This presentation provides a comparison of three modern architecture patterns that startups are building their business around. It includes a realistic analysis of cost, team management, and security implications of each approach. It covers Elastic Beanstalk, Amazon ECS, Docker, Amazon API Gateway, AWS Lambda, Amazon DynamoDB, and Amazon CloudFront, as well as Docker.

1. © 2016, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
Paul Underwood, Solution Architect, AWS
Keith Horwood, CEO and Founder, Polybit
November 29, 2016
Born in the Cloud
Built like a Startup
ARC205

2. What to Expect from the Session
How to think like a startup when deploying
your next workload on AWS.
Whether you work for an enterprise or a
small business.

3. What to Expect from the Session
My expectations:
• 100-level AWS
constructs
• Familiarity with
AWS services

4. What to Expect from the Session
My expectations:
• 100-level AWS
constructs
• Familiarity with
AWS services
Architectures we
will cover:
• N-tier
• Containerized
• Serverless
Implications on:
• Cost
• Performance
• Team structure

5. What to Expect from the Session
My expectations:
• 100-level AWS
constructs
• Familiarity with
AWS services
Architectures we
will cover:
• N-tier
• Containerized
• Serverless
Implications on:
• Cost
• Performance
• Team structure
Deep dive w/
Polybit:
• Practical
DevOps
techniques in an
increasingly
serverless world

6. What are startups thinking about?
Expecting
scale
Focus on
features
Lean IT
department
Low cost ==
Long runway

7. Isn't everybody?

8. What else are we thinking about?
Reliability Performance Cost efficiency Security

9. Can building like a startup align these goals?
Reliability Performance Cost efficiency Security
Expecting
scale
Focus on
features
Lean IT
department
Low cost ==
Long runway

10. OK, so how have people done
this historically?

11. Using these kinds of frameworks…

12. How? Monolithic/N-tier architectures
Data Center 1
Your infrastructure provider
Data Center 2
Load Balancer
DB Master DB Stby
App Server App Server

13. How do startups do this on AWS?
git clone git://myrepo && cd myrepo
eb init
eb create prod
pg_restore -v –h mydb.rds.amazonaws.com latest.dump
eb setenv SHARED_KEY_OF_SOME_SORT=34dsa…2x32vxj
/// Changes
eb create test
git add . && git commit -m “profound change“
eb deploy
/// Test
eb switch prod && eb deploy

14. ExampleApp-Test
This gets us VM-based N-tier on AWS
ExampleApp-Prod
Availability Zone A Availability Zone B
Elastic Load
Balancing
EC2
RDS Stby
EC2

15. ExampleApp-Test
Plus some significant benefits
ExampleApp-Prod
Availability Zone A Availability Zone B
ELB
EC2
RDS Stby
EC2
Amazon CloudWatch
• Service-wide
resource
monitoring
• Log management
AWS Security
• Identity and access
management
• VPC networking
Specialist services
• Block/object
storage
• Caching
• DNS

16. ExampleApp-Test
The quickest path to
best practices
AWS Elastic Beanstalk – Making N-Tier Easier
ExampleApp-Prod
Availability Zone A Availability Zone B
ELB
EC2
RDS Stby
EC2
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
• Builds you into best
practices from the start
• Integrates with
developer workflows
• Use the Elastic
Beanstalk Command
Line Interface
Amazon CloudWatch
• Service-wide
resource
monitoring
• Log management
AWS Security
• Identity and access
management
• VPC networking
Specialist Services
• Block/Object
Storage
• Caching
• DNS

17. What does this cost?
“Development-grade” stack “Production-grade” stack
Tier Spec Monthly
Cost
Load
Balancer
1x $18.30
Application
Server
1 x t2.micro $9.52
Database
Server
1 x t2.micro
100 GB
$23.95
Total Monthly $51.77
Tier Spec Monthly
Cost
Load
Balancer
1x $18.30
Application
Server
2 x
m4.large
$121.18
Database
Server
2 x
m4.large
100 GB
$198.93
Total Monthly $320.11

18. Containerized Architectures

19. Containers in theory look like conventional N-tier
VM-based N-tier Container-based N-tTier
Web
Server
Web
Server
ELB
Web
Server
Web
Server
DBStby
Hypervisor
Cont. InstancesCont. InstancesCont. Instances

20. In practice, leverage the platform
VM-based N-tier Amazon ECS-based N-tier
Web
Server
Web
Server
ELB
Web
Server
Web
Server
DBStby
Hypervisor
Cont. InstancesCont. InstancesCont. Instances
Application
Load Balancer
RDS Standby RDS Master

21. How startups are building containers on AWS
## set up
aws ecs get-login
docker build –t <tagName> .
docker tag <tagName>:latest <repoUrl>/<tagName>:latest
ecs-cli configure --region us-west-2 --cluster <clusterName>
ecs-cli up --keypair <keyPairID> --capability-iam --size 2 --type …
## auto-generate service and task definition, no ALB, no ASG
ecs-cli compose service create --file docker-compose.yml
ecs-cli compose service start
## instead, use ECS to define more sophisticated services
aws ecs create-service --service-name <serviceName> --cli-input-json
file://sophisticated-service-def.json

