Logicata AI Bot
January 20, 2026
The Logicata AI Bot automatically transcribes our weekly LogiCast AWS News Podcasts and summarises them into informative blog posts using AWS Elemental MediaConvert, Amazon Transcribe and Amazon Bedrock, co-ordinated by AWS Step Functions.
In the latest episode of LogiCast, the AWS news podcast brought to you by Logicata, host Karl Robinson and co-host Jon Goodall were joined by special guest Matthew Martz, a principal software architect and AWS Community Builder. The trio discussed several recent AWS developments, including the opening of the European Sovereign Cloud, updates to AWS Backup, and the evolution of CloudWatch as an observability platform.
CloudWatch: A Unified Observability Platform
The episode kicked off with a discussion about CloudWatch’s evolution into a unified observability platform with Apache Iceberg support. Matt noted that Amazon seems to be taking aim at competitors like Splunk, especially for multi-account setups. He mentioned that for his organization, CloudWatch accounts for about a third of their AWS bill in production accounts.
Jon pointed out that in serverless workloads, observability is often the highest cost item. He explained that CloudWatch has historically been cheaper than third-party tools like Datadog, but it’s been catching up in terms of features. Jon highlighted that over the past few years, CloudWatch has been adding capabilities that rival those of third-party observability tools.
Karl expressed interest in the item-level search and recovery capabilities mentioned in the article, which allow customers to quickly locate and restore specific files without recovering entire EBS volumes or S3 buckets.
AWS Backup: Advancing Recovery Resilience
The conversation then shifted to AWS Backup and its advancements in 2025. Jon emphasized the importance of automated restore testing, which allows users to prove that their backups are functional and meet regulatory requirements. He also mentioned the addition of support for new services like Redshift Serverless, Aurora PostgreSQL, and EKS.
Matt highlighted the integration of GuardDuty scanning for backups as an interesting feature, although he noted it might not be applicable to his company’s specific use case. He agreed with Jon on the importance of testing backups, stating, “If you have an untested backup, it’s just wishful thinking.”
Karl expressed interest in the logically air-gapped vaults feature, particularly the multi-party approval support in AWS Organizations. This feature adds an extra layer of security and compliance for sensitive data backups.
Kiro and Amazon Q for Infrastructure Optimization
The discussion then turned to the use of Kiro and Amazon Q for infrastructure optimization. Matt, who uses MCPs (Mistral Cognitive Processors) extensively, found the idea of using them for cost optimization intriguing. He mentioned that during the re:Invent hackathon, they were encouraged to use AWS MCPs with Kiro to enhance its knowledge of recent AWS releases.
Jon shared that Kiro is becoming the company standard at Logicata. He noted that it seems to work better with AWS services compared to other IDEs. Karl expressed interest in using AI for cost optimization through Kiro and the cost optimization MCP server.
European Sovereign Cloud Opens
A significant portion of the podcast was dedicated to discussing the opening of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. Jon expressed some skepticism about the level of independence, noting that while it appears to be technically isolated from the rest of AWS, the business is still owned by Amazon US.
Karl pointed out that the announcement was published in multiple European languages, reflecting the importance of this offering for European businesses and government organizations with specific data sovereignty requirements.
Matt speculated that the use cases for the Sovereign Cloud would be limited to specific government-type organizations, as it would not be practical for companies requiring global data access.
New UK Data Center Plans
The podcast concluded with a discussion about Amazon’s plans to build a data center on the site of a former power plant in the UK. Jon viewed this as a positive development, noting that it’s a good use for a contaminated site that couldn’t easily be repurposed for housing or agriculture.
Karl found it interesting that the location was publicly announced, as data center locations are usually kept secret. Matt, being from Northern Virginia where many AWS data centers are located, shared that while he generally knows where they are, it’s not something he thinks about often.
The hosts agreed that this development, along with other recent announcements of data center investments globally, demonstrates Amazon’s continued commitment to expanding its cloud infrastructure.
In conclusion, this episode of LogiCast provided valuable insights into recent AWS developments, from the evolution of core services like CloudWatch and AWS Backup to major infrastructure investments in Europe and the UK. As always, the discussion highlighted the rapid pace of innovation in the cloud computing space and the ongoing efforts to address customer needs and regulatory requirements.
This is an AI generated piece of content, based on the Logicast Podcast Season 5, Episode 3.
