Technology
**AWS Bites**

AWS Bites is the show where we answer questions about AWS! This show is brought to you be Eoin Shanaghy and Luciano Mammino, certified AWS experts.

Latest Episodes:

15. Is serverless good for startups? Dec 17, 2021

Show notes

In this extended episode, Luciano and Eoin try to cover a recurring topic around Serverless: is it a good or bad idea for startups?

We start by giving a brief description of the different definitions and perspectives on serverless. Then, we try to explore some cases in which we believe serverless might not be the best fit for a startup. We follow on by revisiting some cases where instead we believe serverless can actually be a great fit. We finish by discussing some suggestions on how a startup (or even a more established company) could start approaching serverless in a more cautious and incremental way.

In this episode we mentioned the following resources:

- Auth0: https://auth0.com/

- Algolia: https://www.algolia.com/

- Firebase: https://firebase.google.com/

- Laravel: https://laravel.com/

- Django: https://www.djangoproject.com/

- Express: https://expressjs.com/

- AWS Amplify: https://aws.amazon.com/amplify/

- Our previous episode on Amplify: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9ZTYIVQWjQ

This episode is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/AWSBites

You can listen to AWS Bites wherever you get your podcasts:

- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aws-bites/id1585489017

- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Lh7PzqBFV6yt5WsTAmO5q

- Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy82YTMzMTJhMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

- Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/aws-bites

- RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/6a3312a0/podcast/rss

Do you have any AWS questions you would like us to address?

Leave a comment here or connect with us on Twitter:

loige

14. What can you do with Amplify Studio? Dec 10, 2021

Show notes

In this extended episode, Eoin and Luciano talk about Amplify with a particular focus on Amplify Studio, a new visual way to manage Amplify applications announced at the recent re:Invent event during Werner Vogels’ keynote.

In this episode we mentioned the following:

- Amplify Studio: https://aws.amazon.com/amplify/studio/

- Figma: https://www.figma.com/

- The 2021 AWS re:Invent Werner Vogels keynote segment on Amplify Studio: https://youtu.be/8_Xs8Ik0h1w?t=3346

- Ali Spittel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MKVCmNKT1c

This episode is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/AWSBites

You can listen to AWS Bites wherever you get your podcasts:

- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aws-bites/id1585489017

- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Lh7PzqBFV6yt5WsTAmO5q

- Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy82YTMzMTJhMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

- Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/aws-bites

- RSS:
https://anchor.fm/s/6a3312a0/podcast/rss

Do you have any AWS questions you would like us to address?

Leave a comment here or connect with us on Twitter:

- https://twitter.com/eoins
- https://twitter.com/loige

AWS re:Invent 2021 Day 2&3 Special Dec 02, 2021

Show notes

In this special episode, Eoin and Luciano talk about their impression on the announcements from day 2 and 3 of AWS re:invent 2021. We mentioned the following resources: - Kinesis on-demand data streams - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-kinesis-data-streams-on-demand/ - Redshift Serverless - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-redshift-serverless/ - Serverless MSK - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-msk-serverless-public-preview/ - Serverless EMR - https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/big-data/announcing-amazon-emr-serverless-preview-run-big-data-applications-without-managing-servers/ - Sagemaker Serverless Inference (preview) - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/12/amazon-sagemaker-serverless-inference/ - AWS Lambda ephemeral storage - pre-announcement - https://twitter.com/julian_wood/status/1465842874457763840 - SQS Redrive - https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/enhanced-dlq-management-sqs/ - SageMaker Studio Lab - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/12/amazon-sagemaker-studio-lab-no-configuration-ml-service/ - SageMaker Studio integrates with EMR - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/12/amazon-sagemaker-studio-data-notebook-integration-emr/ - SageMaker Ground Truth Plus - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/12/amazon-sagemaker-ground-truth-plus/ - AI & ML Scholarship Program - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/12/aws-ai-ml-scholarship-program-intel-udacity-workforce/ - Amazon Lex Automated Chatbot Designer (Preview) - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/12/amazon-lex-automated-chatbox-designer/ - DynamoDB Infrequent Access - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/12/amazon-dynamodb-standard-infrequent-access-table-class/ - Lake Formation: Security and Governed Tables - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-athena-lake-formation-security-table-features/ & https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/aws-lake-formation-governed-tables-storage-security/ - AWS S3 Glacier instant retrieval - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-s3-glacier-instant-retrieval-storage-class/ - AWS new S3 intelligent tiering - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/s3-intelligent-tiering-archive-instant-access-tier/ - S3 console security warnings, errors and suggestions - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-s3-console-warnings-errors-suggestions-iam-access-analyzer/ - S3 Object Ownerhsip - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-s3-object-ownership-simplify-access-management-data-s3/ - AWS Microservices Extractor - https://aws.amazon.com/microservice-extractor/ - Mainframe modernisation: convert Cobol to Java (in lambda functions) - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/introducing-aws-mainframe-modernization/ - Carbon Footprint Tool - https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/aws-re-invent-2021-what-you-need-to-know - New service: AWS private 5G - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/preview-aws-private-5g/ - New service: TwinMaker (digital twins) - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/aws-iot-twinmaker-build-digital-twins/ - Graviton 3 instances - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-ec2-c7g-instances-aws-graviton3-processors/ Do you have any AWS questions you would like us to address? Leave a comment here or connect with us on Twitter: - https://twitter.com/eoins - https://twitter.com/loige