22. What does ECS give us?
Scheduler
Cont. InstancesCont. InstancesCont. Instances
Application
Load Balancer
RDS Standby RDS Master
Container Registry
Dockerfiles
docker-compose.yml
Services/tasks
*Amazon RDS managed

23. But what about?
Scheduler
Cont. InstancesCont. InstancesCont. Instances
Service discovery
Container instance
scaling
Container Registry
Dockerfiles
docker-compose.yml
Services/tasks
Container-level
logging
Application
Load Balancer
RDS Standby

24. What does this cost?
“Production-grade”
Amazon EC2 stack
(40% utilization)Tier Spec Monthly
Cost
Load
Balancer
1x $18.30
Application
Server
2 x
m4.large
$121.18
Database
Server
2 x
m4.large
100 GB
$198.93
Total Monthly $320.11
“Production-grade” ECS stack
(80% utilization)
Tier Spec Monthly
Cost
Load
Balancer
1x $18.30
Container
Instances
2 x
m4.large
$121.18
Database
Server
2 x
m4.large
100 GB
$198.93
Total Monthly $320.11

25. N-tier/Container DevOps
The Stack Challenge

26. Opinion time:
Traditional VM and container
architectures are rooted in
emulating classic physical
servers…

27. … and therefore inherit the Stack Challenge
Whose responsibility is?
• Server-level configuration:
• Packages/dependencies
• Users/groups
• Build sources
• Files
• Bootstrapping commands
• Services
• Security
• Cluster-level configuration
• Container instances
• Supporting core services

28. The Stack Challenge
Whose responsibility is?
• Server-level configuration:
• Packages/dependencies
• Users/groups
• Build sources
• Files
• Bootstrapping commands
• Services
• Security
• Cluster-level configuration
• Container instances
• Supporting core services
Tooling can get you so far…
Eventually, you need DevOps staff…

29. Why???
Developer DevOps
Engineer
!=

30. What is that rushing sound?
Dev Test Ops Main.
Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 0

31. Meanwhile, back at the lab…

32. Thinking big, inventing, simplifying
Traditional VM and container architectures are rooted in
emulating classic physical servers.
Why should anyone care about servers?
Feature development is far more valuable than solving
server-centric stack challenges.
Why can’t things just scale automatically?

33. Historical perspective…
2006
EC2
2009
ELB
2010
RDS
1946
ENIAC
Monolithic
Cloud VMs
2013
Docker
1979
chroot process isolation
Containers
Tipping point for “modern” startup adoption
What’s next?
Server-Centric
Architecture

34. Serverless

35. A serverless web application architecture
Images/Video
HTML/CSS/JS
Static Asset Requests
Angular/SPA
Amazon
CloudFront/
Amazon S3
Desktop
*aaS
Mobile

36. A serverless web application architecture
Images/Video
HTML/CSS/JS
Static Asset Requests
Dynamic RequestsAWS Lambda
Angular/SPA
Amazon
API Gateway
Amazon
CloudFront/
Amazon S3
api.example.com
Desktop
*aaS
Mobile

37. A serverless web application architecture
Images/Video
HTML/CSS/JS
Static Asset Requests
Dynamic RequestsAWS Lambda
Amazon
DynamoDB
Persistence/Database
Angular/SPA
Amazon
API Gateway
Amazon
CloudFront/
Amazon S3
api.example.com
Desktop
*aaS
Mobile

38. How to do this on AWS?
Flourish

39. What does this cost?
Imagine the following daily
customer usage pattern:
Cost per user/month:
Assumption Unit
Total Pages / Day 10
Avg Size of Page 200 kb
API Requests / Page 5
Avg size of API Req 4 kb
DB Ops per API Req 2 1r/1w
Storage (per month) 500 kb
Charge Monthly Cost
CloudFront Data Transfer 0.0051
CloudFront Request Pricing 0.0003
S3 Request Pricing (15% cache-hit) 0.00102
S3 Data Transfer 0.004335
API Gateway Data Transfer 0.00054
API Gateway Request Pricing 0.00525
Lambda Request Pricing 0.0003
Lambda Duration Cost 0.000312
DynamoDB IO Pricing 0
DynamoDB Storage 0.000125
Total Monthly Cost / User $0.017282

40. Microservice thinking

41. Through a microservice lens on Day 0
Images/Video
HTML/CSS/JS
Service 0:
CoreSiteAWS Lambda
DynamoDB
Angular/SPA
API Gateway
CloudFront/S3
Dev Test
Ops Main.

42. As microservice complexity scales…
Images/Video
HTML/CSS/JS
Service 1:
CoreSite API
AWS Lambda
DynamoDB
Angular/SPA
API Gateway
CloudFront/S3
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Service 0:
CoreSite FrontEnd
Service
Mitosis @ 2
Pizzas

43. …and so on…

44. Let your teams pick the right tools for the job
Service 0
Service 2
Service 1
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Dev Test
Ops Main.

45. Let your teams pick the right tools for the job
Core Svcs Service 0
Service 2
Service 1
Route 53
DNS
API Gateway
Account Mgmt
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Dev Test
Ops Main.

46. Let your teams pick the right tools for the job
Core Svcs Service 0
Service 2
Service 1
Route 53
DNS
API Gateway
Account Mgmt
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Big Data
Amazon EMR
Amazon
Kinesis
Amazon
Redshift
Mobile/UX
Amazon
Cognito
Amazon
Mobile Analytics
AWS
Mobile Hub

47. So, we understand N-tier and container DevOps
Core Svcs Service 0
Service 2
Service 1
Route 53
DNS
API Gateway
Account Mgmt
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Big Data
Amazon EMR
Amazon
Kinesis
Amazon
Redshift
Mobile/UX
Amazon
Cognito
Amazon
Mobile Analytics
AWS
Mobile Hub
VM Based N-Tier
Service
Dockerized
Service
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Dev Test
Ops Main.

48. What about DevOps in a serverless world?
Core Svcs Service 0
Service 2
Service 1
Route 53
DNS
API Gateway
Account Mgmt
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Dev Test
Ops Main.
Big Data
Amazon EMR
Amazon
Kinesis
Amazon
Redshift
Mobile/UX
Amazon
Cognito
Amazon
Mobile Analytics
AWS
Mobile Hub
Serverless
Service
Dev Test
Ops Main.

49. Unlocking Practical
Serverless Development

50. So you want to go serverless…
Scalability Decreased cost
UNIX philosophy
Organizational
Compartmentalization

51. AWS: The system architecture of the web

52. Organizational tooling for serverless
- Sharing
- Discovery
- Environments
- Deployment pipelines
- Microservice versioning
- Legacy app interoperability

53. Discover, create, manage services
https://github.com/poly/stdlib
Install CLI
$ npm install lib –g
Initialize Workspace
$ lib init
Create Service
$ lib create
Test Service Locally
$ f .
Deploy Service [dev]
$ lib up dev
Test Service Remotely
$ f username/service@dev

54. Discover, create, manage services
https://stdlib.com/search

55. Sharing and discovery
DNS
(Route 53)
Gateway
(API Gateway)
Client Request
https://f.yourdomain.com/your-service
your-service
(Lambda)

56. Environment and deployment
MY_VARIABLE=test
STRIPE_API_KEY=watlol
DATABASE_URL=localhost
// load .env files
require(‘dotenv’);
const stripe = require(‘stripe’);
// do something
process.env.STRIPE_API_KEY
.env index.js

57. Environment and deployment
- package.json
- .dev.env
- .staging.env
- .prod.env
- .gitignore
- index.js
files
$ deploy-command --env prod
deploy
- package.json
- .env
- index.js

58. Environment and deployment
$ deploy-command --env prod
deploy
- package.json
- .env
- index.js
your-service_prod
(Lambda)

59. Microservice versioning
Client Request
your-service/VERSION
your-service:VERSION
(Lambda)

60. Microservice versioning
$ deploy-command --version VER
deploy
{“Publish”: true}
your-service:Number
(Lambda)
{“Version”:
Number}
createAlias
“VER” :: Number

61. Microservice versioning
$ deploy-command --version 1.0.0
deploy
{“Publish”: true}
your-service:NUMBER
(Lambda)
{“Version”:
“NUMBER”}
Mapping:
“1.0.0” :: Number

62. Microservice versioning
DNS
(Route 53)
Gateway
(Elastic Beanstalk)
Client Request
your-service/VERSION
your-service
(Lambda)
Version Mapping
(DynamoDB)

63. Legacy app interoperability
aws-sdk
lambda.invoke(…)
http
f.yourdomain.com/(…)

64. Organizational tooling for serverless
- Sharing
- Discovery
- Environments
- Deployment pipelines
- Microservice versioning
- Legacy app interoperability

65. Organizational tooling for serverless
Route 53 API Gateway Lambda
EBS DynamoDB
Node.js: “dotenv”…
CLI tools...

66. One organizational solution
Test Service Locally
$ f .
Deploy Service [dev]
$ lib up dev
Test Service Remotely
$ f username/service@dev
- Sharing
- Discovery
- Environments
- Deployment pipelines
- Microservice versioning
- Legacy app interoperability
https://github.com/poly/stdlib

67. https://stdlib.com/reinvent-2016
@polybit
@keithwhor
Your Library for Microservices

68. Final thought…

69. A well-defined microservice implies its own architecture
Reliability Performance Cost efficiency Security
Expecting
scale
Focus on
features
Lean IT
department
Low cost ==
Long runway

70. Thank you!
Paul Underwood – paulu@amazon.com
Keith Horwood – keith@polybit.com
Please don’t forget to fill out your survey!