AWS CDK Serverless Cookbook
A Step-by-step Guide to Building a Serverless App in the Cloud
Foreword
I started developing serverless applications on Amazon Web Services in 2018. The team used the Serverless Framework heavily. The framework made it simple to begin developing serverless applications on AWS. Over the years, I wanted greater control of provisioning and updating cloud resources. In 2020, my team and I experimented with the AWS CDK framework to deploy our applications. It was a different experience and required more lines of code than the same setup in the Serverless Framework. An AWS CDK developer needed to understand cloud provisioning better to use it effectively. I found the CDK refreshing and wrote a blog post sharing five significant differences between the two frameworks.
Both frameworks were at version 1 at the time. We were not locked into any AWS deployment framework. As a team, we decided to continue using AWS CDK from then on. After using CDK in multiple projects, we found it allowed us to create patterns that we could reuse. We put standard deployment methods or cloud resources into reusable constructs. Spinning up new projects thus became faster and more efficient. Furthermore, we were able to make upgrades to configurations by simply updating the constructs. For example, when AWS announced deprecations to software runtimes, we would update the runtime in the construct, and all projects would benefit.
I wrote this book to share my experience using AWS CDK to build cloud-native serverless applications. I hope you find my experience over the past few years beneficial in helping you start building a serverless app with CDK.
You may be wondering why I am writing a book on Medium. These posts explain why.
Table of Contents
Introduction: An Overview of AWS, Serverless Computing, and CDK
A quick overview of Amazon Web Services, serverless computing, infrastructure-as-code, and AWS CDK.
An Overview of AWS, Serverless Computing, and CDK
AWS CDK Serverless Cookbook: Introduction
medium.com
Chapter 1: Setting Up our AWS Account and CDK Environment
We will set up our AWS account and development environment to create our application.
Chapter 2: Describing the AWS CDK Application
We will review and modify the CDK app structure.
Chapter 3: Describing the Serverless Architecture
We will describe the serverless website we will build using CDK and the cloud resources needed to make it functional and practical.
Coming soon…
Chapter 4: Launching a Website
We will create a website and make it accessible on the Internet.
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Chapter 5: Creating an API
We will build an application programming interface the website will call to get information.
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Chapter 6: Adding a Database
We will create a serverless database and have the API read its data.
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Chapter 7: Adding Authentication
We will update the website to allow users to sign up, log in, and access protected pages.
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Chapter 8: Saving Data
We will allow logged-in users to save data to the website.
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Chapter 9: Analyzing Data
We will create a repeatable process to analyze the data.
Coming soon…
Chapter 10: Conclusion
We will discuss next steps and other things to consider.
Coming soon…
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About the author
Miguel A. Calles is a domain expert on serverless security, author, writer, engineer & volunteer CISO at Secjuice. He has worked on multiple serverless projects as a developer and security engineer, contributed to open-source serverless projects, and worked on large military systems in various engineering roles. For fun, Miguel bowls with his family.
Copyright © 2023 by Miguel A. Calles
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by Miguel A. Calles, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically, the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
