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Kiro is not Amazon Q with a new name. It's a spec-driven agentic IDE built for autonomous multi-file code generation. Enterprise guide to adoption and governance.
CodePipeline isn't the most loved CI/CD tool — but it's the one that talks to every other AWS service natively. Pipeline architecture, CodeBuild configuration, cross-account deploys, and the patterns that ship code safely without bolting on a third-party runner.
Secrets Manager rotates and costs $0.40 per secret per month. Parameter Store doesn't rotate and is mostly free. Pricing, rotation, encryption, cross-account access, and the decision criteria for picking each — including the hybrid pattern most production accounts end up at.
June 30, 2026 added two major CloudFormation/CDK changes: pre-deployment validation on Create/Update and Express mode with up to 4x faster stack operations. This guide shows when to use each safely in production workflows.
July 2026 decision guide: monolith → modular monolith → microservices on AWS — team size, platform tax (VPC Lattice/mesh), and a checklist before you split for the org chart.
CodePipeline costs a few dollars a month. GitHub Actions costs more at scale than most teams expect. Jenkins is free until you count the team running it. Integration, cost, scalability, and team fit across the three CI/CD options most AWS teams actually choose between.
Terraform is the multi-cloud default. CDK ships AWS features the day they GA. Language support, state management, multi-cloud flexibility, and the trade-off that determines which IaC tool fits your team — plus when running both is the right answer.
CloudWatch is the most underused service on every AWS bill — and the most overspent on the ones that take it seriously. Logs, metrics, and alarm patterns that catch real outages without burying you in noise (or in the bill).
"We'll just have our developers manage AWS" still hides a $635k–$1M DIY ops band for 24/7 coverage. July 2026 TCO: staffing, tooling, GenAI ops, and Support plan choices (Business Support+ / Enterprise).