AWS SDK cURL error 28 Connection timed out

If when using Amazon / AWS PHP SDK (for e.g. AWS SES) you're getting this error

cURL error 28: Connection timed out after 1001 milliseconds

make sure you got the credentials right; pay attention to the key nesting (i.e. key and secret go under credentials)

$client = SesClient::factory(array(
  'version'   => 'latest',
  'region'    => 'eu-north-1',
  'credentials' => array(
    'key'       => AWS_KEY,
    'secret'    => AWS_SECRET,
  ),
));

This may not be a network connection problem after all. more info