Serverless Archives

Testing Step Functions: how to skip time when testing Timeout and Wait states

AWS, Programming, Serverless, Step Functions, Testing

When I previously wrote about testing Step Functions, I gave you a general strategy that consists of: Component tests that target the Lambda functions (specifically, the custom code you wrote in those functions). End-to-end tests that execute the state machine in the cloud. Local tests using Step Functions Local where you can use mocks to …

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No, you don’t need to test every line of your CDK application

AWS, CDK, Programming, Serverless, Testing

Several people have asked me about unit testing CDK applications recently. The questions often go something like this: “Because it can be in Python or TS, people bring up unit testing for CDK, whereas it’s not even thought about with Serverless Framework, SAM or Terraform. What are your thoughts on this?” “I have so many …

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Is serverless overpriced? What can we learn from the PrimeVideo team?

AWS, Lambda, Serverless

The PrimeVideo team’s move from serverless caused much stir, but most people got it wrong because they read the article with tinted glasses.

This is what they actually said.

Are You Ready for This? Top 5 Earth-Shattering Pros and Cons of AWS CDK

AWS, CDK, Serverless

Ask most developers why they like the CDK and they will say “It lets me write infrastructure in my favourite programming language”. That’s nice, but why should that be a consideration for an Infra-as-Code (IaC) tool? That’s like saying “I like Strepsils because it tastes like candy”. ps. if you mention candy, pharmacy staff would …

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The Old Faithful: Why SSM Parameter Store still reigns over Secrets Manager

AWS, Security, Serverless

Managing and securing application secrets is a crucial part of any cloud-native application. AWS offers two primary services: the Systems Manager (SSM) Parameter Store and the more recent Secrets Manager. You might think Secrets Manager is the better choice for managing secrets because it’s a newer service and offers more advanced features such as cross-region …

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Implementing Magic Links with Amazon Cognito: A Step-by-Step Guide

AWS, Cognito, Lambda, Security, Serverless

Last week, we looked at implementing passwordless authentication using one-time passwords (OTPs) using Cognito [1]. Another popular passwordless authentication method is magic links where: The user initiates the sign-in process by entering their email in your application. They receive an email with a time-limited URL. The user clicks on the URL and is authenticated into …

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Passwordless Authentication made easy with Cognito: a step-by-step guide

AWS, Cognito, Security, Serverless

Password-based authentication has long been the norm for securing user accounts. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that password-based authentication has several drawbacks. Such as the risk of password theft, the need for users to remember complex passwords, and the time and effort required to reset forgotten passwords. Fortunately, more and more websites have started …

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3 ways to control concurrency in serverless applications

AWS, EventBridge, Kinesis, Lambda, Serverless, Step Functions

Many software engineering concepts appear in different contexts. Modularity, the single-responsibility principle and separation of concerns are just a few examples that come to mind. They apply equally to how we write code, architect our systems and organize our teams. In this post, let’s discuss three ways we can control the concurrency of a serverless …

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How to handle serverful resources when using ephemeral environments

AWS, Serverless

I’m a big fan of using ephemeral (or temporary) environments when I’m building serverless architectures. I have written about this practice before and I believe it’s one of the most important practices that have co-evolved with the rise of serverless technologies. It takes advantage of the pay-per-use pricing model offered by many serverless technologies such …

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This is why you should keep stateful and stateless resources together

AWS, CloudFormation, Serverless

Update 24/05/2023: As Lee James Gilmore pointed out on Twitter, the unit of deployment of CDK is the CDK app. A CDK app can contain multiple CloudFormation stacks and they can be changed together (in a single commit) and deployed together. And that’s absolutely fine and compatible with what I’m advocating for in this post. …

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