AWS re:Invent Day One Special Nov 30, 2021

Show notes

In this special episode, Eoin and Luciano talk about their impression on the announcements from the first day of AWS re:invent 2021.

AWS Lambda now supports event filtering for Amazon SQS, Amazon DynamoDB, and Amazon Kinesis as event sources: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/aws-lambda-event-filtering-amazon-sqs-dynamodb-kinesis-sources/
Amazon CodeGuru Reviewer now detects hardcoded secrets in Java and Python repositories: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-codeguru-reviewer-hardcoded-secrets-java-python/
Amazon ECR announces pull through cache repositories: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-ecr-cache-repositories/
Introducing recommenders optimized to deliver personalized experiences for Media & Entertainment and Retail with Amazon Personalize:
https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/recommenders-optimized-personalized-media-entertainment-retail-amazon-personalize/AWS Chatbot now supports management of AWS resources in Slack (Preview): https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/aws-chatbot-management-resources-slack/
Amazon CloudWatch Evidently: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-cloudwatch-evidently-feature-experimentation-safer-launches/
AWS Migration Hub Refactor Spaces - Preview: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/aws-migration-hub-refactor-spaces/
CloudWatch Real User Monitoring:
https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-cloudwatch-rum-applications-client-side-performance/
CloudWatch Metrics Insights: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-cloudwatch-metrics-insights-preview/
AWS Karpenter: https://github.com/aws/karpenter
S3 Event Notifications with EventBridge: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-use-amazon-s3-event-notifications-with-amazon-eventbridge/
S3 Event Notifications for S3 Lifecycle, S3 Intelligent-Tiering, object tags, and object access control lists: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-s3-event-notifications-s3-lifecycle-intelligent-tiering-object-tags-object-access-control-lists/
Amazon Athena ACID Transactions (Preview): https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/amazon-athena-acid-apache-iceberg/
AWS Control Tower introduces Terraform account provisioning and customization: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/aws-control-tower-terraform/

Leave a comment here or connect with us on Twitter:

- https://twitter.com/eoins
- https://twitter.com/loige

13. What’s on your re:Invent 2021 wish list? Nov 28, 2021

Show notes

In this special episode, Eoin and Luciano talk about their wishlist for AWS re:invent 2021. Based on our experience and personal AWS pain points, we share some of our wishes for new announcements during the biggest cloud event of the year. We also discuss some of the biggest announcements of last year and a few tips on how to get ready to follow the announcements of the next few days.

CORRECTION: The changes in data transfer were not reported accurately in this episode. The monthly data transfer free tier limit has changed from 1 GB/month per region to 100GB/month for all regions. Data transfer out of CloudFront is now free for 1TB/month, up from 50GB/month. See the official announcements linked below.

In this episode we mentioned the following resources:

- Serverless Airline booking app example: https://github.com/aws-samples/aws-serverless-airline-booking

- AWS Wild Rydes example: http://www.wildrydes.com/

- AWS Workshops: https://workshops.aws/

- Data transfer free tier increase: 1) https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-free-tier-data-transfer-expansion-100-gb-from-regions-and-1-tb-from-amazon-cloudfront-per-month/ and 2) https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/aws-price-reduction-data-transfers-internet/

- Export Amplify projects to CDK: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/aws-amplify-export-amplify-backends-cdk-stacks-integrate-cdk-based-pipelines/

- CDK hotswap: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/aws-cdk-new-releases-api-apprunner-hotswap-amazon-ecs-step-functions

- Partial SQS batch response: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2021/11/aws-lambda-partial-batch-response-sqs-event-source/

This episode is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/AWSBites

You can listen to AWS Bites wherever you get your podcasts:

- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aws-bites/id1585489017

- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Lh7PzqBFV6yt5WsTAmO5q

- Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy82YTMzMTJhMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

- Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/aws-bites

- RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/6a3312a0/podcast/rss

Do you have any AWS questions you would like us to address? Connect with us on Twitter:

- https://twitter.com/eoins

- https://twitter.com/loige

12. How do you manage your AWS credentials? Nov 26, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Eoin and Luciano talk about how to manage AWS credentials and different ways to manage them. From the more traditional (and not recommended) IAM credentials to SSO.

