Other Compute Services

Other Compute Services

Docker

Software development platform to deploy apps.
Apps are packaged in containers that can be run on any OS.
Big benefit is apps run the same regardless of where they are run.
- Any machine.
- No compatibility issues.
- Predictable behavior.
- Less work.
- Easier to maintain and deploy.
- Works with any language, any OS, any technology.
Scale containers up and down very quickly.
Docker images are stored in Docker repositories.
- Public: Docker Hub.
- Private: Amazon ECR.
In Docker resources are shared with the host, meaning many containers on one server.

ECS

Elastic Container Service.
Allows us to launch docker containers on AWS.
You must provision and maintain the infrastructure (the EC2 instances).
AWS takes care of starting / stopping containers.
Has integrations with the Application Load Balancer.

Fargate

Also allows us to launch docker containers on AWS.
You don't provision the infrastructure (no EC2s to manage.)
Serverless offering.
AWS just runs containers for you based on the CPU / RAM you need.

ECR

Elastic Container Registry.
Private docker registry on AWS.
This is where you store your Docker Images so they can be run on Fargate.

Serverless

Serverless is a new paradigm in which the developers don't have to manage servers anymore.
They just deploy code.
Serverless was pioneered by AWS Lambda but now also includes anything that's managed.
Serverless does not mean there are no servers! It just means you don't manage / provision / see them.
As examples of what is serverless: Amazon S3, DynamoDB, Fargate, Lambda.

Lambda

Virtual Functions - no servers to manage.
Limited by time - short executions.
Run on-demand.
Scaling is automated.
Benefits:
- Easy pricing: pay per request and compute time.
- Integrated with the whole AWS suite of services.
- Event-driven: functions get invoked by AWS when needed.
- Integrated with many programming languages.
- Easy monitoring through AWS CloudWatch.
- Easy to get more resources per functions.
- Increasing RAM will also improve CPU and network.
Lambda supports: Node.js, Python, Java, C#, Golang, Ruby, Custom Runtime API
Lambda Container Image:
- The image must implement the Lambda Runtime API.
- ECS / Fargate is preferred for running arbitrary Docker images.

API Gateway

Fully managed service for developers to easily create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs.
Serverless and scalable.
Supports RESTful APIs and WebSocket APIs.
Support for security, user authentication, API throttling, API keys.

Batch

Fully managed batch processing at any scale.
Efficiently run 100,000s of computing batch jobs on AWS.
A batch job is a job with a start and an end.
Batch will dynamically launch EC2 instances or Spot instances.
AWS batch provisions the right amount of compute / memory.
You submit or schedule batch jobs and AWS batch does the rest.
Batch jobs are defined as docker images and run on ECS.
Helpful for cost optimisations and focusing less on the infrastructure.

Batch vs Lambda

Lambda:

Time Limit.
Limited runtimes.
Limited temporary disk space.
Serverless.

Batch:

No time limit.
Any runtime as long as it's packaged as a docker image.
Rely on EBS / instance store for disk space.
Relies on EC2 (can be managed by AWS).

Lightsail

Virtual servers, storage, databases, and networking.
Low and predictable pricing.
Simpler alternative to using EC2, RDS, ELB, EBS, or Route 53.
Great for people with little cloud experience.
Can setup notifications and monitoring of your lightsail resources.
Use cases:
- Simple web apps.
- Websites.
- Dev / Test environment.
Has high availability but no auto-scaling, limited AWS integrations.

Summary

Docker: container technology to run applications
ECS: run Docker containers on EC2 instances
Fargate:
- Run Docker containers without provisioning the infrastructure
- Serverless offering (no EC2 instances)
ECR: Private Docker Images Repository
Batch: run batch jobs on AWS across managed EC2 instances
Lightsail: predictable & low pricing for simple application & DB stacks
Lambda:
- Serverless, Function as a Service, seamless scaling, reactive
- Billing:
  - By the time run x by the RAM provisioned
  - By the number of invocations
- Language Support: many programming languages except (arbitrary) Docker
- Invocation time: up to 15 minutes
- Use cases:
  - Create Thumbnails for images uploaded onto S3
  - Run a Serverless cron job
API Gateway: expose Lambda functions as HTTP

Amazon Workspaces

Managed Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solution to easily provision Windows or Linux desktops.
Great to eliminate management of on-premise VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure).
Fast and quickly scalable to thousands of users.
Secured data - integrates with Key Management System (KMS).
Pay-as-you-go service with monthly or hourly rates.

Amazon AppStream 2.0

Desktop Application Streaming Service.
Deliver to any computer, without acquiring, provisioning infrastructure.
The application is delivered from within a web browser.

Differences between Workspaces and AppStream 2.0 Workspaces:

Fully managed VDI and desktop available.
The users connect to the VDI and open native or WAM applications.
Workspaces are on-demand or always on.

AppStream 2.0:

Stream a desktop application to web browsers (no need to connect to a VDI).
Works with any device (that has a web browser).
Allow to configure an instance type per application type (CPU, RAM, GPU).

