Build Systems that Drive Business
June 11–12, 2018: Training
June 12–14, 2018: Tutorials & Conference
San Jose, CA

Serverless APIs with AWS Lambda and API Gateway

Bill Boulden (ClearView Social)
9:00am–12:30pm Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Location: LL21 C/D Level: Intermediate
Secondary topics: Systems Architecture & Infrastructure
Average rating: **...
(2.40, 10 ratings)

Who is this presentation for?

  • Node.js and Python developers and infrastructure or API architects

Prerequisite knowledge

  • An intermediate understanding of Node.js or Python (The course will be taught in Node.js, but equivalent scripts/program materials will be provided in Python.)
  • A basic understanding of HTML5 and JavaScript in the DOM (enough to manipulate a simple form on a web page), domain names, relational databases, and API concepts such as statelessness and RESTfulness

Materials or downloads needed in advance

  • A laptop with the AWS CLI installed
  • An AWS account (Costs will be minuscule—in the single digit cents—but many Lambda and API Gateway features are not available on the free tier.)

What you'll learn

  • Learn how to create a functioning serverless API using AWS Lambda and API Gateway

Description

It’s natural in many projects to put the responsibility of responding to API calls, with their highly variable computing needs, on the same infrastructure that serves web pages and assets. A serverless architecture that uses API Gateway to route calls to AWS Lambda for on-demand, pay-by-the-millisecond execution removes load from web servers and scales flawlessly to handle any volume while keeping you from paying for an instant of wasted idle time. Bill Boulden walks you through creating a functioning serverless API that coexists alongside conventionally served web pages using AWS Lambda and API Gateway.

Topics include:

  • Compute on-demand and its advantages
  • The interactions between API Gateway and Lambda and how to use them
  • What extra context and objects are used to interact with the Lambda environment
  • The benefits of serverless architectures compared to traditional API server fleets, autoscaled or not
  • How to upload and update functions in Lambda
  • How to interpret RESTful API requests and serve responses from Lambda
  • How to create and manage an API gateway
  • How to configure an API gateway to answer HTTP requests
  • How to make business decisions about when serverless APIs make sense
Photo of Bill Boulden

Bill Boulden

ClearView Social

Bill Boulden is the chief technology officer of ClearView Social, where he has migrated a VM-driven infrastructure to an autoscaling application fleet with serverless components. Bill has been developing software since the age of six. Previously, he was an API architect at Delaware North Companies. Running serverless applications in production has given him a unique perspective on architecture and application delivery for modern companies. In his spare time, he’s a pink-haired house music DJ by the name of Spruke, who enjoys EDM and generative ambient music.

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Comments

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Bill Boulden | CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
03/07/2018 11:03pm PST

@Brian Clarkson, no, it will only be lightly touched on. API Gateway contains many controls for automatically introducing authentication, but they’re beyond the scope of this session.

Brian Clarkson | TECHNICAL LEAD
03/06/2018 2:03am PST

Will serverless API security be covered in this tutorial?