AWS Bites

Saddle up for a cloud adventure like no other in this episode of AWS Bites, where Eoin and Luciano explore the untamed world of AWS S3 Mountpoint.

Just like a trusty steed on the digital prairie, Mountpoint gallops into action to solve complex use cases, making it a valuable asset for managing massive data, achieving high throughput, and effortlessly fetching information from the AWS S3 wilderness. Dive deep into the inner workings of Mountpoint, a Rust-powered Linux-exclusive application that harnesses the Linux FUSE subsystem to provide optimal S3 performance.

While exploring alternatives like s3fs-fuse and goofys, discover the benefits of sticking to native AWS tools for certain scenarios.

Uncover Mountpoint's performance prowess, thanks to its integration with AWS Common Runtime libraries, and learn when to hop on this cloud cowboy or opt for a more native approach.

In this episode of AWS Bites, we take you on a captivating migration journey. Together, we'll explore how we transformed fullstackbulletin.com's automation process, leaving behind the complexities of a monolithic AWS Lambda and embracing the efficiency of Step Functions.

Join us as we dive into the challenges of automating a weekly newsletter, trying to strike the perfect balance between automation and manual curation. We'll discover the risks of relying on external services and how we navigated these obstacles during our migration.

Together, we'll uncover the step-by-step process of breaking down the monolithic Lambda architecture and orchestrating a more manageable approach with Step Functions. We will also briefly touch on alternative social platforms like Mastodon and other Twitter alternatives during our migration adventure.

Learn with us about different migration strategies and the crucial role of observability for smooth operations.

In this episode of AWS Bites, we discuss VPC Lattice, a new service in the Salad Bowl of AWS Networking. We cover all the concepts, applications, and exciting possibilities for VPC Lattice and share tips on how to use it effectively. We talk about reducing friction between network admin and dev teams and how VPC Lattice can be a game changer for traditional and serverless workloads. Get ready for some greens and don't miss this informative episode of AWS Bites!

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Are you interested in landing an AWS role? Or maybe are you looking to hire some cloud talent?! In this episode of the AWS Bites podcast, we share our insights on the interview process we have adopted at fourTheorem. This process is not just about testing AWS knowledge, but it's also about evaluating cultural fit, way of working skills and knowledge, and future plans. From the “Fiona chat” to the technical interview, we provide valuable tips for candidates, such as being honest about your knowledge and asking questions during the interview.

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Are you struggling with securely integrating workloads running on-premises, in Azure, or in any other cloud with a workload running in AWS? In this exciting episode of the AWS Bites podcast, we dive into 6 different options for securely and efficiently integrating workloads between clouds. From providing a public API in AWS with an authorization method to using IAM roles anywhere to using OIDC federated identities, we explore the advantages and disadvantages of each option. We even cover the use of SSM hybrid activations and creating the interface on the Azure/Data Centre side and polling from AWS. Don't miss out on this informative discussion about the best practices for integrating workloads between clouds. Tune in now and let’s have some cloud fun together!

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In the latest episode of AWS Bites Podcast, Luciano and Eoin share their insider tips on how to get the most out of in-person AWS events like summits, re:Inforce, or re:Invent.

From networking to swag hoarding, they cover everything you need to know to make the most of these conferences. Learn how to convince your employer to let you attend and how to plan ahead to get the most out of the event. Plus, hear about the fun activities and after-parties you won't want to miss.

Don't miss out on this must-listen episode if you're attending an AWS event soon!

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In this episode of AWS Bites, we explore the future of Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) in the context of the zero-trust security trend.

We'll dive into the pros and cons of using VPCs, including their usefulness when dealing with sensitive data or when you need fine-grained control over your network environment. But let's be real, sometimes VPCs can be a bit of a headache. We'll discuss why you might want to avoid them, including the added complexity they can bring to your network environment.

Fear not, we'll also provide a summary of when to use and when not to use VPCs, as well as alternatives to using VPCs, such as services that don't require them.

So, are ready to talk VPCs!?

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In this episode of the AWS Bites podcast, we explore the best practices for creating and configuring S3 Buckets, Amazon Web Services' popular object storage service. We will learn how to set up buckets correctly from the start, avoiding common pitfalls and ensuring efficient management.

We provide a quick recap of Amazon S3, covering buckets, objects, and various use cases. Discover the importance of globally unique bucket names, versioning, and observability through logging and metrics. We will tell you how to ensure the security of your buckets with encryption options and proper access controls.

Finally, we discuss S3 integrations and additional settings you might consider for your workload.

Don't miss this insightful episode packed with practical tips and expert advice. Tune in now and optimize your S3 Bucket setup for success!

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Who is the king of all databases when it comes to performance? Yes, Redis! Of course!

In this episode of AWS Bites, we talk about Redis on ElastiCache, one of the most essential instruments in the cloud architect's toolbox.

We explore the joys and woes of Redis on AWS and share some exciting alternatives regarding in-memory databases and caching systems.

We discuss the use cases of Redis, including session storage, web page caching, database cache, cost optimization, queues and pub/sub messaging, and distributed applications state.

