Title: Issue #200: Hooray for 200 issues!
Publication: Ready, Set, Cloud!
Series: Ready, Set, Cloud Picks of the Week
Author: Allen Helton
Published: January 26, 2026
URL: https://www.readysetcloud.io/newsletter/200/

Thank you all for sticking with me for 200 issues of the newsletter. Here's to 200 more!


### 🦸 Community Superhero

Our community superhero this week is [Pravesh Sudha](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://www.linkedin.com/in/pravesh-sudha/&cid=readysetcloud_200), content creator and AWS Community Builder. Pravesh is a prolific creator, and covers a wide range of cloud topics ranging from containers to AI to web development. He publishes real, grounded content full of builder opinions (in a good way) that make topics feel easily approachable. Thanks for everything you do, Pravesh!

### 💯 Spotlight

We've seen quite a few articles the past month and a half on Lambda Durable Functions. These mainly show how to build with them and compare the functionality with Step Functions. But [Michael Walmsley](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://www.linkedin.com/in/walmsles/&cid=readysetcloud_200) broke that mold last week with an article about [encrypting checkpoint data with custom keys](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://serverlessdna.com/strands/lambda/durable-function-encryption&cid=readysetcloud_200). Michael explains how Durable Functions work and shows you exactly how to encrypt data to adhere to strict compliance regulations. If you're interested in learning how it all works - give this a read.

### 🔥 My Favorite Content

I love builder articles. Posts that share stories of a problem someone had and what they built to solve it. [Jimmy Dahlqvist](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://www.linkedin.com/in/dahlqvistjimmy/&cid=readysetcloud_200) is a pro at this, and he did not disappoint last week with his article on how he [built a serverless AI bartender](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://jimmydqv.com/serverless-ai-bartender-part-1/&cid=readysetcloud_200). It goes through the architecture, but also has some great info on getting setup with DSQL and some gotchas to look out for. Love this!

Speaking of builder articles, I found one from Nori showing us how to [send Trello reminders to WhatsApp](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://dev.to/saemp21/send-trello-notifications-to-your-whatsapp-using-aws-serverless-for-less-than-1-a-month-1l2g&cid=readysetcloud_200). This is a guided tutorial that walks you through the connective glue between these two systems using AWS. While it's not a novel build architecturally, it does showcase some clever engineering to do things yourself and solve a real-world problem I assume many of us have.

This is our last newsletter issue for January, which means our last "2026 prediction" article. This time, we get one from [Asif Awan](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://www.linkedin.com/in/asifawan/&cid=readysetcloud_200) on the CNCF blog about [the four pillars of platform control for autonomous enterprises](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://www.cncf.io/blog/2026/01/23/the-autonomous-enterprise-and-the-four-pillars-of-platform-control-2026-forecast/&cid=readysetcloud_200). This article predicts a widespread adoption of autonomous AI agents in the enterprise and outlines the key components to them being successful. These aren't outlandish claims, they feel grounded in pragmatism to me.

### 💡 Tip of the Week

Here's an existential question about API Gateways posed by [Kin Lane](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://www.linkedin.com/in/kinlane/&cid=readysetcloud_200) last week. There are some really good answers in the comments along with a few funny ones 😜



### 🐣 New Releases

There were no notable releases I found last week that this crew would be interested in. But remember to check out [AWS News](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://aws-news.com&cid=readysetcloud_200) to keep up with the latest releases.



### Last Words

Wow, 200 issues already! We've come a long way the past four years - and I can't honestly say I expected to get here! What an incredible journey and what a huge change this newsletter has gone through. For kicks, have a look at [issue #1](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://www.readysetcloud.io/newsletter/1/&cid=readysetcloud_200) sent on April 4, 2022.

What did I miss? What made you nod along (or 🙄)? Hit reply if you're reading the email. Prefer socials? Ping me on [Twitter](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://twitter.com/allenheltondev&cid=readysetcloud_200), [LinkedIn](https://rdyset.click/r?u=https://www.linkedin.com/in/allenheltondev/&cid=readysetcloud_200), or [email](mailto:allenheltondev@gmail.com).

Happy coding!

Allen