Classmethod Data Analytics Newsletter (AWS Data Analytics Edition) – June 2026 Issue
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This is Ishikawa from the Consulting Division of the Cloud Business Headquarters. Here is the AWS data analytics-related update information for May 2026. This month's major topics are the general availability of AWS Graviton-based Amazon Redshift RG instances, the general availability of the next-generation Amazon OpenSearch Serverless achieving zero idle costs, and Apache Spark 4.0.2 support for Amazon EMR. It was a month that saw simultaneous progress in price-performance improvements via Graviton and feature enhancements aimed at agent/generative AI workloads. There are other updates as well, so let me introduce them!
Amazon Redshift
New Features & Updates
2026/05/07 - Amazon Redshift now scales data ingestion automatically with concurrency scaling for batch workloads
Amazon Redshift's concurrency scaling now supports data ingestion for batch processing, automatically scaling for COPY queries in Parquet and ORC formats from Amazon S3. The trade-off between ingestion speed and query performance during traffic spikes is eliminated. For Redshift Serverless, it is enabled automatically based on demand, while for provisioned clusters it is enabled based on pre-configuration.
2026/05/12 - Amazon Redshift launches RG instances powered by AWS Graviton
A new generation of RG instances powered by AWS Graviton processors is now generally available. They deliver up to 2.2x faster performance for data warehouse workloads and up to 2.4x faster for data lake workloads, at a price 30% lower per vCPU compared to RA3. The integrated data lake query engine eliminates the per-TB scan charges of Redshift Spectrum. Available in two sizes, rg.xlarge and rg.4xlarge, across multiple regions including Tokyo (ap-northeast-1).
AWS Glue
New Features & Updates
API Changes
2026/05/06 - AWS Glue - 3 updated methods
A CustomLogGroupPrefix parameter has been added to StartDataQualityRulesetEvaluationRun to specify the CloudWatch log group path. Additionally, RulesetName has been added to ListDataQualityRulesetEvaluationRuns to filter evaluation runs by ruleset name.
2026/05/14 - AWS Glue - 1 updated methods
A --has-databases parameter has been added to the get-catalogs API, enabling filtering to return only catalogs that can hold databases. Additionally, model-level validation on the size of a table's partition index list has been removed.
Amazon OpenSearch Service
New Features & Updates
2026/05/05 - Amazon OpenSearch Service expands Cluster Insights with a new insight
Cluster Insights coverage has been expanded to all OpenSearch versions and Elasticsearch 6.8 and later. Cluster health and performance can be proactively visualized from the console, allowing early detection of potential issues.
2026/05/28 - The next generation of Amazon OpenSearch Serverless is now generally available
The next-generation Amazon OpenSearch Serverless, redesigned from the ground up, is now generally available. Its compute and storage separated architecture enables autoscaling 20x faster than before, provisioning in seconds, and scale-to-zero during idle periods. It enables up to 60% cost savings compared to provisioning clusters for peak load and is optimized for agentic workloads.
API Changes
2026/05/05 - Amazon OpenSearch Service - 10 updated methods
VPC egress support has been added, allowing outbound traffic from OpenSearch domains to be privately routed through a VPC rather than the public internet.
2026/05/13 - Amazon OpenSearch Service - 7 updated methods
Support for an automated snapshot pause option (AutomatedSnapshotPauseOptions) has been added.
Amazon Quick
New Features & Updates
2026/05/01 - AWS Transform now offers BI migration agents for Power BI and Tableau to Amazon Quick
BI migration agents that automatically convert Power BI and Tableau dashboards to Amazon Quick (QuickSight) assets have been added to AWS Transform. They automate dataset reconstruction, visual conversion, and field mapping, reducing migration work from months to days. The agents can be purchased from AWS Marketplace, and data processing is completed within the customer's AWS account.
2026/05/04 - Amazon Quick introduces Dataset Q&A for conversational analytics against enterprise data
Dataset Q&A has been added to Amazon Quick, enabling users to ask questions directly to datasets in natural language without pre-creating topics. A text-to-SQL agent interprets questions and generates SQL against multiple data sources including Amazon Redshift, Amazon Athena, Aurora PostgreSQL, and Apache Iceberg tables on S3. An Explain feature to validate generated results is also included.
2026/05/04 - Amazon Quick upgrades the extension for Microsoft Outlook (Preview)
A preview of the Amazon Quick extension for Microsoft Outlook is now available. Users can summarize unread emails, organize their inbox, schedule meetings, and draft inline replies in natural language without leaving Outlook. Available in 7 regions including Tokyo (ap-northeast-1).
2026/05/05 - Amazon Quick now integrates with New Relic for observability-driven AI agents
Amazon Quick now integrates with New Relic's AI agents, enabling incident investigation, generation of root cause analysis briefs, and task creation directly from Quick. Alert insights, log analysis, and natural language NRQL queries are available through New Relic's remote MCP server.
API Changes
2026/05/01 - Amazon QuickSight - 23 updated methods
Numerous features have been added, including private CA certificate specification for OAuth data sources (IdentityProviderCACertificatesBundleS3Uri), 256-character support for theme font families, ControlTitleFormatText for all 13 filter types, ContextRegion for cross-region use, and the addition of Story/scenario to the CreateCustomCapability API.
2026/05/13 - Amazon QuickSight - 4 updated methods
Five custom permission options have been added for Quick Apps, enabling control of these features from the public SDK/CLI.
2026/05/18 - Amazon QuickSight - 3 updated methods
Dataset enrichment and geo spatial features in the new data preparation experience are now supported.
2026/05/29 - Amazon QuickSight - 5 new methods
Support has been added for creating, updating, describing, listing, and deleting the new OAuthClientApplication resource, which stores OAuth configurations for connecting to databases via 3-Legged OAuth.