We extensively talk about ElastiCache, the managed cache solution on AWS based on either Redis or Memcache, and its features such as replication groups, auto-scaling, and monitoring.

Finally, we discuss potential alternatives, such as DynamoDB (with DAX), Upstash, or Momento, a serverless cache built on Pelikan.

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Are you tired of being stuck in your local development environment? Do you dream of coding from a beach in Sicily? Well, get ready to make those dreams a reality with this episode of AWS Bites!

Today we are here to show you how to use VSCode to develop against a remote Cloud9 instance on AWS.

You'll learn how to edit in VSCode instead of using the Cloud9 editor, so you can take advantage of the power of the cloud and code from anywhere while staying in the comfort of your favourite code editor.

We'll cover two ways to edit in VSCode: with SSM and with VSCode Tunnels. With these setups, you can code from home, a coffee shop, or even a beach in Sicily (if you like granitas and sunshine). Plus, you'll get to use that fancy iPad you spent all that money on (also) for coding!

Get comfortable and let’s learn how to set up our next remote coding environment!

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In this episode of the AWS Bites podcast, we discuss the challenges of hosting private static websites on AWS. We explore why it's important to host internal corporate applications and line of business applications only for internal consumption, and the requirements for doing so. We also evaluate different options for hosting private static websites, including S3 with CloudFront, containers on ECS/Fargate with ALB, API Gateway, and AppRunner. Finally, we summarize the pros and cons of each option and provide a rating for each. If you're looking to host a private static website on AWS, this episode is a must-listen!

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In this exciting episode of the AWS Bites podcast, we're diving into the fascinating world of functionless applications. Yes, you heard it right! We'll be exploring how reducing the number of lambda functions can simplify your applications, resulting in lower latency, no cold starts, and cheaper costs.

But don't worry, we still love lambda! We'll be explaining the pros and cons of this approach, taking you through a step-by-step guide on how to use service proxies and manipulate the input for the target service using VTL.

And that's not all! We also share some helpful resources for those interested in learning more about this approach, including blog posts from some of the brightest minds in the field like Alex DeBrie, Sheen Brisals, and Paul Swail.

So, tune in and learn how to simplify your applications, reduce costs, and take your AWS game to the next level with functionless applications!

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Harken, good sir! Art thou aware of the arcane art of safeguarding thy AWS instances from malevolent threats whilst keeping them accessible for thy travels? There exists a mighty tool for such purpose, and it is hight the "bastion host." In this pamphlet, we shalt unravel the mysteries of the bastion host and showeth thee how to useth it to safeguard thy web space. We shall commence by presenting a shadowy example architecture and introducing thee to the definition of a bastion host. We shalt then delve into the question of whether bastion hosts could be a security liability and explore the enigmatic concept of port-knocking. We shalt also take thee on a valiant journey of how to provision a bastion host on AWS, and explaineth the cryptic basics of SSH and tunnels. Thou shalt discover the dark side of managing SSH keys and auditing SSH connections, and we shall reveal the secrets of AWS EC2 Instance Connect and AWS Session Manager (SSM) as solutions. Thou shalt learn how to accept connections without exposing a port on the public internet, and we shall introduce thee to a mysterious tool called "basti" that can make it easier to provision SSM-based bastion hosts and connect to thy databases. We shalt wrap up by revealing alternative security measures to the mysterious bastion host and provide thee with cryptic closing notes to summarize the key takeaways from this video. Heed our call to this intriguing guide to securing thy web space, and may the forces of the internet be in thy favor! 🛡️ SPONSORS 🛡️ Harken, good folk! We would like to offer our deepest gratitude to our noble sponsor, fourTheorem (https://fourtheorem.com), an AWS Consulting Partner that doth offer training, cloud migration, and modern application architecture. Thanks to their generosity, we are able to continue on our journey of imparting wisdom and knowledge regarding AWS.

Verily, in this episode, we hath made mention of the following resources:

Are you tired of waiting for your Lambda functions to finish before getting a response? Well, now you don't have to! In this episode of the AWS Bites podcast, we will talk about Lambda Response Streaming, a new feature recently added by AWS that lets you stream responses from your Lambda functions in real time. We'll start by explaining what Lambda Response Streaming is and how it differs from buffering. We'll also discuss HTTP Chunking and other benefits of streaming. If you're a Node.js developer, you'll be happy to know that we'll cover how to work with streams in Node.js and how the new Lambda Response Streaming API works with the Node.js runtime. But that's not all! We'll also discuss how to consume Lambda Response Streaming responses and compare that with S3 Object Response. And if you're wondering about pricing and quotas, we'll cover that too. Finally, we'll answer the question on everyone's mind: will we get streaming requests as well? You'll have to watch the video to find out! So if you're interested in learning more about Lambda Response Streaming and how it can improve the performance of your serverless applications, make sure to tune in. We promise it'll be worth your time.

