By:
On:
In: AWS

Field Notes provides hands-on technical guidance from AWS Solutions Architects, consultants, and technical account managers, based on their experiences in the field solving real-world business problems for customers. Many of our customers in the entertainment industry are transforming their business structure from a traditional broadcasting model to a digital media and online content distribution platform. Many shows and sport events are streamed live online and users expect to be able to catch up and rewatch content immediately after it airs. This demand creates the need for a robust and cost effective way to set up Live-to-VOD pipelines at scale. In this post, this post weRead More →

By:
On:
In: AWS

This post was co-written with Lucas Ceballos, CTO of Smadex Introduction Showing ads may seem to be a simple task, but it’s not. Showing the right ad to the right user is an incredibly complex challenge that involves multiple disciplines such as artificial intelligence, data science, and software engineering. Doing it one million times per second with a 100-ms constraint is even harder. In the ad-tech business, speed and infrastructure costs are the keys to success. The less the final user waits for an ad, the higher the probability of that user clicking on the ad. Doing that while keeping infrastructure costs under control isRead More →

By:
On:
In: AWS

Building on our previous posts regarding messaging patterns and queue-based processing, we now explore stream-based processing and how it helps you achieve low-latency, near real-time data processing in your applications. AWS offers two managed services for streaming, Amazon Kinesis and Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (Amazon MSK). What is streaming data? At AWS, we define streaming data as data that is emitted at high volume in a continuous, incremental manner with the goal of low-latency processing. Whereas traditional batch-oriented business intelligence would offer insights in retrospect after months, days, or hours have passed, stream-based processing can offer actionable insights in real time. Stream-based processingRead More →

By:
On:
In: AWS

In previous blog posts in this messaging series, we provided an overview of messaging and we also explained the common characteristics to consider when  evaluating messaging channel technologies. In this post, we will explain some of the semantics of queue-based processing, its use in designing flexible systems, and how to apply it to your use cases. AWS offers two queue-based services: Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) and Amazon MQ. We will focus on SQS in this blog. Building Blocks In the digital world, even the most basic design of web based systems requires the use of queues to integrate applications. SQS is a secure, serverless,Read More →

By:
On:
In: AWS

In the first post in this series on messaging patterns, we gave an overview of messaging and the benefits and challenges of both synchronous and asynchronous service communication. In this post, we will look at common characteristics to consider when evaluating messaging channel technologies. We will also introduce Amazon EventBridge, the AWS Serverless event bus. What is an Event? An event is the occurrence of an immutable message describing something that happened in the past. The event data payload typically contains details of the occurrence and associated metadata. Events are routed from a producer to potential consumers via a transportation channel, as defined in theRead More →

By:
On:
In: AWS

Building on the first three parts of the AWS Lambda scaling and best practices series where you learned how to design serverless apps for massive scale, AWS Lambda’s different invocation models, and best practices for developing with AWS Lambda, we now invite you to take your serverless knowledge to the next level by reviewing the following 10 topics to deepen your serverless skills. 1: API and Microservices Design With the move to microservices-based architectures, decomposing monothlic applications and de-coupling dependencies is more important than ever. Learn more about how to design and deploy your microservices with Amazon API Gateway: An overview of designing microservices BuildingRead More →

By:
On:
In: AWS

In our previous post we discussed the various ways you can invoke AWS Lambda functions. In this post, we’ll provide some tips and best practices you can use when building your AWS Lambda functions. One of the benefits of using Lambda, is that you don’t have to worry about server and infrastructure management. This means AWS will handle the heavy lifting needed to execute your Lambda functions. You should take advantage of this architecture with the tips below. Tip #1: When to VPC-Enable a Lambda Function Lambda functions always operate from an AWS-owned VPC. By default, your function has full ability to make network requestsRead More →

By:
On:
In: AWS

In our first post, we talked about general design patterns to enable massive scale with serverless applications. In this post, we’ll review the different ways you can invoke Lambda functions and what you should be aware of with each invocation model. Synchronous Invokes Synchronous invocations are the most straight forward way to invoke your Lambda functions. In this model, your functions execute immediately when you perform the Lambda Invoke API call. This can be accomplished through a variety of options, including using the CLI or any of the supported SDKs. Here is an example of a synchronous invoke using the CLI: aws lambda invoke —function-name MyLambdaFunction —invocation-type RequestResponseRead More →

By:
On:
In: AWS

Serverless is one of the hottest design patterns in the cloud today, allowing you to focus on building and innovating, rather than worrying about the heavy lifting of server and OS operations. In this series of posts, we’ll discuss topics that you should consider when designing your serverless architectures. First, we’ll look at architectural patterns designed to achieve massive scale with serverless. Scaling Considerations In general, developers in a “serverful” world need to be worried about how many total requests can be served throughout the day, week, or month, and how quickly their system can scale. As you move into the serverless world, the most important questionRead More →

By:
On:
In: AWS

As we sail past the halfway point between re:Invent 2018 and re:Invent 2019, I’d like to revisit some of the recent serverless announcements we’ve made. These are all complimentary to the patterns discussed in the re:Invent architecture track’s Serverless Architectural Patterns and Best Practices session. AWS Event Fork Pipelines AWS Event Fork Pipelines was announced in March 2019. Many customers use asynchronous event-driven processing in their serverless applications to decouple application components and address high concurrency needs. And in doing so, they often find themselves needing to backup, search, analyze, or replay these asynchronous events. That is exactly what AWS Event Fork Pipelines aims toRead More →