AWS Builder Center marks 1 year; Security Hub adds Network Scanning; Loom for AWS launched

AWS Builder Center celebrated its first anniversary on July 9, 2026, having grown from a community hub with Wishlist voting, profiles, and a toolbox into a full ecosystem including sandbox environments, workshops, Spaces, and a Builders’ Library. Over the past year, more than 5,500 authors published 6,448 articles with 10.4 million page views. Builders earned 99,226 badges since March 2026, and 565 community wishes were submitted, with 10 shipped and 20 planned. Top articles include "Building an AWS Study Buddy with MCP + Strands Agents SDK" (50,000+ views), "Migrating an EOL Linux Server to AWS in 8 Hours with Kiro" (45,000+ views), and "AIdeas: NeuroVoice – Multimodal AI for Early Screening of Neurological Diseases" (38,000+ views).

A major new feature is Sandbox Environments, providing free, pre-provisioned AWS accounts active for 8 hours to complete workshop exercises without requiring a personal AWS account or credit card.

Recent launches include:

- AWS Security Hub’s Network Scanning, which probes resources from the internet to detect actual reachability, discovering public IPs, VMs, load balancers across AWS and Azure, identifying reachable ports and services, and generating findings correlated for broader risk assessment. Network Scanning is enabled by default for new customers and included with Security Hub Essentials.

- Security Hub now monitors Microsoft Azure resources, providing unified posture and vulnerability management across AWS and Azure with a single prioritized view.

- Amazon SageMaker Studio integrates with Hugging Face for one-click model deployment and customization, offering pre-configured environments with GPU access and serverless customization.

- Amazon EKS Auto Mode and ECS Managed Instances reduce GPU management fees by up to 60% automatically, with enhanced GPU workload capabilities.

- Amazon Aurora DSQL CDC is generally available, streaming insert, update, and delete operations as change events to Kinesis Data Streams for synchronization and triggering downstream services with zero impact on database performance.

Additional AWS news:

- Loom for AWS, an open-source platform for building and managing secure AI agents on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime, supports identity integration, authorization, lifecycle management, and human-in-the-loop review.

- Claude apps gateway offers centralized control over access, cost, and policy for Claude AI applications with OIDC identity provider integration and deployment options.

- OAuth support for AWS MCP Server enables browser-based OAuth sign-in with AWS credentials, supporting IAM federation and token management with governance controls.

Upcoming AWS events include AWS Summits in Taipei, Bogotá, Jakarta, Mexico City, Johannesburg, and Zurich, and AWS Community Days in Yaoundé, Ahmedabad, Belo Horizonte, Ottawa, Tulsa, and Toronto.

Visit the AWS Builder Center to connect with other builders and access resources. The author wishes readers a restful summer and will return with more news next week.