A blog about web development and technologyhttps://rehanvdm.com/en-ushttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/scaling-ecs-fargate-like-lambda/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/scaling-ecs-fargate-like-lambda/In this post, we explore how fast ECS Fargate can scale compared to Lambda. We use a real world example of processing messages from an SQS queue.Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/aws-cdk-starter-v2-multiple-environments-automatic-cicd-diff-pnpm-workspaces-turborepo/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/aws-cdk-starter-v2-multiple-environments-automatic-cicd-diff-pnpm-workspaces-turborepo/The starter provides configuration management, multi environment deployments, monorepo architecture with pnpm & Turborepo and automated GitHub CI/CD workflows.Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/migrate-from-cdk-pipelines-to-cdk-express-pipeline/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/migrate-from-cdk-pipelines-to-cdk-express-pipeline/A practical guide to migrating from AWS CDK Pipelines to CDK Express Pipeline. Learn the reasons, benefits, and step-by-step process, with benchmarks and code comparisons.Sun, 08 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/cdk-express-pipeline-tutorial/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/cdk-express-pipeline-tutorial/Learn how to create and manage simple and fast deployment pipelines using the cdk-express-pipeline library, a powerful tool built on top of AWS CDK that enables CDK-native pipeline definitions.Mon, 03 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/cdk-lambda-tailscale-extension-and-proxy/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/cdk-lambda-tailscale-extension-and-proxy/With the Tailscale Lambda Extension and Proxy CDK Constructs, you can simplify secure networking without having to rely on Docker and serverfull infrastructureThu, 30 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/aurora-dsql-a-new-boring-aws-serverless-postgres-compatible-database/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/aurora-dsql-a-new-boring-aws-serverless-postgres-compatible-database/Aurora DSQL is a serverless, distributed database with PostgreSQL compatibility. It's an OLTP database that can also handle OLAP workloads.Tue, 03 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/aws-cdk-starter-configuration-multiple-environments-cicd/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/aws-cdk-starter-configuration-multiple-environments-cicd/The Starter Project shows how to do configuration management, design for multiple environments and use GitHub Workflows for CI/CDMon, 26 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/should-you-use-a-lambda-monolith-lambdalith-for-the-api/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/should-you-use-a-lambda-monolith-lambdalith-for-the-api/We explore the benefits of a Lambda Monolith for the API comparing it to single-purpose Lambda functions per API route.Wed, 04 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/trpc-separate-backend-frontend-with-openapi-aws-lambda-cdk/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/trpc-separate-backend-frontend-with-openapi-aws-lambda-cdk/We explore the available options of desired count and the correlation with respect to time on the circuit breaker that initiates cloudformation rollbackSat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/cdk-shorts-3-local-bundling/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/cdk-shorts-3-local-bundling/By being a bit creative, we can force local bundling of CDK assets. This eliminates the need to run build scripts before CDK commands.Sun, 18 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/deep-dive-on-ecs-desired-count-and-circuit-breaker-rollback/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/deep-dive-on-ecs-desired-count-and-circuit-breaker-rollback/We explore the available options of desired count and the correlation with respect to time on the circuit breaker that initiates CloudFormation rollback.Tue, 31 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/how-to-port-forward-to-remote-with-aws-ssm-or-ssh/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/how-to-port-forward-to-remote-with-aws-ssm-or-ssh/We compare AWS SSM and SSH port forwarding to a remote host which includes code snippetsSun, 08 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2022-11/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2022-11/Cloud Glance got a face lift, a blog and some enhancements.Sun, 04 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/generate-a-logo-with-openai-dalle-script/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/generate-a-logo-with-openai-dalle-script/How to generate a logo using OpenAI's DALL-E for less than 1$ Thu, 24 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/how-does-cloudglance-do-aws-auth/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/how-does-cloudglance-do-aws-auth/In the first installment of the 'How does CloudGlance Series', we look at some code snippets on how to get IAM User, Role and SSO temporary credentials with STS.Sun, 20 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2022-10/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2022-10/The second month of Cloud Glance saw some new features, documentation and bug fixes.Sun, 06 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2022-09/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2022-09/The start of Cloud Glance and how it's going so far.Sun, 02 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/how-not-to-start-a-side-hustle-on-aws/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/how-not-to-start-a-side-hustle-on-aws/Slides about my talk at the AWS PTA Meetup. It covers both technical and soft skills required to create and run a side hustle on AWS. I will share some of my knowledge and experience on what it takes to side hustle. Tue, 02 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/using-a-cloudfront-api-proxy-to-invalidate-a-single-page-application-without-polling/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/using-a-cloudfront-api-proxy-to-invalidate-a-single-page-application-without-polling/Efficiently refresh your Single Page Application by piggybacking off your existing API calls using AWS Cloudfront reverse proxy and Response Header Policy Mon, 27 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/improve-dx-publishing-an-api-sdk-cdk-serverless/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/improve-dx-publishing-an-api-sdk-cdk-serverless/Make the OpenAPI Spec file the contract between back and frontend by publishing an API SDK as an NPM package. Create visibility with automation by using Slack notifications when the backend pipeline publishes a new SDK.Tue, 17 May 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/typescript-type-safety-with-ajv-standalone/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/typescript-type-safety-with-ajv-standalone/TypeScript does a great job at compile time type safety, but we still need to do runtime checks just like in JavaScript. We focus on AJV Standalone that outputs compiled JS functions to be used at runtime. Going from TS Types to JSON Schema to JS functions allows us to validate TS Types where the other packages all work with classes and reflection.Sun, 16 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/lru-cache-fallback-strategy/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/lru-cache-fallback-strategy/A Least Recently Used(LRU) cache stores items in-memory and evicts the oldest(less used) ones as soon as the allocated memory (or item count) has been reached. Storing data in-memory before reaching for an external cache increases speed and decrease the dependency on the external cache. It is also possible to fallback to in-memory caches like an LRU cache in periods that your external cache goes down without seeing a significant impact on performance.Fri, 14 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2021/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2021/What I have been upto and where I am going next.Thu, 09 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/from-monolith-to-resilient-microservices/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/from-monolith-to-resilient-microservices/Slides about my talk at the Serverless Summit 2021. We will run a scenario on three types of monolithic architectures and then focus on how it is done with microservices. Amazon EventBridge and the Event Carried State Transfer pattern to create loosely coupled and independent services. This eliminates synchronous calls between services to increase system availability.Wed, 17 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/should-you-use-microservices/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/should-you-use-microservices/Use the right architecture for the job, consider the non-technical requirements first when deciding to use microservices.Mon, 15 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2021-08/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2021-08/WarpURL hibernation, burnout(almost) and more thoughts on finding product market fit.Mon, 30 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/cdk-shorts-2-parallel-deployments/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/cdk-shorts-2-parallel-deployments/CDK stacks can be deployed in parallel by generating a cloud assembly output and then specifying the order explicitly.Wed, 11 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2021-07/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2021-07/Lessons on how important product market fit is for a successful business, but progress is still being made while having fun.Thu, 29 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2021-06/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/retro-2021-06/This month was really exciting. I soft-launched WarpURL, shipped new features, fixed bugs,deployed API docs and wrote two blog posts for WarpURL.Sun, 04 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/cdk-shorts-1-consistent-asset-hashing-nodejs/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/cdk-shorts-1-consistent-asset-hashing-nodejs/Exploring intermittent “issues” with assets being non-deterministic; uploaded on every deploy, even if the source does not change.Mon, 05 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/4-methods-to-configure-multiple-environments-in-the-aws-cdk/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/4-methods-to-configure-multiple-environments-in-the-aws-cdk/In this post I will explore 4 different methods that can be used to pass configuration values to the AWS CDK. We will first look at using the context variables in the cdk.json file, then move those same variables out to YAML files. The third method will read the exact same config via SDK(API) call from AWS SSM Parameter Store. The fourth and my favourite is a combination of two and three in conjunction with using GULP.js as a build tool. Sun, 24 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/cloudfront-reverse-proxy-api-gateway-to-prevent-cors/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/cloudfront-reverse-proxy-api-gateway-to-prevent-cors/In this blog we will do a quick recap of CORS and reverse proxies. Then we will show how a reverse proxy can eliminate CORS, specifically in the context of a SPA hosted on CloudFront with an API Gateway backend. The sample code focuses on public, authenticated routes (Authorization header) and IAM signed request all being reverse proxied through CloudFront. Tue, 20 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/refactoring-a-distributed-monolith-to-microservices/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/refactoring-a-distributed-monolith-to-microservices/This article documents the thought process and steps involved in refactoring a distributed monolith to microservices. We are going to remove API GW, use Amazon Event