The document discusses Channel 4 Television's use of AWS as their platform of choice for hosting web applications. It describes how they began using AWS in 2008 and have since expanded usage across their infrastructure. Key benefits highlighted include agility, scalability, resilience, and cost management compared to physical infrastructure. The document provides guidance on approaches for architecting applications on AWS, including using pre-configured AMIs, designing for security and horizontal scaling, and considering additional AWS services like DynamoDB, Redshift, and S3 Glacier for big data use cases.

1. Building for the Cloud
Architecting Applications for the Cloud –
The Key to Success in AWS
Bob Harris - CTO Channel 4 Television

2. C4 and AWS
• Discovered AWS (EC2) in mid 2008
• Launched our first applications in September 2008

3. C4 and AWS

4. C4 and AWS
• Discovered AWS (EC2) in mid 2008
• Launched our first applications in September 2008
• Began with simple applications; complexity grew with experience
• Today, AWS is our “Platform of Choice” for all web-facing
applications
• Selected Elastic Map Reduce to underpin our Big Data initiatives in
2011

5. Why do C4 use AWS?
• Agility
– Reduced time to build and deploy new platforms and applications
– Increased productivity in Teams moving toward a DevOps approach
• Scalability & Resilience
– We deploy inherently resilient applications with minimal additional cost
– Ability to align platform capacity with “peaky” workloads

6. Why do C4 use AWS?

7. Why do C4 use AWS?
• Agility
– Reduced time to build and deploy new platforms and applications
– Increased productivity in Teams moving toward a DevOps approach
• Scalability & Resilience
– We deploy inherently resilient applications with minimal additional cost
– Ability to align platform capacity with “peaky” workloads
• Cost Management
– Lower TCO than our physical infrastructure (Measured)
– Capex to Opex

8. Approaching AWS
• Familiarisation
– Read the “Overview of Amazon Web Services” Whitepaper
– Create an account – Fire-up the console

9. Approaching AWS

10. Approaching AWS
• Familiarisation
– Read the “Overview of Amazon Web Services” Whitepaper
– Create an account – Fire-up the console
• Take Security Head-On
– Involve your CISO and Internal Audit from the outset
– Read the “Overview of Security Processes” Whitepaper
• Take a test-drive
– Migrate an existing application
– But watch-out for the limitations of vertical scaling!

11. Architecting for AWS
• Don’t be tempted to re-invent the wheel
– Choose from the vast range of pre-configured AMIs

12. Architecting for AWS

13. Architecting for AWS
• Don’t be tempted to re-invent the wheel
– Choose from the vast range of pre-configured AMIs
• Design security in up-front
– Read the AWS Virtual Private Cloud User Guide
• Architect for Horizontal Scaling
– Look at Autoscaling, Cloudwatch

14. Architecting for AWS
Auto scaling Group
Availability Zone
Region
EC2
Instance 1
EC2
Instance 2
EC2
Instance 4
EC2
Instance 3

15. Architecting for AWS
• Don’t be tempted to re-invent the wheel
– Choose from the vast range of pre-configured AMIs
• Design security in up-front
– Read the AWS Virtual Private Cloud User Guide
• Architect for Horizontal Scaling
– Look at Autoscaling, Cloudwatch
• Design for Failure
– Start with an inherently resilient design – Multi AZ, Multi Region

16. Beyond IaaS
• Review your operational practices
– Evolve your operational approach as you grow
– To maximise productivity migrate toward DevOps
• Check-out Platform as a Service (PaaS)
– Huge productivity gains during development
– Pay particular attention to Dynamo, RedShift, and Glacier
• Looking at Big Data?
– Investigate Elastic Map Reduce the SaaS (Software as a Service)
Hadoop implementation

17. That’s all Folks!
bharris@channel4.co.uk
@bobharrisuk
uk.linkedin.com/in/bobharrisuk01