In this episode we mentioned the following resources:

- GitHub integration with OIDC: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/deployment/security-hardening-your-deployments/configuring-openid-connect-in-amazon-web-services

- MFA access for assumed roles: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_mfa_configure-api-require.html

- AWS vault: https://github.com/99designs/aws-vault

- AWS SSO utils: https://github.com/benkehoe/aws-sso-util

- AWS SSO export credentials: https://github.com/benkehoe/aws-export-credentials

This episode is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/AWSBites

You can listen to AWS Bites wherever you get your podcasts:

- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aws-bites/id1585489017

- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Lh7PzqBFV6yt5WsTAmO5q

- Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy82YTMzMTJhMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

- Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/aws-bites

- RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/6a3312a0/podcast/rss

Do you have any AWS questions you would like us to address?

Leave a comment here or connect with us on Twitter:

- https://twitter.com/eoins
- https://twitter.com/loige

11. How do you move away from the management console? Nov 19, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Luciano and Eoin discuss the good and the bad of the AWS Management Console (a.k.a. the web console) and why you should consider migrating to Infrastructure as Code (IaC) as soon as possible, especially for your production applications.

In this episode we mentioned the following resources:

- Cloudformation: https://aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/

- CDK: https://aws.amazon.com/cdk/

- Serverless Framework: https://www.serverless.com/

- SAM: https://aws.amazon.com/serverless/sam

- Terraform: https://www.terraform.io/

- Former2: https://former2.com/

- Import or create (e.g. if the resource already exists in production). With CDK: https://loige.co/create-resources-conditionally-with-cdk

This episode is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/AWSBites

You can listen to AWS Bites wherever you get your podcasts:

- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aws-bites/id1585489017

- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Lh7PzqBFV6yt5WsTAmO5q

- Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy82YTMzMTJhMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

- Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/aws-bites

- RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/6a3312a0/podcast/rss

Do you have any AWS questions you would like us to address?

Leave a comment here or connect with us on Twitter:

- https://twitter.com/eoins

- https://twitter.com/loige

10. Lambda or Fargate for containers? Nov 12, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Eoin and Luciano try to explain whether you should consider Lambda or Fargate for containers.

We start by clarifying what we really mean by containers and what kind of container support you get in both Lambda and Fargate. Then we go into more detail about the characteristics of both services including limits and pricing. By the end of this episode you should be able to understand how the two services compare and which one might be more suitable for your next project!

In this episode we mentioned the following resources:

AWS Lambda: https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/
AWS Fargate: https://aws.amazon.com/fargate/
Container Image Support in AWS Lambda Deep Dive: https://dev.to/eoinsha/container-image-support-in-aws-lambda-deep-dive-2keh
Container Image Support on AWS Lambda Bridges the Gap to Much Wider Adoption: https://www.fourtheorem.com/blog/container-image-lambda
Lambda, EC2 or Fargate? https://eoins.medium.com/lambda-ec2-or-fargate-1e4a4f633cd2
Why AWS Lambda pricing has to change for the enterprise: https://www.infoq.com/articles/aws-lambda-price-change/

This episode is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/AWSBites

You can listen to AWS Bites wherever you get your podcasts:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aws-bites/id1585489017
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Lh7PzqBFV6yt5WsTAmO5q
Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy82YTMzMTJhMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==
Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/aws-bites
RSS:
https://anchor.fm/s/6a3312a0/podcast/rss

Do you have any AWS questions you would like us to address?

Leave a comment here or connect with us on Twitter:

09. How do you get started with AWS? Nov 05, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, Eoin and Luciano try to answer a beginner question: how to get started with AWS. Special thanks to Adam Mann (https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-e-mann/) for suggesting this question!

AWS is so big that it doesn’t make any sense to try to learn it all! It’s better to learn the fundamentals and then focus on specific areas of interest to get the best out of AWS.

But what are these fundamentals and where do I start if I have a background as a web developer? Check out this episode to find out!

In this episode we mentioned the following resources:

IAM: https://aws.amazon.com/iam/
S3: https://aws.amazon.com/s3/
CloudFormation: https://aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/
The Serverless framework: https://www.serverless.com/

This episode is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/AWSBites

You can listen to AWS Bites wherever you get your podcasts:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aws-bites/id1585489017
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Lh7PzqBFV6yt5WsTAmO5q
Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy82YTMzMTJhMC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==
Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/aws-bites
RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/6a3312a0/podcast/rss

Do you have any AWS questions you would like us to address?

Leave a comment here or connect with us on Twitter:

08. What are your AWS horror stories? Oct 28, 2021

Show notes

In this Halloween-themed episode, Eoin and Luciano tell some AWS horror stories! Get ready for some trick or treat!

Of course we have to start with billing and we tell some of our failures with predicting cost ending up with a nightmarishly bad billing surprise! We also discuss some horror stories from the perspective of AWS developer experience and finally we touch on some Cloudformation terrors!

In this episode we mentioned the following resources: