Searchable content is a common component of many modern applications. But for applications that rely on a streams of new user-generated content how can we create a system that reliably and rapidly indexes searchable content and also provides ways to update, and act on changes to that data later on? This post will show you an architecture that can accomplish this using AWS services like Lambda, API Gateway, S3, Systems Manager Parameter Store, and DynamoDB. We’ll also use the third party provider Algolia for search.

I recently published an article in The New Stack on migrating AWS SAM applications to the Serverless Framework.

I’m about to tell you something ridiculous. You might be paying 70% or more on EC2 than you need to be. With a combination of Spot and Reserved Instances you can dramatically lower your EC2 bill on AWS.

I’ve launched a website for Stormlight Consulting. You can now take a look at different consulting services I offer and get in touch with me for initial consultations. If you’d like to learn more, check out the Stormlight Consulting Website!

Recently, I needed to put together system that would take new DynamoDB table items, queue up JSON messages in first-in-first-out order, and trickle them out to a 3rd party API over time.

I love not having to maintain things later so I decided to throw together a solution on top of managed AWS services. Here’s a high-level diagram of what I came up with:

Let’s take a look at how it all works.