Off-by-none: Issue #227

March 28, 2023

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The (diminishing) value of computer science 🧑‍💻

In our previous issue, we got Amazon Linux 2023, Apache EventMesh graduated to a Top-Level Project, and we explored the meaninglessness of serverlessness. This week, SAM sync skips infra, Momento introduces Topics, and we discuss the future value of CS degrees. Plus, we’ve got a whole bunch of awesome content from the serverless community.

Serverless News & Announcements 📣

Not particularly noisy last week at AWS, but SAM v1.78.0 was released that includes the SAM Accelerate “Skip Infra Sync” feature (which is pretty cool) and Python3.10 support.

In other cloud news, Fauna launched their serverless database in the AWS Marketplace, pre-built Functions are now available in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Functions (if that’s something that interests you), and Spin 1.0, a new open-source project by Fermyon that provides a serverless framework for deploying and orchestrating cloud infrastructure on AWS, just launched.

And speaking of launches, Momento just got even more powerful with the introduction of Topics. Topics is an amazingly cool messaging pipeline service that lets you publish to a channel with thousands of subscribers with zero configuration. They also teased “executors” that’ll let you connect Lambda functions to Topics, and “triggers” to subscribe to changes in your cache. I can’t wait to try these out!

Serverless Concepts 🏗

What you should know about DynamoDB Streams
This must read from Alex DeBrie helps you discover the power of DynamoDB Streams and how they can boost your serverless applications with real-time data processing.

A Comprehensive Guide to AWS Lambda
Anthony Njuguna gives us a “comprehensive” guide to AWS Lambda, covering everything from the basics to best practices and common use cases.

Nano, Micro and Monolith services in Serverless world
Interesting post that explores nano, micro, and monolith services in the serverless world and delves into the pros and cons of each architecture.

15 AWS Lambda Use Cases: Unleashing the Full Potential of Serverless Computing
Guillermo Ojeda shares 15 common use cases for AWS Lambda, including image resizing, data processing, chatbots, and more. It’s always good to remind ourselves how powerful serverless is.

Let’s Talk Events: A Jargon-Free Journey into Event-Driven Architecture
A bit of a lengthy post by Usman Aslam, but it does give a good overview of Event-Driven Architecture. Definitely worth a look if you want to learn the essentials of events, how they fuel modern application development, and the benefits of adopting this approach.

Serverless Tutorials 👷‍♀️

Packaging & deploying Java11-based Lambda functions
Jérôme Van Der Linden gives us a detailed guide and provides useful tips and code examples to assist developers in simplifying the process.

Triggering ECS Fargate Tasks via HTTP Request
Interesting use case that might be helpful to kick off longer running tasks.

Serverless Puppeteer
Amo Moloko shows you how to run headless browser automation using AWS Lambda and Puppeteer.

How to add Amazon Cognito Auth to a Web App (part 3)
James Miller helps you master the art of integrating Amazon Cognito authentication into your web app in this three-part series. In this post, he shows you how to handle token refreshes to enable a seamless and secure user experience.

Integrating OpenAI’s API with AWS Serverless Services
Sam Robley teaches you how to integrate GPT-powered language models into your serverless applications.

Guide to Serverless & Lambda Testing – Part 3 – Advanced Asynchronous Flows
Ran Isenberg continues to help you level up your serverless Lambda testing game with this in-depth guide that focuses on advanced asynchronous flows.

Serverless GraphQL Subscriptions on Amazon Web Services
Patrik Valkovic explains how to build and deploy a serverless GraphQL API on AWS using API Gateway, Lambda, and DynamoDB, and how to create GraphQL subscriptions without AppSync. 🤔

Lambda Inception Architectural Pattern
I hate calling anyone out, but this seems like a very, very bad idea. I can tell you from experience that AWS does NOT like aggressive API calls to their control plane that spin up and tear down infrastructure. I’m guessing this would apply to Lambda functions as well.

How to Test Step Functions State Machine Locally
Puneet Punj shows us how to test AWS Step Functions locally using AWS SAM CLI and Docker. If you need this, go for it. But to me, this looks incredibly painful to set up.

Invoking asynchronous external APIs with AWS Step Functions
This is a great post from AWS that shows a very cool pattern for integrating AWS Step Functions with external APIs that support using asynchronous workflows.

Monitor AWS S3 GetObject Events and send notification to Slack using Cloudtrail & Lambda
Wong Xin Wei shares a pattern that can be very useful for monitoring all types of events on AWS.

Serverless AWS CDK Pipeline Best Practices & Patterns — Part 3
Lee James Gilmore shares another round of best practices and patterns. This week he covers synthetics using AWS CloudWatch Synthetic Canaries, dynamic configuration values stored in S3, and acceptance tests using Cypress.

A bref AWS PHP story – Part 2
Rafael Bernard Araújo shares the second part of his series that explores how to use Bref to develop and deploy PHP applications using serverless.

Serverless Security 🔒

Hacking AWS Account via AWS Lambda SSRF
Haven’t tried this myself, but this attack demonstrated by Sena Yakut should remind us that we need to keep app security top of mind!

Serverless Reads 🤓

Thinking in Patterns; The Importance of Language in Software Architecture
Interesting piece by James Eastham that highlights the importance of design patterns in software development.

AWS Lambda – Node.js vs. Python for serverless
Maciej Radzikowski provides a helpful comparison to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each language. I also agree that Node is the better runtime. 😉

An in-depth comparison of the most popular DynamoDB wrappers
There are a number of popular DynamoDB wrappers to choose from, so which one is better? Thomas Aribart gives us an in depth comparison to point out the strengths and weaknesses of each library.

It’s time to rename serverless
Instead of trying to define the term “serverless” like everyone else, Pablo Bermejo argues that we should just throw it away and use something different. Maybe he’s not wrong? 🤷‍♂️

Step Functions from a different angle
Ivica Kolenkaš helps us rethink Step Functions and use them to improve and strengthen organizations, handovers, internal discussions and collaboration.

Using AWS Lambda to track the electricity status in the apartments
Vitalii Pavliuk used a Raspberry PI and some AWS serverless services to monitor power outages in an active war zone. It’s a pretty smart solution.

ChatGPT and the value of a Computer Science degree 🧑‍🎓

I’ve been using AI tools a lot lately. Like, a lot, a lot. A few weeks ago I used Midjourney to help generate storyboard sketches for my ServerlessDays ANZ keynote. It took several iterations and many frustrating responses to get results I was happy with, but in the end, it was amazing. This past week, I finally upgraded to ChatGPT Plus, and so far, it has been an absolute productivity game changer for me. I discuss the impact of this on people with (or planning to get) computer science degrees in this week's premium edition.

Podcasts, Videos, and more 🎧

The videos from ServerlessDays Belfast 2023 were released last week, including this excellent keynote from Julian Wood titled, Serverless: The Reality and Fantasy in 2023. Lots of amazing talks to binge while you’re waiting for the next episode of The Mandalorian to drop!

Ready, Set, Cloud! Podcast – Episode #6
Allen Helton sits down with AJ Stuyvenberg to discuss why serverless observability is so hard. And it is.

8 Reasons You Should Choose DynamoDB for Your Next Project and How to Get Started
Marcia Villalba shares a beginner’s guide explaining the top reasons why DynamoDB is the best NoSQL database for your next project.

Real-World Serverless Podcast – Episode #74
Yan Cui speaks with Kirk Kirkconnell to talk about his experience with database technologies and serverless.

Serverless micro-frontends | Serverless Office Hours
Solution Architects Luca Mezzalira, Matteo Figus, and Steve Parker join Julian Wood to show how micro-frontends help you modernize frontend applications iteratively, like you would with microservices.

Lambda Powertools for .NET | Serverless Office Hours
Solutions Architects Amir Khairalomoum and Henrique Graca join Julian Wood to show how Powertools for .NET simplifies your code and allows you to focus more time on the business logic.

New from AWS 🆕

Here are a few more interesting updates from AWS:

• Amazon SNS announces support for setting content-type request headers for HTTP/S notifications
• Application Load Balancer now supports TLS 1.3
• Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility) Elastic Clusters are now available in 3 additional regions
• Amazon RDS Proxy now supports PostgreSQL major version 15
• AWS Batch launches support for configurable Ephemeral Storage on AWS Fargate
• AWS announces a new guided Amazon Redshift getting started experience
• AWS CloudFormation language extensions transform is now available in 5 additional AWS Regions
• AWS Cost Anomaly Detection now automatically configured for all new Cost Explorer users
• Analyze log patterns, metrics and Jaeger traces with new observability features in Amazon OpenSearch Service

Upcoming Serverless Events 🗓

March 30, 2023 – Sessions with AWS SAM & Friends: SAM Accelerate deep dive

April 20, 2023 – Serverless.LAB(meetup) #4 – Prague Edition

May 6, 2023 – AWS Community Day Turkey

June 7, 2023 – ServerlessDays Paris

June 22, 2023 – ServerlessDays Zurich

September 21, 2023 – ServerlessDays Cardiff

Serverless Star of the Week ⭐️

This week’s star is Steve Coochin (@DeveloperSteve). Steve is a Senior Dev Advocate at Lumigo and also recently gained the title AWS Community Builder. Earlier this month, he traveled to Australia for ServerlessDays ANZ where he gave a really interesting talk on how to build a serverless powered IOT buzzwire game. Also an author of regular posts on the Lumigo blog, he’s written about everything from serverless observability to getting the most out of serverless. Thank you for being an active member of the serverless community, Steve!

Final Thoughts 🤔

I actually got a chance to do some programming this past week including launching a new search feature on the Ampt documentation site and building some rather sophisticated automated deployment pipelines for updating, indexing, and deploying documentation from our GitHub repo (all serverlessly, of course). Writing code is still one of my favorite things to do, even if ChatGPT has been helping me with most of it recently. 😉

Happy coding,
Jeremy

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. We’re always looking for ideas and feedback to make it better and more inclusive, so please feel free to reach out to me via Twitter, LinkedIn, or email.