Amazon EMR Serverless, a serverless big data analytics service, now allows customers to encrypt worker local disks using AWS Key Management Service customer-managed keys (CMKs), expanding beyond default AWS-owned keys. This capability addresses compliance and regulatory mandates that require strict control over encryption keys. Users can specify CMKs at the application level or per job run or interactive session.
This feature integrates with new or existing EMR Serverless applications and supports all current EMR release versions. It is available across all AWS Regions supporting EMR Serverless, including specialized environments such as AWS GovCloud. This enhancement provides organizations greater encryption strategy flexibility and meets stringent data protection standards during serverless big data workloads.
Source & further reading
Amazon EMR Serverless now supports AWS KMS customer managed keys for encrypting local disks ↗Source published 2026-01-21. This report was prepared with AI assistance from the linked primary-source material. Claims and limitations should be checked against the original announcement or research.