Serverless Architecture for Web Apps with AWS Lambda

Introduction

Amazon web services popularly known as AWS is basically a new computing system that offers a wide range of benefits such as real-time processing, custom back-end services and so much more. Now I am sure you must have come across several articles that offers lots and lots of information on AWS lambda, which is great but sometimes too much information can be overwhelming. Well, even the following post offers information on AWS but with a bit addition of incorporating Serverless Architecture for Web Apps with AWS Lambda.

What is AWS(Amazon Web Services) Lambda Function?

Now AWS Lambda is basically Amazon’s serverless computing system which runs code as well as automatically manages the underlying computing resources such as EC2. Basically, AWS is an event-driven computing system which enables person to run the code in response to different events such as HTTP requests from Amazon API gateways or updations in the table in Amazon and other state transitions.

AWS also assists well in providing an extended support to other AWS services with custom logic and even it is possible to create their own backend services. So what happens here exactly is that you are supposed to write the code and upload it to a zip file or any container image. Here the code is supposed to successfully run on high-availability computing infrastructure and successfully performs all kinds of administrative duties including:

Maintenance on the server and operating system
Auto-scaling
Managing the person’s capacity provisions
Handling security patch deployment lambda extensions code
Monitoring
Logging
Concurrency function blueprints

And the list goes on and on. You know over the years, it has been proven that AWS lambda is extremely helpful when you know how to write the code even if you don’t know how to provision the underlying infrastructure in AWS. As a result, your application are bound to automatically scale up as soon as traffic boosts up and scale down when the traffic is reduced to zero.

In simple words, AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that successfully runs the code in context of events and has the potential to automatic manage the underlying compute resources for you. Now what kinds of events am I talking about here is user placing an item in a shopping cart or an eCommerce website. In addition to all this, AWS lambda is successfully used to extend other AWS services featuring custom logic, or if it is about creating your backend services which operates well at AWS scale, performance and security.

Here the code runs automatically in response to a wide range of events such as HTTP request via Amazon API gateway, making seamless modifications to the objects in Amazon simple storage service popularly known as Amazon S3, table updates in Amazon DynamoDB, and state transitions in AWS Step Functions.

Some of the core features of AWS Lambda include

Extend other AWS services with custom logic
Building custom backend services
Bring your own code
Completely automated animation
Supports different programming languages such as Python, Node.js, Java, C#, Go.
Built-in fault tolerance
Automatic scaling
Connect to shared file systems
Connect to relational databases
Package and deploy functions as container images
Fine-grained control over performance
Integrated security model
Trust and integrity controls
Flexible resource model
Integrating AWS lamda with our favorite operational tools
Monitoring and observability
Pay for what you use

Is AWS Lambda that important?

When you are developing serverless applications, AWS lambda turns out to be the main character considered for running successful application code. All you need to incorporate is a computing service, a database service, and an HTTP gateway service. It may quite interest you to know that lamba plays a significant role by seamlessly integrating with many other services such as API Gateway, DynamoDB and RDS. Not to mention Lambda supports lots and lots of popular languages and runtimes.

When to use Lambda?

Lambda is an ideal computing service used to tackle a wide range of application scenarios which needs to be scaled up and scaled down. So when exactly to use AWS Lambda, here down below I would like to mention a few scenarios to consider.

File Processing

The first and foremost one is file processing. Here when there is need to trigger lambda data processing. And all this is suppose to happen in real time.

Stream Processing

The next situation to consider is stream processing. Here AWS Lambda as well as Amazon Kinesis are used to process real-time streaming data for tracking different activity, transaction order processing, clickstream analysis, data cleansing, log filtering, indexing, social media analysis, data telemetry as well as metering and a lot more.

Web Applications

The next AWS Lambda service to take into account is developing powerful web-based applications that automatically scale up and down and run successfully in a highly-based configurations across multiple data centers.

IoT backends

The next situation is IoT backends. Here developing serverless backends with the assistance of Lambda to handle web, mobile, IoT and several third-party requests is possible.

Mobile Backends

And lastly we have is mobile backends. Here it is pretty doable job to authenticate and process different API requests using Lambda and AWS gateway. Try using AWS amplify to integrate successfully with iOS, Android, Web and React Native frontends.

Have you come across the concept of serverless web apps? Well, they are kind of applications which assist well in running applications and services without even need for servers. How are these AWS-based serverless apps beneficial?

Amazing scalability
Great flexibility
Quick time to release

And now comes the big question.

How to build Serverless Architecture for Web Apps with AWS Lambda?

First and foremost developing a serverless architecture for web applications using AWS Lambda is quite a doable job, just choose the right toolkit for visual studio template.

Prep up - Have you created an AWS account yet? If no then do it right away. Also install AWS CLI and create an account using ArcGIS to add mapping to your app, a text editor, and a web browser.

Now below I would like to mention a step by step process to consider while developing serverless application using AWS services

Step 1 - Host a static website

The first and foremost step to take into consideration is try configuring Amazon S3 (simple storage service). This hosting is extremely important for hosting all the kinds of static resources for a concerned web application. This means you need assistance of HTML, Javascript, CSS files and a lot more.

End users can easily access the web application thorough public website URL dictated by Amazon S3. In simple words, you no longer have to worry about running any web servers or adopt any other kind of servers for seamless availability.

Choose a proper AWS Region
Create S3 Bucket
Upload the content to S3 bucket
Enable public reads
Enabe website hosting
Validate the implementation

Step 2 - User Management

The next step is developing serverless web applications for seamless user management. Here one has to develop Amazon Cognito user pool for managing user accounts seamlessly. Here developers are supposed to deploy different pages which enables customers to register as a new user on the website. In fact, pages should also be deployed for verifying the email addresses of new customers and signing in the site.

Create an Amazon Cognito user pool
Add different application to the user pool
Update the config.js file in the website bucket
Testing the implementation for validity

Step 3 - Creating a serverless service backend

The next step is to create a serverless service backend by using AWS Lambda and Amazon DynamoDB. Here developers are supposed to manage requests for concerned web applications. Firstly when the browser application is deployed, users must be able to transfer services from one location to another.

Create an Amazon DynamoDB Table
Create an IAM role for the lambda function
Creation of Lambda function for the management of requests.
Testing the implementation

Step 4 - Deployment of Restful APIs

The next step is to develop RESTful APIs. Here Amazon API gateway is successfully used to expose the lambda function which was developed in the previous step as RESTful API. Here the use of Amazon Cognito user pool is also highlighted.

Creating a REST API
Creating a Cognito User Pools Authorizer
Creation of new resources and methods
Deployment of API
Updating the Website Config
Validating the implementation

Final Words

So this is it for now! I am sure now you are well aware about what AWS Lambda is and how one can build a serverless web application application using the same. By choosing AWS services nothing can stop you from developing prolific serverless applications.

I hope you did find the following post helpful and insightful. If so, you can definitely share among your peers and help us in reaching out more and more avid readers like you. In case if you still have any doubts or queries, feel free to ask us in the comment section below.