Serverless Computing with Amazon Web Services: Points to Consider

AWS is rapidly becoming a dominant technology in cloud computing. According to recent estimations , the platform serves over a million active users in more than 190 countries. This Amazon technology offers you an impressive list of benefits, but its adequate implementation also brings many challenges.

Interested in AWS but have some doubts on how to use such services? In this article, we will provide an overview of the benefits an AWS serverless architecture can bring to your business. We will also discuss the essential points you have to consider to employ the maximum potential of this technology.

Amazon Web Services: Dynamics and Growth Potential

In recent years, AWS has shown dramatic growth in its profitability. In 2020, the platform reached ,370 million in revenue . At this point, it is the world's largest cloud platform, applied by such brands as Netflix, Facebook, and Linkedin. AWS provides its users with more than 200 services designed for different purposes.

(Source: Statista )

AWS can provide solutions to a broad range of business issues, including secure data storage and building high-level enterprise applications.

Generally, AWS technologies are used for:

• Running web application servers
• Hosting dynamic websites
• Building serverless infrastructures
• Creating and using managed databases for secure data storage
• Distributing web content across content delivery networks

As for the domain focus, the use of AWS technologies is not limited to a specific industry. It can aid either a healthcare business interested in developing a web application for a remote healthcare monitoring system . Organizations from a broad range of spheres use AWS stack to launch web-based serverless applications without overloading their servers.

What is Serverless Computing and How it Can Benefit Your Business?

Serverless infrastructure development gains momentum in the domain of web technologies. But what does it actually mean? Before diving into tech details, let’s clarify the meaning of this concept.

A serverless design pattern implies that an application is hosted by a third-party service provider instead of a developer or product owner. This technology, which is often referred to as Function as a Service (FaaS), allows companies to unload their servers and save time required for infrastructure management.

Apart from allowing businesses to avoid infrastructure management burdens, serverless architecture brings multiple other benefits:

• High availability. Under the maintenance of a provider, serverless systems can show exceptional and stable performance over a long period of time.
• Fault tolerance. It allows the system to continue working properly even after some of its components fail.
• Reduced expenses on idle capacity. Capacity and storage remain completely on the provider’s side, which means there is no need to pay for any capacity when your code is not running.

With all its advantages, the development of a serverless infrastructure becomes a solution for many problems that exist beyond specific industries. Organizations of different sizes implement serverless architecture for process automation, enhanced API management, system monitoring, and many other purposes. The potential of such technologies stimulates the rapid development of the serverless architecture market, which is recognizable in the graph below.

All such factors highlight the great potential of serverless technology. Multiple benefits and areas of the application make it a universal solution for many problems, regardless of the industry. The key point is to implement such advantages properly and achieve maximum efficiency.

5 Tips on How to Implement Serverless Architecture With AWS and Why

The use of AWS technologies for building serverless computing software brings many advantages when you do it right. Here are some relevant tips on how to employ the full potential of serverless architecture development with AWS. They should help you avoid mistakes and know what to focus on.

Tip#1: Mind the scaling

Scalability is one of the most valuable features of a serverless computing platform. A rapidly growing number of API requests can spoil the performance of your app. To deliver a scalable application, you have to employ the potential of AWS serverless functionalities, such as AWS Auto Scaling . This function keeps the most important instances active and removes the inactive ones. You can customize the maximum and the minimum number of instances that remain active.

Thanks to AWS scalability, you ensure the stable performance of your software and its high adaptivity to changing data loads. AWS scalability functions also allow you to establish fixed data processing limits, which reduces architecture maintenance expenses.

Tip #2: Focus on AWS Lambda

Use AWS Lambda and its functionalities to kickstart the efficiency of your serverless architecture development. This event-driven Function-as-a-Service platform is the most relevant part of the AWS serverless stack when it comes to developing a serverless framework. AWS Lambda allows running the code in the cloud, which unloads your servers . AWS Lambda operates primarily with backend processes, while API Gateway is responsible for directing HTTP requests from the frontend.

The use of AWS Lambda allows serverless stack developers to save much time and effort required for basic tasks. Since the technology provider manages the essential security functions, engineers don’t need to take care of this.=Lambda also has expanded functionalities for automated application scaling and provides deployment networks. Finally, a developer working with serverless Lambda has to write the code only for particular functions, while the platform provides the basic code.

Tip #3: Rely on additional AWS tools

For sure, Lambda is the most useful AWS stack tool for serverless framework development , but it is not the only AWS platform suitable for such infrastructures. In particular, Lambda is directly connected to DynamoDB , which is a proprietary NoSQL serverless database that can be applied for developing a scalable and cost-efficient backend of a serverless app. Amazon S3 is a service that can be used for file storage in connection with AWS Lambda. Finally, API Gateway is a connected to AWS Lambda API management tool that ensures smooth connectivity between your app’s frontend and backend. You can use these tools simultaneously to ensure the highest productivity and stability of your AWS serverless software.

Tip#4: Mind the security

When it comes to software that stores private and confidential data, security is of paramount importance. AWS technology stack contains numerous tools that ensure the security of serverless platforms.

• Amazon Cogito. This tool provides information on unauthorized authentication attempts.
• CloudHSM. This solution supports AWS security best practices with automatically-generated data encryption keys.
• CloudTrail. This auditing AWS tool ensures monitoring of API requests.
• CloudFront. It is an AWS technology that protects your system from DDoS attacks.
• Amazon Inspector. It is an automated security assessment service that provides a comprehensive assessment of your apps’ security.

Apart from relying on AWS security tools, you have to follow AWS best security practices to fortify your serverless software. Check out the most critical of them below.

Tip#5: Use repositories

AWS CodeCommit allows hosting highly scalable repositories. While using repositories, a developer can share the code with other software engineers to work on the code together. A Serverless Application Model created with AWS Lambda is private by default. Once a developer uploads it to the repository, the model becomes public or accessible for a restricted number of users. Such an approach ensures secure collective work on the application, where all responsibilities are clearly defined and distributed.

Conclusions on AWS serverless computing

The development of serverless architecture for your software brings multiple benefits to businesses that embrace digitalization. Tips and a clear understanding of AWS serverless development patterns matter a lot, but it’s better to rely on somebody who has proven expertise in this sphere.

It is when Binariks comes to action. We are an AWS-certified company with outstanding experience in providing technology services to organizations from multiple industries. You may check our portfolio to know more about our professional expertise.

Interested in enhancing your business with top-notch software solutions? Contact us to discuss your needs. Perhaps, you are just in for dropping the next big thing in serverless computing.