Off-by-none: Issue #304

November 5, 2024

You get to drink... from the firehose 🚒

In our previous issue, Amazon ECS celebrated 10 years, Lambda got a better console code editing experience, and there was a new fork of the Serverless Framework. This week, AWS turns on the pre:Invent announcement firehose, AppSync gives us better serverless WebSockets, and Neon simplifies row-level security for Postgres. Plus, we have lots of great content from the cloud and serverless communities!

Serverless News & Announcements 📣

AWS continues to push out their pre:Invent announcements. One of my favorites was the launch of AppSync Events, a new serverless WebSocket API service to power real-time web and mobile experiences. This is a very cool service that makes building serverless WebSockets so much easier. There's more detail on the official blog post, plus I shared some of my initial thoughts as well.

AWS also enhanced the Lambda application building experience with their VS Code IDE and AWS Toolkit. Julian Wood explains more here. Plus, AWS Lambda now supports AWS Fault Injection Service (FIS) actions, letting you run controlled fault injection experiments to improve app performance, observability, and resilience. Which is super useful.

AWS Amplify announce an integration with Amazon S3 for static website hosting, Amazon Redshift launched an integration with Amazon Bedrock for generative AI, and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Haiku model is now available in Amazon Bedrock.

Also, Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL Limitless Database is now generally available. What's the difference between Limitless and Serverless? I'm honestly not 100% sure. 🤣

A bit strange, but AWS apparently announced the end-of-support for AWS Copilot CLI effective February 3, 2025, then deleted the post. Thanks to Luc van Donkersgoed for catching this one.

Danilo Poccia wrote a post introducing LLM Test Mate, a solution specifically designed for testing LLM-generated content using semantic similarity testing with LLM-based evaluation.

In non-AWS news, Neon introduced Neon Authorize that simplifies row-level security for Postgres.

Announcing Catalyst Public Beta Sponsored
Catalyst gives developers a powerful, all-in-one set of APIs for microservices, so you can stop hacking together fragmented frameworks and libraries and get back to building. Check it out now!

Serverless Tutorials 👷‍♀️

Here are some of my favorite tutorials from this past week:

Build real-world solutions with APIs using Postman Flows Sponsored
If you haven't taken a look at Postman Flows yet, you definitely should. Stitching together APIs to create complex workflows has always required writing lots of code. Postman Flows lets you quickly create and automate API tasks even if you don't have technical experience, and you do it all through a beautifully designed visual editor. They also have a ton of templates to get you started quickly.

Serverless Reads 🤓

Moving Baselime from AWS to Cloudflare: simpler architecture, improved performance, over 80% lower cloud costs
Interesting article from Boris Tane that breaks down the reduction of cost and complexity post AWS to Cloudflare migration. I'm still not convinced that Cloudflare is ready to fully compete with AWS, but posts like these certainly move the needle for me.

Simplicity Is An Achievement
Seth Orell shared his thoughts on why seeking simplicity is so important. It's not that developers can't learn something, it's that abstractions allow them to focus on their core abilities and move faster. It's been our premise at Ampt from the very beginning.

Podcasts, Videos, and more 🎧

AWS Bites #134: Eliminate the IAM User
In this episode, Luciano and (new co-host) Conor, discuss why IAM users and long-lived credentials are dangerous and should be avoided. 🔐

The AWS Developers Podcast
Julian Wood hosts Marc Brooker to discuss the origins of Lambda, its evolution, and the impact of serverless technology on modern computing.

Here are two more production horror stories from the Believe in Serverless community. #youarenotalone 😱

New from AWS 🆕

Here are several more AWS pre:Invent announcements that you might find interesting:

Serverless Tools 🛠

Apache OpenServerless™
A distribution that runs on any Kubernetes Cluster or Linux Virtual Machine, used to deploy a Serverless Environment ready to build AI applications.

Thoughts from Social 🐦

It's a good thing I spend most of my time thinking about what code actually needs to be written. 😳 I do worry about how much AI code slop is going to end up in git repositories though. I also wonder how that statistic is derived. I use AI to generate a lot of code, but I also have to heavily test and refactor it to get it anywhere near production quality.

Upcoming Events 🗓

November 12, 2024 - Debunking Serverless Misconceptions (Webinar)

December 2-6, 2024 - AWS re:Invent 2024

December 3, 2024 - Believe In Serverless Party

December 13, 2024 - ServerlessDays Rome

February 20, 2025 - ServerlessDays Manchester 2025

Please send me your serverless events!

Take the latest Off-by-none Cloud Quiz 🧑‍🏫

What is the name of the new AWS service for building secure and performant serverless WebSocket APIs to power real-time web and mobile experiences at any scale?
Click an answer below to start the quiz.

Star of the Week ⭐️

This week's star is Marc Brooker (@MarcJBrooker). Marc is a VP/Distinguished Engineer at AWS that has been instrumental in helping to develop many of AWS's serverless technologies over the years. His blog is a treasure trove of information, as are his numerous conference talks and podcast appearances. Thank you, Marc, for continuing to push the boundaries of serverless. 🙌

Final Thoughts 🤔

It's been a long week for me, but lots of exciting things are happening. If you're able to attend re:Invent this year, please feel free to ping me if you want to connect in person. Hope to see you all there!

Take care,
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 X, LinkedIn, or email.

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Issue #303 • October 29, 2024

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About the Author

Jeremy is the CEO and Founder of Ampt and an AWS Serverless Hero that has a soft spot for helping people solve problems using serverless. He frequently consults with companies and developers transitioning away from the traditional “server-full” approach. You can find him ranting about serverless on Twitter, in several forums and Slack groups, hosting the Serverless Chats podcast, and at conferences around the world.

 

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Off-by-none is committed to celebrating the diversity of the serverless community and recognizing the people who make it awesome. If you know of someone doing amazing things with serverless, please nominate them to be a Serverless Star ⭐️!