Amazon EMR
New Features & Updates
2026/05/27 - Amazon EMR now supports Apache Spark 4.0.2 in general availability
Amazon EMR has made Apache Spark 4.0.2 generally available across all three deployment models (EMR on EC2/EKS/Serverless). It supports ANSI SQL, VARIANT data types, fine-grained access control (FGAC) at the row and column level, and the Apache Iceberg v3 table format, enabling stronger transactional guarantees and audit trail assurance through data lineage tracking.
Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio
New Features & Updates
2026/05/11 - Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio adds getting started tutorials and in-product release notes
Getting started tutorials for learning key workflows using sample data have been added to Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio. Dark/light mode now switches automatically based on system settings, and a "What's New" section has been added within the product to view new features and release notes.
2026/05/13 - Amazon SageMaker Data Agent now available for IAM Identity Center domains
Amazon SageMaker Data Agent is now available for domains configured with IAM Identity Center. Describing the analytical objective in plain English generates Python or SQL code, with connectivity to Amazon Athena, Amazon Redshift, Amazon S3, and AWS Glue Data Catalog. A "Fix with AI" debugging feature is also included.
2026/05/20 - Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio now supports data quality rule authoring and evaluation
Creating and evaluating data quality rules powered by AWS Glue Data Quality is now possible within Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio. Rule definition, ruleset evaluation execution, and results review can all be performed directly from Studio, detecting issues in both data at rest and data in transit before they impact analytics pipelines.
2026/05/21 - SageMaker Unified Studio automates Glue connector provisioning for cross-subnet job retries
SageMaker Unified Studio has automated the provisioning of AWS Glue connectors spanning multiple subnets. Jobs can be automatically retried when a failure occurs in the primary subnet, reducing unplanned downtime of business-critical data pipelines and helping maintain SLAs without manually configuring backup connectors.
2026/05/22 - Amazon SageMaker adds business metadata and governance in IAM-based domains
Business context, metadata, and data governance features previously available only in IdC-based domains are now available in IAM-based domains as well. Business names, descriptions, and READMEs can be attached to AWS Glue Data Catalog tables, with support for automatic creation of business names and descriptions via AI-generated metadata.
2026/05/22 - Amazon SageMaker expands domain management across domain types
Domain management features previously available only for IAM domains have been expanded to IAM Identity Center-based domains as well. Administrators can create and manage projects, configure execution roles, manage VPC settings, and manage cross-account access within the SageMaker Unified Studio portal without using the AWS Management Console.
API Changes
2026/05/05 - Amazon SageMaker Service - 12 updated methods
The ml.p5.4xlarge instance type is now supported in multiple regions including Tokyo for JupyterLab and CodeEditor apps in SageMaker Studio.
2026/05/06 - Amazon SageMaker Service - 3 updated methods
SageMaker HyperPod now returns ImageVersionStatus in DescribeCluster, DescribeClusterNode, and ListClusterNodes responses, making it possible to verify whether cluster instances are running on the latest image version.
2026/05/13 - Amazon SageMaker Service - 27 updated methods
Features added include an execution role session name mode reflecting user identity in Studio, Flexible Training Plans in Studio apps, and access control for proprietary model artifacts using IAM (restricted model packages).
2026/05/19 - Amazon SageMaker Service - 4 updated methods
The ml.p5.4xlarge and ml.p5en.48xlarge instances are now supported on the SageMaker Notebook Instances platform.
2026/05/21 - Amazon SageMaker Service - 3 updated methods
SageMaker domains can now disable the creation of a home EFS file system.
2026/05/27 - Amazon SageMaker Service - 7 updated methods
Shared environments are now supported in SageMaker HyperPod Restricted Instance Groups (RIGs), enabling workload scheduling across RIGs and FSx sharing. Support for p6 instances in recommendation jobs has also been added.
Amazon DataZone
New Features & Updates
API Changes
2026/05/14 - Amazon DataZone - 8 new methods
Eight methods have been added to support notebook operations (including import/export) in SageMaker Unified Studio.
2026/05/22 - Amazon DataZone - 4 updated methods
VPC connection support has been added.
2026/05/26 - Amazon DataZone - 3 updated methods
The resourceConfigurations and allowUserProvidedConfigurations fields have been added to the environment blueprint configuration API, enabling customers who have migrated from V1 to V2 domains to programmatically update resource configurations such as lineage schedules via the SDK.
AWS Clean Rooms
New Features & Updates
API Changes
2026/05/21 - AWS Clean Rooms Service - 13 updated methods
Collaboration creators can now update payment configurations without recreating the collaboration. When multiple payment candidates are configured per cost type, the analysis runner can specify the actual payer at submission time, enabling fine-grained billing control.
2026/05/21 - AWS Clean Rooms ML - 15 updated methods
AWS Clean Rooms ML similarly now supports updating payment configurations without recreating the collaboration and specifying the payer at submission time.
In Closing
May 2026 was a month of significant progress in price-performance improvements and cost optimization, exemplified by the general availability of AWS Graviton-based Amazon Redshift RG instances and the next-generation Amazon OpenSearch Serverless. At the same time, enhancements to the analytics experience with agents and generative AI in mind were also notable, including Dataset Q&A and New Relic integration for Amazon Quick, IAM Identity Center support for Amazon SageMaker Data Agent, and Apache Spark 4.0.2 support for Amazon EMR. Additionally, Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio continues to expand governance features and domain management capabilities to IAM-based domains, steadily evolving as a governance foundation for the lakehouse.
If any updates catch your interest, please give them a try. We hope this article is helpful to someone.