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In this episode, we're doing something different! Join us for a special screen-sharing edition of our podcast series, as we take a deep dive into AWS Copilot, a service designed to simplify container application deployment on AWS. During this video, we'll be sharing our screens as we walk through the AWS Copilot landing page and documentation, and demonstrate how to use the service to deploy a container application. We highly recommend watching the video version of this episode, as we'll be providing a lot of visual guidance and examples. Starting with the basics, we'll learn about the differences between copilot init and copilot app init, and how to prepare our environment using a custom domain. We'll then walk through the deployment process step-by-step, examining the generated configuration file, manifest.yml, and testing our deployed application. Next, we'll explore the networking resources created by AWS Copilot, including a VPC, subnets, and a load balancer, and review the automation capabilities of CodePipeline. We'll also discuss the options available for rolling out new changes, and demonstrate how to make changes and re-deploy through the pipeline. Throughout the video, we will share their thoughts and opinions on AWS Copilot, including a failed attempt with AppRunner and a review of the pipeline execution and timing.

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In this special episode of AWS Bites, we drop all our opinions about the sudden growth of AI and how it is going to change the future as we know it! We begin by taking a trip down memory lane and discovering the types of AI tools that have been used in the past and how they have helped us. Then, we'll dive into ChatGPT, a language model that can assist us in writing and even creating code. We're especially excited to discuss how ChatGPT can be used to create slide decks or even write a book or a blog post. But wait, there's more! We'll also explore the utility of other AI tools such as Grammarly and OpenAI Whisper for improving our writing and transcribing spoken words into text. Moving forward, we'll examine how we tried to use AI to develop cloud applications on platforms like AWS. We'll also consider the impact of AI on the education system and how it can be used to modernize complex systems, or for learning, including programming languages that are new to developers. Now, we know there might be some concerns about using AI, such as whether it takes away the fun of software engineering or reduces creativity. But fear not! We'll address these concerns head-on and explore how AI can actually make us more productive and lead to exciting new discoveries. Finally, we'll discuss the exciting possibilities for AI and its potential to democratize access to the job market and society in general.

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How can you use a Lambda to respond to an HTTP request? There are more ways than ever to do it. We have API Gateway REST APIs, Lambda support for Application Load Balancer, and now Function URLs. But which one should you use, and when? In this episode of AWS Bites podcast, we will give you a quick and simple guide to picking the best way to build APIs with Lambda. In this video, we're going to pitch Function URLs against API Gateway in a battle for the ages! Function URLs offer a simple and quick way to get a public URL to invoke a Lambda function, with fewer configuration options and cheaper pricing. They are suitable for private webhooks, simple backend functions, and machine learning inference backend. However, they lack authorization and DDoS protection, making them unsuitable for public webhooks. On the other hand, API Gateway offers more features and control, making it suitable for public APIs. API Gateway comes in two flavors: REST and HTTP with some subtle differences. Finally, we will also cover Application Load balancer and explore when and why it can be a convenient alternative to both Function URLs and API Gateway.

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In this episode, we're going to be talking about AWS Application Composer - a FREE service that promises to help you build serverless applications with ease. With its simple drag-and-drop interface, it's supposed to make Infrastructure as Code a breeze. But the real question is - does it live up to the hype? We know a lot of you are probably struggling with building applications using CloudFormation. It's a real pain, right? So, we decided to take Application Composer for a spin and see if it's worth adding to your toolkit or giving it a hard pass. After covering a generic overview of the service, how it works, and the main concepts, we discuss our experience in creating a new simple serverless application from scratch only using API Gateway, Lambda, and S3. Then we cover what it looks like to import an existing project (a slightly more complicated one) into Application Composer and find out what works and what doesn't. We conclude by discussing some other things that didn't work as expected and by providing our general recommendation on whether you should be using this service today.

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AWS ECS is a powerful service that allows you to run containerized applications at scale. It's suitable for a variety of use cases, including web applications, microservices, and background processing.

In this episode, we'll provide an introduction to the main concepts of ECS and then dive into cost-optimization strategies. We'll explore the different options for running containers on ECS, including EC2, Fargate, and ECS Anywhere.

We'll discuss various opportunities for saving money, such as using Arm (Graviton) instances, Spot instances, Compute Savings Plans, and RIs or EC2 Saving Plans.

Finally, we'll cover how to set up ECS to use Spot instances, including how to create capacity providers and specify a capacity provider strategy. We'll also discuss whether it's always best to use EC2 instead of Fargate for cost optimization and recommend some tools that can help you find other opportunities to save on container costs.

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Join us as we explore the controversy surrounding serverless computing in this week's video! We'll be discussing David Heinemeier Hansson's recent blog post where he argues that serverless is a trap that only benefits cloud providers.

While we respect DHH's opinion, we'll be providing an alternative perspective by analyzing his major points and discussing the benefits of using serverless computing, including Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and increased agility. We'll also be highlighting how serverless can help teams focus on business logic instead of infrastructure management and enable easier integration with other cloud services, making it more efficient to build and deploy applications.

Don't miss out on this informative and thought-provoking discussion!

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