Bridge and implement BASE consistency in the system to truly decouple our microservices.Thu, 30 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/aws-serverless-you-might-not-need-third-party-monitoring/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/aws-serverless-you-might-not-need-third-party-monitoring/I hardly ever find myself reaching for third party monitoring services these days. I rather use the AWS native observability, monitoring and alerting services.Wed, 08 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/an-unexpected-journey-with-lambda-oracledb/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/an-unexpected-journey-with-lambda-oracledb/We create a Lambda layer with AWS CDK for the NodeJS Lambda function to consume; this consists of the Oracle Instant Client Basic Lite v19.x libs + the libaio.so.1 file. Developers will need to manually install these as dev dependencies.Tue, 19 May 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/choosing-the-right-database-on-aws/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/choosing-the-right-database-on-aws/These presentation slides explore the benefits of managed VS self hosted databases, provide use cases and samples for: Amazon RDS, DynamoDB, AWS DocumentDB, ElasticCache, Neptune, Elastic Search, Timestream and QLDBMon, 24 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/dynamodb-importer/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/dynamodb-importer/This blog will demonstrate the high throughput rate that DynamoDB can handle by writing 1 million records in 60 seconds with a single Lambda, that is approximately 17k writes per second. This is all done with less than 250 lines of code and less than 70 lines of CloudFormation. Sun, 10 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/3-ways-to-autoscale-on-aws/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/3-ways-to-autoscale-on-aws/In this article, we will be looking at three different methods of Autoscaling applications. We’ll also try to leverage AWS manged services as much as possible. We will look at Elastic Beanstalk, ECS Fargate and Lambda.Tue, 24 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/13-aws-lambda-design-considerations-you-need-to-know-about-part-1/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/13-aws-lambda-design-considerations-you-need-to-know-about-part-1/With great power comes great responsibility. Serverless design requires knowledge of different services and how they interact with each other. Just like any other technology, there are some tricky waters to navigate, but they are far outweighed by the power of what serverless has to offer. To stop this dream from turning into a nightmare, here are a few things to keep in mind when designing with AWS Lambda.Sat, 03 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/13-aws-lambda-design-considerations-you-need-to-know-about-part-2/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/13-aws-lambda-design-considerations-you-need-to-know-about-part-2/How to use the technical considerations we checked out in part one to effectively design serverless and Lambda systems.Sat, 03 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/data-lakes-are-hard/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/data-lakes-are-hard/In this post we will explore the implementation difficulties and how a data lake fits into the organization, topics that other articles might tend to oversee.Mon, 13 May 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/expanding-ec2-disk-space-and-adding-monitoring-with-no-down-time/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/expanding-ec2-disk-space-and-adding-monitoring-with-no-down-time/Whoops, your production server ran out of space. This is just a a quick guide on how to fix it without down time. Tue, 16 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/aws-iot-coffee-monitor-part-2/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/aws-iot-coffee-monitor-part-2/Using AWS IoT, DynamoDB, Lambda and Telegram Push Notifications to build a serverless Coffee Monitor notifying my coffee states, ex: Coffee is getting cold.Wed, 10 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/aws-iot-coffee-monitor-part-1/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/aws-iot-coffee-monitor-part-1/Using AWS IoT, DynamoDB, Lambda and Telegram Push Notifications to build a serverless Coffee Monitor notifying my coffee states, ex: Coffee is getting cold.Wed, 03 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/debugging-php-with-xdebug-php-storm-and-aws-elastic-beanstalk/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/debugging-php-with-xdebug-php-storm-and-aws-elastic-beanstalk/A tutorial on how to setup Xdebug, PHP Storm and AWS Elastic Beanstalk to debug PHP applicationsSat, 23 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/serverless-wordpress-blog/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/serverless-wordpress-blog/This blog is completely serverless and in this post I will go through the steps, pros and cons to hosting and setting up a serverless blog yourself at a cost of $0 per month.Tue, 15 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/staying-in-the-loop/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/staying-in-the-loop/Keeping up to date with technology, frameworks and trends as a developer is difficult and fatiguing in this fast paced industry. Sat, 12 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMThttps://rehanvdm.com/blog/programmer-responsibilities/https://rehanvdm.com/blog/programmer-responsibilities/The work that you will be doing will echo your personality, believes, discipline, ideas and level of complexity long after it has been written. It is there for crucial to follow standards and practices that align with the company policy as the code you write is defining the company itself. This is a guide I wrote to ensure a consistent code base and principals.Sat, 05 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT