For anyone using EC2 Parameter Store, a free service in AWS: > Parameters: > AMI: > Type: AWS::SSM::Parameter::Value<String> > Default: /aws/service/ecs/optimized-ami/amazon-linux/recommended/image_id Gives you the latest, fully patched Linux OS in any of 19 regions that you launch it in. Free K/V store that works really well for apps and custom parameters.

Well, that’s great for anyone using the EC2 parameter store, but isn’t really helpful for all those situations where you’re not.

“This is not a problem for my specific set of use cases around AWS” is not a “solved problem”