a batch of updates that can help you squeeze more performance out of the same spend, especially if you’re running analytics, databases, or high-scale workloads.
Valkey 9.0 for Amazon ElastiCache is now generally available, and it adds built-in full-text search, hybrid search, aggregations, per-field TTLs, and multi-database support. AWS says these features let applications combine search, semantic retrieval, and analytics in the cache with microsecond latency and high throughput.
Save on predictable Lambda workloads with scheduled scaling
If your functions run on a predictable schedule, Lambda got a useful cost-control feature.
AWS Lambda now supports scheduled scaling of capacity limits for functions running on Lambda Managed Instances through Amazon EventBridge Scheduler. That means you can proactively scale capacity up or down, including down to zero.
This is especially useful for workloads with known idle periods. It gives FinOps teams a native way to reduce spend without building custom automation around it.
Automate more service actions with EventBridge Scheduler
EventBridge Scheduler also picked up a broader set of API integrations.
AWS added 619 SDK API actions across 13 more services, including Lambda Managed Instances. That lets teams schedule direct service API calls for capacity and lifecycle operations without custom integration code.
For cost management, that opens up more options for time-based automation. You can use it to support rightsizing, scaling, and other recurring operational tasks with less engineering effort.
Reduce Oracle licensing complexity on RDS
RDS for Oracle also got a new instance and licensing option.
Amazon RDS for Oracle now supports M8i and R8i instance types with an Oracle SE2 License Included offering. AWS says this bundles the software license, support, and managed database service pricing.
That can simplify licensing decisions and lower total cost of ownership. AWS also says the new instances offer up to about 15% better price-performance versus prior Intel generations, which helps with capacity planning for Oracle workloads.
Speed up memory-heavy workloads with newer EC2 instance families
Two newer EC2 launches target memory-optimized workloads.
AWS introduced R8idn and R8idb instances, built on custom Intel Xeon 6 processors. AWS says they deliver up to 43% better per-vCPU compute performance than R6in, with options for extreme local NVMe and high EBS throughput.
These are designed for large in-memory databases and analytics workloads. That can improve performance density, which may help reduce the number of nodes you need.
Improve network and storage throughput for general-purpose EC2 workloads
The M8idn and M8idb families bring similar gains to another workload class.
AWS says these general availability instances also use custom Intel Xeon 6 processors and offer up to 43% better compute performance per vCPU versus prior M6idn. M8idn is aimed at very high network bandwidth, with up to 600 Gbps, while M8idb offers up to 300 Gbps EBS throughput.
