AWS Compute Blog
Category: Amazon API Gateway
Building an electronic security lock using serverless
In this guide I show how to build an electronic security lock for package delivery, securing physical documents, or granting access to a secret lab. This project uses AWS Serverless to create a touchscreen keypad lock that uses SMS to alert a recipient with a custom message and unlock code. Files are included for the […]
Creating low-latency, high-volume APIs with Provisioned Concurrency
This post examines how cold starts impact performance in serverless backends for web applications. It shows how the most important focus area is usually synchronous APIs called by the frontend application. I explain options available for targeting cold starts in the Lambda service.
Load testing a web application’s serverless backend
In this post, I discuss focus areas for load testing of serverless applications, and highlight two tools commonly used. I show how to configure Artillery with customized functions, and how to run tests to simulate load on the Ask Around Me application.
Using AWS ParallelCluster serverless API for AWS Batch
In this post, I show how to integrate the AWS Batch CLI by AWS ParallelCluster with API Gateway.
Managing backend requests and frontend notifications in serverless web apps
Web and mobile applications usually interact with a backend service, often via an API. Many front-end applications pass requests for processing, wait for a result, and then display this to the user. This synchronous approach is only one way to handle messages, but modern applications have alternatives to provide a better user experience. There are […]
Adding voice to a CircuitPython project using Amazon Polly
An Adafruit PyPortal displaying a quote while synthesizing and playing speech using Amazon Polly. As a natural means of communication, voice is a powerful way to humanize an experience. What if you could make anything talk? This guide walks through how to leverage the cloud to add voice to an off-the-shelf microcontroller. Use it to […]
Building well-architected serverless applications: Approaching application lifecycle management – part 3
This series of blog posts uses the AWS Well-Architected Tool with the Serverless Lens to help customers build and operate applications using best practices. In each post, I address the nine serverless-specific questions identified by the Serverless Lens along with the recommended best practices. See the Introduction post for a table of contents and explanation […]
Visualizing Amazon API Gateway usage plans using Amazon QuickSight
In this post, I walk through configuring streaming of API access logs from Amazon API Gateway to Amazon S3 via a Kinesis Firehose delivery stream.
Building a location-based, scalable, serverless web app – part 3
In part 2, I cover the API configuration, geohashing algorithm, and real-time messaging architecture used in the Ask Around Me web application. These are needed for receiving and processing questions and answers, and sending results back to users in real time. In this post, I explain the backend processing architecture, how data is aggregated, and […]
Building a location-based, scalable, serverless web app – part 2
This post explores the backend architecture of the Ask Around Me application. I compare the cost and features in deciding between REST APIs and HTTP APIs in API Gateway. I introduce geohashing and the npm library used to handle geo-location queries in DynamoDB. And I show how you can build real-time messaging into your web applications using the publish-subscribe pattern with AWS IoT Core.