AWS IoT Core

IoT: Internet of Things, the network of internet-connected devices that are able to collect and transfer data.
This service allows you to easily connect IoT devices to the AWS Cloud.
It's serverless, secure & scalable to billions of devices and trillions of messages.
Your apps can communicate with your devices even when they aren't connected.
Integrates with a lot of AWS services.
Build IoT applications that gather, process, analyze, and act on data.

AWS AppSync

Store and sync data across mobile and web apps in real-time.
Makes use of GraphQL.
Client Code can be generated automatically.
Integrations with DynamoDB / Lambda.
Real-time subscriptions.
Offline data synchronization.
Fine grained security.
AWS Amplify can leverage AWS AppSync in the background.

AWS Amplify

A set of tools and services that helps you develop and deploy scalable full stack web and mobile applications.
Authentication, Storage, API (REST, GraphQL), CI/CD, PubSub, Analytics, AI/ML Predictions, GitHub, etc.

AWS Application Composer

Visually design and build serverless applications quickly on AWS.
Deploy AWS infrastructure code without needing to be an expert in AWS.
Configure how your resources interact with each other.
Generates Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using CloudFormation.
Ability to import existing CloudFormation / SAM templates to visualize them.

AWS Device Farm

Fully-managed service that tests your web and mobile apps against desktop browsers, real mobile devices, and tablets.
Run tests concurrently on multiple devices (speed up execution).
Ability to configure device settings (GPS, language, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ...)

AWS Backup

Fully-managed service to centrally manage and automate backups across AWS services.
On-demand and scheduled backups.
Supports PITR (Point-in-time Recovery).
Retention Periods, Lifecycle Management, Backup Policies, etc.
Capable of Cross-Region and Cross-Account (uses AWS Organizations) Backups.
Automatically backed up to Amazon S3.

Disaster Recovery Strategies

Backup and Restore: low-cost.
- Restore from an S3 bucket which holds the data.
Pilot Light: moderately low-lost.
- Restore an EC2 instance which just has the core functions of the app and is ready to scale.
Warm Standby: moderate cost.
- Restore the full version of the app but at minimum size.
Multi-Site / Hot-Site: high cost.
- Restore the full version of the app at full size.

AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS)

Used to be called "CloudEndure Disaster Recovery.
Quickly and easily recover your physical, virtual, and cloud-based servers into AWS.
Continuous block-level replication for your servers.

AWS DataSync

Move large amounts of data from on-premises to AWS.
Can synchronize to: Amazon S3, Amazon EFS, Amazon FSx.
Replication tasks can be scheduled hourly, daily, weekly.
The replication tasks are incremental after the first full load.

AWS Application Discovery Service

Plan migration projects by gathering information about on-premises data centers.
Server utilization data and dependency mapping are important for migrations.
Agentless Discovery (AWS Agentless Discovery Connector): VM inventory, configuration, and performance history such as CPU, memory, and disk usage.
Agent-based Discovery (AWS Application Discovery Agent): System config, system performance, running processes, and details of the network connections between systems.
The resulting data can be viewed within AWS Migration Hub.

AWS Application Migration Service (MGN)

Lift-and-shift (rehost) solution which simplify migrating applications to AWS.
Converts your physical, virtual, and cloud-based servers to run natively on AWS.
Supports wide range of platforms, OSs, and databases.
Minimal downtime, reduced costs.

AWS Migration Evaluator

Helps you build a data-driven business case for migration to AWS.
Provides a clear baseline of what your organization is running today.
Install Agentless Collector to conduct broad-based discovery.
Take a snapshot of on-premises foot-print, server dependencies.
Analyze current state, define target state, then develop migration plan.

AWS Migration Hub

Central location to collect servers and apps inventory data for the assessment, planning, and tracking of migrations to AWS.
Helps accelerate your migration to AWS, automate lift-and-shift.
AWS Migration Hub Orchestrator provides pre-built templates to save time and effort migrating enterprise apps.
Supports migrations status updates from Application Migration Service and Database Migration Service.

AWS Fault Injection Simulator (FIS)

A fully managed service for running fault injection experiments on AWS workloads.
Based on Chaos Engineering: stressing a application by creating disruptive events, observing how the system responds, and implementing improvements.
Helps you uncover hidden bugs and performance bottlenecks.
Supports: EC2, ECS, EKS, RDS...
Use pre-built templates that generate the desired disruptions.

AWS Step Functions

Build serverless visual workflow to orchestrate your Lambda functions.
Features: sequence, parallel, conditions, timeouts, error handling,...
Can integrate with EC2, ECS, On-premises servers, API Gateways, SQS queues, etc...
Possibility of implementing human approval feature.
Use Cases: order fulfillment, data processing, web applications, any workflow.

AWS Ground Station

Fully managed service that lets you control satellite communications, process data, and scale your satellite operations.
Provides a global network of satellite ground stations near AWS regions.
Allows you to download satellite data to your AWS VPC within seconds.
Send satellite data to S3 or EC2 instance.
Use Cases: weather forecasting, surface imaging, communications, video broadcasts.

Amazon Pinpoint

Scalable 2-way (outbound/inbound) marketing communications service.
Ability to segment and personalize messages with the right content to customers.
Possibility to revive replies.
Scales to billions of messages per day.
Use Cases: run campaigns by sending marketing, bulk, transactional SMS messages.