1.
Building a social network
in under 4 weeks with
Serverless and
GraphQL

2.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

3.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
bootstrapped startup: severe constraints on time & money

4.
speed of development

5.
speed of development
scale to millions of users

6.
speed of development
scale to millions of users
minimal up-keep

7.
speed of development
scale to millions of users
minimal up-keep
cost efficient

8.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
1 fulltime FE developer (mobile app)
1 fulltime FE developer (CMS)
1 partime BE developer (me)
~7 weeks
~3 weeks
~4 weeks

9.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
S3CloudFront

10.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Cognito User Pool
S3CloudFront

11.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Cognito User Pool AppSync
S3CloudFront DynamoDB
Lambda

12.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Cognito User Pool AppSync
DynamoDB
Lambda
S3CloudFront

13.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Cognito User Pool AppSync
DynamoDB
Lambda
S3
Algolia
CloudFront

14.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Cognito User Pool AppSync
DynamoDB
Lambda
S3 AlgoliaCloudFront Lambda
Algolia

15.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Cognito User Pool AppSync
DynamoDB
Lambda
S3
Firehose
Algolia
CloudFront
S3
Lambda Algolia

16.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Cognito User Pool AppSync
DynamoDB
Lambda
S3
Firehose
AthenaAlgolia
CloudFront
S3
Lambda Algolia

17.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Cognito User Pool AppSync
DynamoDB
Lambda
S3
Firehose
AthenaAlgolia
CloudFront
S3
Lambda Algolia

18.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AWS Organization
productionstagingdevshared
root
OU OU OU OU

19.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AWS Organization
productionstagingdevshared
root
OU OU OU OU
Users
Audit
Dev Staging Production

20.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AWS Organization
productionstagingdevshared
root
OU OU OU OU
Users
Audit
Dev Staging Production
SCPs

21.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
1 fulltime FE developer (mobile app)
1 fulltime FE developer (CMS)
1 partime BE developer (me)
~7 weeks
~3 weeks
~4 weeks

22.
Yan Cui
http://theburningmonk.com
@theburningmonk
AWS user for 10 years

23.
http://bit.ly/yubl-serverless

24.
Yan Cui
http://theburningmonk.com
@theburningmonk
Developer Advocate @

25.
Yan Cui
http://theburningmonk.com
@theburningmonk
Independent Consultant
advisetraining delivery

26.
theburningmonk.com/courses

27.
theburningmonk.com/workshops
in your
company
flexible datesHelsinki, Aug 20-21 London, Sep 24-25 Berlin, Oct 8-9
4-week virtual workshop, May 4 - May 29
Amsterdam, Jul 7-8

28.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
What is GraphQL?

29.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
schema

30.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
schema server

31.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
schema server data sources
DynamoDB
RDS
ElasticSearch

32.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
What is AppSync?

33.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
schema server data sources
DynamoDB
RDS
ElasticSearch
AppSync
Lambda

34.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AppSync

35.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AppSync
Profile

36.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AppSync
Profile

37.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AppSync
Profile
Sport

38.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AppSync
Profile
Sport
paginated!

39.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AppSync
Profile
Sport
paginated! Activities

40.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AppSync
Profile
Sport
paginated! Activities

41.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AppSync
Profile
Sport
paginated! Activities

42.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AppSync
Profile
Sport
paginated! Activities
very flexible!

43.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AppSync
Profile
Sport
paginated! Activities
very flexible!
over-fetching can lead to issues
with performance and cost

44.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AppSync
Profile
Sport
paginated! Activities
enable caching on
specific resolvers

45.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AppSync
Profile
Sport
paginated! Activities
PublicProfile !== Profile

46.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

47.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

48.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AWS AppSync
scalable & multi-az out of the box

49.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AWS AppSync
scalable & multi-az out of the box
pay as you use ($4.00 per Million)

50.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AWS AppSync
scalable & multi-az out of the box
pay as you use ($4.00 per Million)
built-in caching (extra $)

51.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AWS AppSync
scalable & multi-az out of the box
pay as you use ($4.00 per Million)
built-in caching (extra $)
built-in metrics through CloudWatch
built-in logging through CloudWatch Logs

52.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

53.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
which resolver is
the problem?

54.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

55.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

56.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

57.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

58.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

59.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AWS AppSync
scalable & multi-az out of the box
pay as you use ($4.00 per Million)
built-in caching (extra $)
built-in metrics through CloudWatch
built-in logging through CloudWatch Logs
no servers to manage

60.
https://theburningmonk.com/2020/04/appsync-how-to-error-on-dynamodb-conditional-check-failures

61.
https://theburningmonk.com/2020/04/appsync-skipping-nullable-nested-resolvers

62.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Why not single-table?

63.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Why not single-table?
best performance
best cost
best scalability

64.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Sometimes, good enough is good enough

65.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Design your system as if it’ll be run by idiots.
Because one day it’ll be.

66.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yqfmXiZTlM

67.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
www.dynamodbbook.com

68.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Cognito User Pool
with identity federation
amplify-js

69.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Cognito User Pool are configured using CloudFormation
NOT Amplify CLI

70.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
already have required expertise with AWS and Cognito
Why not amplify CLI?

71.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
uncertainty: Amplify is evolving quickly
Why not amplify CLI?

72.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
great for bootstrapping but question marks
about how well it copes with changes
Why not amplify CLI?

73.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
not all the decisions it makes are good decisions,
e.g. using DynamoDB scans for list operations
Why not amplify CLI?

74.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
DynamoDB access pattern is a sensitive topic with
potentially huge scalability and cost implications.
Why not amplify CLI?

75.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Cognito User Pool
amplify-js

76.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
creates a university
admin user

77.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

78.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

79.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

80.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

81.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

82.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

83.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

84.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

85.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
any logged in user can
perform this operation

86.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework

87.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework
mature, strong community support

88.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework
mature, strong community support
extensible & customizable through plugins
rich ecosystem of community plugins

89.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework
mature, strong community support
extensible & customizable through plugins
rich ecosystem of community plugins
already familiar with it

90.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework
one repo
one CloudFormation stack
one serverless.yml
one command to deploy
> sls deploy

91.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework

92.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework

93.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework

94.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework

95.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework

96.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework

97.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework

98.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

99.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework

100.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework
custom splitting logic FTW!

101.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework

102.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework
DynamoDB, S3, etc.

103.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Cognito User Pool AppSync
DynamoDB
Lambda
S3
Firehose
AthenaAlgolia
CloudFront
S3
Lambda Algolia

104.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework
DynamoDB, S3, etc.

105.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework
AppSync API, resolvers,
Lambda functions, etc.

106.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework
!Ref and !GetAtt works as normal

107.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

108.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

109.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Step 1
Step 2
npm ci
npm run sls -- deploy

110.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Step 1
Step 2
npm ci
npm run sls -- deploy
needs AWS credentials

111.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
How to secure CI/CD pipeline?

112.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Ops Dev Staging Prod

113.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Ops Dev Staging Prod
ci_user
NO local
permissions

114.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Ops Dev Staging Prod
ci_user deploy_role deploy_role deploy_role
sts:assumeRole

115.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Ops Dev Staging Prod
ci_user deploy_role deploy_role deploy_role
Entity Trust Relationship

116.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Ops Dev Staging Prod
ci_user deploy_role deploy_role deploy_role
permissive - e.g. admin -
roles that are only
assumable by ci_user

117.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

118.
not much point with local testing as they’re very
simple and has no dynamic behaviour, once you
figure out the “pattern” they just works
for AppSync resolvers

119.
test integration with other services (e.g. DynamoDB,
Algolia) by executing function locally, but talk to the
real DynamoDB & Algolia
for Lambda

120.
E2E test - execute user stories against
deployed GraphQL endpoints

121.
debugging failed E2E tests is a rehearsal for
debugging real production issues

122.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
AWS Organization
productionstagingdevshared
root
OU OU OU OU
Users
Audit
Dev Staging Production

123.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
org-formation
infrastructure-as-code
CloudFormation-like YML syntax
template landing zones

124.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
org-formation

125.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
org-formation

126.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
org-formation

127.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
org-formation

128.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
org-formation

129.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
org-formation
> org-formation update

130.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
org-formation

131.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

132.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

133.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

134.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
org-formation
> org-formation perform-tasks

135.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
org-formation
https://github.com/OlafConijn/AwsOrganizationFormation

136.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Serverless
framework
AppSync org-formation

137.
speed of development
scale to millions of users
minimal up-keep
cost efficient

138.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
1 fulltime FE developer (mobile app)
1 fulltime FE developer (CMS)
1 partime BE developer (me)
~7 weeks
~3 weeks
~4 weeks

139.
speed of development
scale to millions of users
minimal up-keep
cost efficient

140.
speed of development
scale to millions of users
minimal up-keep
cost efficient

141.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com

142.
speed of development
scale to millions of users
minimal up-keep
cost efficient

143.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
total for 5 accounts

144.
speed of development
scale to millions of users
minimal up-keep
cost efficient

145.
https://theburningmonk.com/hire-me
AdviseTraining Delivery
“Fundamentally, Yan has improved our team by increasing our
ability to derive value from AWS and Lambda in particular.”
Nick Blair
Tech Lead

146.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
Production-Ready Serverless

147.
in your
company
flexible datesHelsinki, Aug 20-21 London, Sep 24-25 Berlin, Oct 8-9Amsterdam, Jul 7-8
4-week virtual workshop, May 4 - May 29
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
theburningmonk.com/workshops
jsvidcon-2020
€100 off all my workshops

148.
@theburningmonk theburningmonk.com
lambdabestpractice.com bit.ly/complete-guide-to-aws-step-functions
20% off my courses
jsvidcon-2020

149.
@theburningmonk
theburningmonk.com
github.com/theburningmonk