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Serverless Architecture

Table of Contents

• Overview
• When to Use
• Quick Start
• Reference Guides
• Best Practices

Overview

Serverless architecture enables building complete applications without managing servers. Design event-driven, scalable systems using managed compute services, databases, and messaging systems. Pay only for actual usage with automatic scaling.

When to Use

• Event-driven applications
• API backends and microservices
• Real-time data processing
• Batch jobs and scheduled tasks
• Workflow automation
• IoT data pipelines
• Multi-tenant SaaS applications
• Mobile app backends

Quick Start

Minimal working example:

# serverless.yml - Serverless Framework
service: my-app

frameworkVersion: "3"

provider:
  name: aws
  runtime: nodejs18.x
  region: us-east-1
  stage: ${opt:stage, 'dev'}
  memorySize: 256
  timeout: 30
  environment:
    STAGE: ${self:provider.stage}
    DYNAMODB_TABLE: ${self:service}-users-${self:provider.stage}
    SNS_TOPIC_ARN: arn:aws:sns:${self:provider.region}:${aws:accountId}:my-topic
  httpApi:
    cors: true
  iam:
    role:
      statements:
        - Effect: Allow
          Action:
            - dynamodb:Query
            - dynamodb:Scan
// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:

Guide	Contents
Serverless Application Architecture	Serverless Application Architecture
Event-Driven Lambda Handler Pattern	Event-Driven Lambda Handler Pattern
Orchestration with Step Functions	Orchestration with Step Functions
Monitoring and Observability	Monitoring and Observability

Best Practices

✅ DO

• Design idempotent functions
• Use event sources efficiently
• Implement proper error handling
• Monitor with CloudWatch/Application Insights
• Use infrastructure as code
• Implement distributed tracing
• Version functions for safe deployments
• Use environment variables for configuration

❌ DON'T

• Create long-running functions
• Store state in functions
• Ignore cold start optimization
• Use synchronous chains
• Skip testing
• Hardcode configuration
• Deploy without monitoring