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Dear AWS, How Do I Build & Develop Purely on AWS Right Now?

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Dear AWS, How Do I Build & Develop Purely on AWS Right Now?

In the ever-evolving world of cloud computing, Amazon Web Services (AWS) stands as a dominant force, offering a comprehensive suite of services for building, deploying, and managing applications at scale. But for developers seeking to leverage the full potential of AWS, a crucial question arises:

How can I build and develop applications entirely within the AWS ecosystem?

This guide delves into the key concepts, techniques, and tools that empower developers to achieve this goal.

Embracing the AWS Ecosystem

Building purely on AWS means embracing its diverse service offerings, which can be categorized into core infrastructure, compute, storage, databases, networking, and specialized services. Let's explore the essential components:

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

At the foundation of any cloud-native development lies Infrastructure as Code (IaC). IaC empowers developers to define and manage infrastructure resources declaratively using code, eliminating manual configuration and ensuring consistency and repeatability. AWS provides robust IaC tools:

AWS CloudFormation : A powerful IaC tool that uses a JSON or YAML-based template language to define and provision AWS resources. It enables you to automate the creation, updates, and deletion of your infrastructure, ensuring consistency and control.
AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM) : A specialized IaC tool designed for serverless applications. It simplifies the deployment of Lambda functions, API Gateway endpoints, and other serverless components.
Terraform : A popular open-source IaC tool that supports multiple cloud providers, including AWS. It uses a declarative language called HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) to define and manage resources.

Example: Creating a VPC with CloudFormation


Resources:
MyVpc:
Type: AWS::EC2::VPC
Properties:
  CidrBlock: 10.0.0.0/16
  EnableDnsSupport: true
  EnableDnsHostnames: true

This CloudFormation template creates a VPC with a specific CIDR block and enables DNS support and hostnames.

Compute Services

Compute services provide the computational resources needed to run your applications. AWS offers various compute options, catering to different use cases:

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) : The foundational compute service, providing virtual machines (VMs) for various operating systems and configurations. You can choose from instances tailored to specific workloads, such as general-purpose, compute-optimized, and memory-optimized.
AWS Lambda : A serverless compute service that allows you to execute code without managing servers. You simply upload your code, define triggers, and Lambda automatically scales and executes your functions based on demand.
Amazon ECS : A fully managed container orchestration service that simplifies the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
Amazon EKS : A managed Kubernetes service that provides a highly available and secure Kubernetes environment for deploying and managing containerized applications.

Example: Deploying a Node.js Application on EC2

Create an EC2 instance with the desired configuration.

Connect to the instance using SSH.

Install Node.js and your application dependencies.

Configure your application to run on the EC2 instance.

Storage Services

AWS provides a wide range of storage options, enabling you to store data securely, reliably, and cost-effectively:

Amazon S3 : An object storage service that offers high durability, scalability, and availability for storing data like images, videos, and backups. It is often used as the primary storage mechanism for web applications.
Amazon EBS : A persistent block storage service designed for EC2 instances. It provides high I/O performance and low latency for critical applications.
Amazon EFS : A file storage service that provides a shared file system across multiple EC2 instances, enabling applications to access data collaboratively.
Amazon DynamoDB : A fully managed, NoSQL database service that provides fast and scalable storage for application data.

Example: Storing Application Logs in S3

Create an S3 bucket to store your application logs.

Configure your application to write logs to the S3 bucket.

Use AWS services like CloudWatch Logs Insights to analyze the collected logs.

Databases

AWS offers a diverse range of databases, covering relational, NoSQL, and in-memory options:

Amazon RDS : A managed relational database service that simplifies database administration tasks like provisioning, scaling, and backups. It supports popular databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle.
Amazon Aurora : A MySQL-compatible, fully managed relational database service that provides high performance and scalability at a lower cost than traditional databases.
Amazon DynamoDB : A fully managed, NoSQL database service that provides fast and scalable storage for application data.
Amazon Redshift : A fully managed data warehouse service that provides petabyte-scale data analysis for business intelligence and analytics.

Networking

AWS provides a comprehensive networking infrastructure that enables secure and efficient communication within your applications and across the internet:

Amazon VPC : A private virtual network that allows you to isolate your resources within a secure and customizable environment. It provides control over your network infrastructure, including subnets, routing tables, and network access controls.
Amazon Route 53 : A fully managed DNS service that provides high availability and scalability for resolving domain names to IP addresses. It integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, simplifying domain management.
Amazon Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) : A load balancer service that distributes traffic across multiple instances, ensuring high availability and performance for your applications.
Amazon CloudFront : A content delivery network (CDN) service that caches static content at the edge locations, reducing latency and improving performance for users worldwide.

Specialized Services

Beyond core infrastructure, AWS offers specialized services that cater to specific development needs:

Amazon Cognito : A user authentication and authorization service that simplifies user management, allowing developers to focus on building their applications.
Amazon API Gateway : A fully managed service for creating, publishing, maintaining, monitoring, and securing REST and WebSocket APIs at any scale.
Amazon SQS : A fully managed message queuing service that enables decoupled communication between different components of your application.
Amazon SNS : A fully managed push notification service that allows you to send messages to a variety of endpoints, including mobile devices, email addresses, and HTTP endpoints.

Developing Purely on AWS: A Practical Approach

Let's illustrate building and developing entirely on AWS with a concrete example: creating a simple web application that stores user data in DynamoDB and exposes an API using API Gateway.

Defining the Infrastructure with CloudFormation

We'll start by defining our infrastructure using CloudFormation:


Resources:
DynamoDBTable:
Type: AWS::DynamoDB::Table
Properties:
  TableName: UserTable
  AttributeDefinitions:
    - AttributeName: userId
      AttributeType: S
  KeySchema:
    - AttributeName: userId
      KeyType: HASH
  BillingMode: PAY_PER_REQUEST
ApiGatewayRestApi:
Type: AWS::Serverless::Api
Properties:
  StageName: dev
  DefinitionBody:
    swagger: '2.0'
    info:
      version: '1.0.0'
      title: User API
    paths:
      /users:
        get:
          x-amazon-apigateway-integration:
            httpMethod: POST
            type: aws_proxy
            integrationHttpMethod: POST
            uri: arn:aws:apigateway:${AWS::Region}:lambda:path/2015-03-31/functions/${UserLambdaFunction.Arn}/invocations
UserLambdaFunction:
Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
Properties:
  Handler: index.handler
  Runtime: nodejs16.x
  CodeUri: s3://my-bucket/my-app/
  MemorySize: 512
  Timeout: 10
  Policies:
    - AWSLambdaBasicExecutionRole
  Environment:
    Variables:
      TABLE_NAME: !Ref DynamoDBTable
UserLambdaRole:
Type: AWS::IAM::Role
Properties:
  AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
    Statement:
      - Effect: Allow
        Principal:
          Service: lambda.amazonaws.com
        Action: sts:AssumeRole
  Policies:
    - PolicyName: DynamoDBAccess
      PolicyDocument:
        Statement:
          - Effect: Allow
            Action:
              - dynamodb:GetItem
              - dynamodb:PutItem
              - dynamodb:UpdateItem
            Resource:
              - !GetAtt DynamoDBTable.Arn

This CloudFormation template creates a DynamoDB table named "UserTable," defines an API Gateway endpoint for /users, and deploys a Lambda function named "UserLambdaFunction" that handles user data operations. The Lambda function is granted access to DynamoDB to perform CRUD operations.

Implementing the Lambda Function

Next, we implement the Lambda function in Node.js to handle user data operations:


const AWS = require('aws-sdk');
const dynamoDb = new AWS.DynamoDB.DocumentClient();

exports.handler = async (event) => {
const { userId, name, email } = event.body;

try {
const params = {
TableName: process.env.TABLE_NAME,
Item: {
userId,
name,
email,
},
};
await dynamoDb.put(params).promise();
return {
statusCode: 200,
body: JSON.stringify({ message: 'User created successfully' }),
};
} catch (error) {
console.error(error);
return {
statusCode: 500,
body: JSON.stringify({ message: 'Failed to create user' }),
};
}
};

This Lambda function retrieves user details from the event body, interacts with the DynamoDB table to create a new user, and returns a success or error response.

Deploying and Testing

To deploy the application, use the CloudFormation template to provision the infrastructure. Once deployed, you can test the API using tools like Postman:

Send a POST request to the API Gateway endpoint (/users).

Include the user details in the request body as JSON.

Verify that the user is successfully created in DynamoDB and the API returns a success response.

Conclusion

Building and developing purely on AWS empowers you to leverage its rich ecosystem and accelerate your development process. By embracing Infrastructure as Code, leveraging compute and storage services, and utilizing specialized tools, you can create robust, scalable, and cost-effective applications.

Key takeaways:

Embrace Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools like CloudFormation, SAM, or Terraform to manage your infrastructure declaratively.
Choose the right compute services based on your application requirements, considering serverless options like Lambda for cost optimization and scalability.
Utilize AWS's diverse storage options to store data securely and efficiently.
Select the appropriate database service based on your application's data model and performance needs.
Leverage AWS's comprehensive networking infrastructure to establish secure and scalable connections.
Explore specialized services like Cognito, API Gateway, SQS, and SNS to enhance your application's functionality.

By following these best practices, you can harness the full power of AWS and build truly cloud-native applications that are resilient, scalable, and cost-effective.