AWS Connects with Developers in Kenya and Globally

Last week witnessed a surge in AWS community activity, culminating in a dynamic AWS Student Community Day at Meru University of Science and Technology in Kenya. The event featured insightful keynotes from AWS leaders Veliswa and Tiffany, alongside hands-on workshops covering critical skills like GitOps, cloud-native engineering, and the burgeoning field of AI agent development.

Building on this momentum, JAWS Days 2026, the world’s largest AWS Community Day, drew over 1,500 attendees on March 7th. The event kicked off with a compelling keynote by Jeff Barr on building AI-driven development teams, followed by over 100 sessions, workshops, and networking opportunities.

What role do you see community-driven events playing in the future of cloud technology adoption? And how can organizations best leverage these events to upskill their workforce?

Key AWS Launches This Week: A Deep Dive

AWS continues to rapidly expand its service offerings, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and enhanced security. Here’s a detailed look at some of the most significant launches from the past week:

• Amazon Connect Health: Agentic AI for Healthcare – Now generally available, Amazon Connect Health introduces five purpose-built AI agents designed to streamline healthcare workflows, including patient verification, appointment management, and medical coding. The service is HIPAA-eligible, enabling rapid deployment within existing clinical environments. Learn more.
• Policy in Amazon Bedrock AgentCore: Fine-Grained Control for AI Agents – Security and compliance teams can now leverage natural language to define access controls and input validation rules for Amazon Bedrock agents. This feature automatically translates these rules into Cedar, AWS’s open-source policy language, ensuring robust governance. Explore the details.
• OpenClaw on Amazon Lightsail: Private AI Assistants – Deploy a secure, private AI assistant on your own infrastructure with OpenClaw on Amazon Lightsail. This solution offers built-in security controls, sandboxed sessions, and seamless integration with popular messaging platforms like Slack and WhatsApp. Get started.
• VPC Encryption Controls Pricing Announced – AWS has announced pricing for VPC Encryption Controls, transitioning from a free preview to a paid service. This feature allows organizations to audit and enforce encryption-in-transit within their Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs). View pricing information.
• Database Savings Plans Expand Support – Database Savings Plans now support Amazon OpenSearch Service and Amazon Neptune Analytics, offering potential savings of up to 35% on eligible usage with a one-year commitment. Discover savings opportunities.
• AI-Powered Environment Analysis in Elastic Beanstalk – AWS Elastic Beanstalk now leverages Amazon Bedrock to analyze environment health, providing step-by-step troubleshooting recommendations tailored to specific issues. Learn about AI-driven troubleshooting.
• Simplified IAM Role Creation – Creating and configuring IAM roles is now easier than ever with a new in-console panel, eliminating the need to switch between services. Simplify IAM role management.
• Accelerated Lambda Development with Kiro – Kiro’s new AI-powered features accelerate the development of resilient, long-running applications and AI workflows on AWS Lambda. Explore Kiro’s capabilities.
• DDoS Protection for Amazon GameLift Servers – Amazon GameLift Servers now includes DDoS protection at no additional cost, safeguarding session-based multiplayer games against malicious attacks. Protect your game servers.

For a comprehensive list of AWS announcements, visit the What’s New with AWS page.

From the AWS Community

Here are a couple of standout projects from the AWS community that deserve your attention:

• Portable AI Memory Layer with MCP, Bedrock, and Chrome Extension – This project demonstrates how to build a persistent memory layer for AI agents, packaged as a Chrome extension for seamless context sharing. Read the blog post.
• When the Model Is the Machine – Mike Chambers’ experimental app generates a complete, interactive web application at runtime from a single prompt, challenging conventional development paradigms. Explore the concept.

Upcoming AWS Events

Mark your calendars for these upcoming AWS events:

• AWS Community GameDay Europe (March 17)
• AWS at NVIDIA GTC 2026 (March 16 – 19, San Jose)
• AWS Summits (Paris – April 1, London – April 22, Bengaluru – April 23–24)
• AWS Community Days (Slovakia – March 11, Pune – March 21, Mexico City – March 28)

Find more AWS events, including startup and developer-focused gatherings, at AWS Events.

Frequently Asked Questions About Recent AWS Updates

• What is Amazon Connect Health and how can it benefit healthcare providers?

  Amazon Connect Health is a new service offering five purpose-built AI agents designed to automate common healthcare tasks like patient verification and appointment management, improving efficiency and patient experience.

• How does the new Policy in Amazon Bedrock AgentCore enhance AI agent security?

  Policy in Amazon Bedrock AgentCore allows security teams to define access controls and input validation rules using natural language, automatically converting them into Cedar policies for robust governance.

• What are the key benefits of deploying OpenClaw on Amazon Lightsail?

  OpenClaw provides a secure and private environment for running AI assistants, offering built-in security controls, sandboxed sessions, and easy integration with popular messaging platforms.

• What is the impact of the pricing change for VPC Encryption Controls?

  VPC Encryption Controls is transitioning from a free preview to a paid service, enabling organizations to audit and enforce encryption-in-transit within their VPCs for enhanced security.

• How can Database Savings Plans help reduce AWS costs?

  Database Savings Plans now support Amazon OpenSearch Service and Amazon Neptune Analytics, offering potential savings of up to 35% on eligible usage with a one-year commitment.