user
While working as a Technology Consultant at Affine Global from August 2017 to December 2019, how did you leverage AWS services such as EC2, API Gateway, and Lambda to build and deploy web applications, and what were the key benefits?
assistant
At Affine Global, from August 2017 to December 2019, my focus was on helping clients build and deploy web applications on AWS. I got pretty proficient with services like EC2, API Gateway, and Lambda. EC2 was the foundation. I used it to provision virtual servers for hosting the application's backend and database. I'd set up auto-scaling groups to ensure that the application could handle varying levels of traffic. A cool project that I had involved spinning up EC2 instances automatically at times when there were special campaigns. Once these campaigns were over, the EC2 instances would automatically be terminated. Doing this manually would have meant that an engineer would have to work during the weekend.API Gateway was crucial for creating a secure and scalable API endpoint for the application. I used it to manage authentication, authorization, and request routing. API Gateway also allowed me to implement rate limiting to protect the application from abuse and denial-of-service attacks. Also, I used API Gateway to make RESTful API calls to third-party services. This meant that I could easily integrate external services into the application. We used it to enrich the data that we were showing to our users.Lambda was a game-changer for running serverless functions. I used it to implement various tasks, such as processing data, sending emails, and generating reports. Lambda allowed me to run code without having to manage servers, which significantly reduced operational overhead. These Lambdas were configured to execute on a trigger or schedule basis. With Lambda, I didn't have to worry about scaling the underlying infrastructure. In addition, these functions would be very cheap, as the charging structure was based on when they were executed and not on how long they were running for.The combination of these services allowed us to build and deploy web applications that were highly scalable, reliable, and cost-effective. By leveraging AWS's managed services, we were able to focus on developing the application's core functionality, rather than spending time on infrastructure management. During my time at Affine Global from August 2017 to December 2019, I leveraged AWS services such as EC2, API Gateway, and Lambda to build scalable, reliable, and cost-effective web applications. EC2 provided virtual servers, API Gateway secured and managed API endpoints, and Lambda enabled serverless functions, allowing our team to focus on core application development rather than infrastructure management.