Category: Serverless

I realized at a young age that I really liked writing those special statements that would control the computer and make it work in the manner in which I desired. This technique of controlling the computer and building things on the machine, I learned from my teachers was called writing code, and it fascinated me. Even now, what seems like centuries later, I still get the thrill of writing code, building cool solutions, and tackling all the associated challenges of this craft. It is no wonder then, that I am a huge fan of serverless computing and serverless architectures.

Serverless Computing allows me to do what I enjoy, which is write code, without having to provision and/or configure servers. Using the AWS Serverless Platform means that all the heavy lifting of server management is handled by AWS, allowing you to focus on building your application.

If you enjoy coding like I do and have yet to dive into building serverless applications, boy do I have some sensational news for you. You can build your own serverless web application with our new Serverless Web Application Guide, which provides step-by-step instructions for you to create and deploy your serverless web application on AWS.

The Serverless Web Application Guide is a hands-on tutorial that will assist you in building a fully scalable, serverless web application using the following AWS Services:

• AWS Lambda: a managed service for serverless compute that allows you to run code without provisioning or managing servers
• Amazon S3: a managed service that provides simple, durable, scalable object storage
• Amazon Cognito: a managed service that allows you to add user sign-up, and data synchronization to your application
• Amazon API Gateway: a managed service which you can create, publish, and maintain secure APIs
• Amazon DynamoDB: a fast and flexible NoSQL managed cloud database with support for various document and key-value storage models

The application you will build is a simple web application designed for a fictional transportation service. The application will enable users to register and login into the website to request rides from a very unique transportation fleet. You will accomplish this by using the aforementioned AWS services with the serverless application architecture shown in the diagram below.

 
The guide breaks up the each step to build your serverless web application into five separate modules.

1. Static Web Hosting: Amazon S3 hosts static web resources including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and image files that are loaded in the user’s browser.
2. User Management: Amazon Cognito provides user management and authentication functions to secure the backend API.
3. Serverless Backend: Amazon DynamoDB provides a persistence layer where data can be stored by the API’s Lambda function.
4. RESTful APIs: JavaScript executed in the browser sends and receives data from a public backend API built using AWS Lambda and API Gateway.
5. Resource Cleanup: All the resources created throughout the tutorial will be terminated.

To be successful in building the application, you must remember to complete each module in sequential order, as the modules are dependent on resources created in the previous one. Some of the guide’s modules provide CloudFormation templates to aid you in generating the necessary resources to build the application if you do not wish to create them manually.

Summary

Now that you know all about this fantastic new guide for building a serverless web application, you are ready to journey into the world of AWS serverless computing and have some fun writing the code to build the application. The guide is great for beginners and yet still has cool features that even seasoned serverless computing developers will enjoy building. And to top it off, you don’t have to worry about the cost. Each service used is eligible for the AWS Free Tier and is only estimated to cost less than $0.25 if you are outside of Free Tier usage limits.

Take the plunge today and dive into building serverless applications on the AWS serverless platform with this new and exciting Serverless Web Application Guide.

– Tara

Surely, some of you have contemplated how you would survive the possible Zombie apocalypse or how you would build your exciting new startup to disrupt the transportation industry when Unicorn haven is uncovered. Well, there is no need to worry; I know just the thing to get you prepared to handle both of those scenarios: the AWS Serverless Computing Workshop Roadshow.

With the roadshow’s serverless workshops, you can get hands-on experience building serverless applications and microservices so you can rebuild what remains of our great civilization after a widespread viral infection causes human corpses to reanimate around the world in the AWS Zombie Microservices Workshop. In addition, you can give your startup a jump on the competition with the Wild Rydes workshop in order to revolutionize the transportation industry; just in time for a pilot’s crash landing leading the way to the discovery of abundant Unicorn pastures found on the outskirts of the female Amazonian warrior inhabited island of Themyscira also known as Paradise Island.

These free, guided hands-on workshops will introduce the basics of building serverless applications and microservices for common and uncommon scenarios using services like AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon S3, Amazon Kinesis, AWS Step Functions, and more. Let me share some advice before you decide to tackle Zombies and mount Unicorns – don’t forget to bring your laptop to the workshop and make sure you have an AWS account established and available for use for the event.

Check out the schedule below and get prepared today by registering for an upcoming workshop in a city near you. Remember these are workshops are completely free, so participation is on a first come, first served basis. So register and get there early, we need Zombie hunters and Unicorn riders across the globe.  Learn more about AWS Serverless Computing Workshops here and register for your city using links below.

I look forward to fighting zombies and riding unicorns with you all.

– Tara