Rain Clouds

Rain Clouds is a Substack focusing on the intricacies of cloud computing, particularly AWS, and touches on migrating to Azure, cloud security issues, and emerging cloud development tooling. It provides insights into AWS features, improvements, challenges, and compares AWS capabilities with competing platforms.

Cloud Computing Improvements AWS and Azure Comparison Cloud Security Cloud Development Tooling Infrastructure as Code Distributed Systems Communication

The hottest Substack posts of Rain Clouds

And their main takeaways

What would make AWS even better...

28 HN points • 02 Sep 22
  1. The author suggests that AWS should allow for longer running lambda functions for tasks that exceed 15 minutes.
  2. Longer running lambda functions would provide more flexibility for certain tasks like database seeding and ML model building.
  3. Enhancing lambda functions to run longer would align AWS more closely with the capabilities offered by competition like Azure.

The top 6 items on my Re:Invent 2022 Wishlist

3 HN points • 11 Nov 22
  1. Cognito user pools should become powerful directories as identity providers for third-party apps that support SAML.
  2. AWS 'serverless' offerings should scale down to zero and handle high availability configuration out of the box.
  3. Progress needed to make all AWS services and instance types available across all availability zones in supported regions.

VPC @ Edge is an important and missing AWS Feature

2 HN points • 02 Nov 22
  1. VPC @ Edge is an important feature for AWS customers who want to deploy globally accessible websites with minimal latency and edge processing.
  2. Customers wanting to deploy solutions privately within a VPC face limitations and tradeoffs due to lack of VPC support in CloudFront.
  3. Enhancements desired for CloudFront include the ability to place VPC endpoints in target VPCs and restrict access based on source VPCs.

A comprehensive guide to communication in distributed systems with AWS

2 HN points • 28 Oct 22
  1. Understanding push and pull-based communication architectures in distributed systems with AWS
  2. Comparing push-based asynchronous APIs and the benefits of using pull-based communication for reliability, durability, and cost-effectiveness
  3. Differentiating between queues and streams as pull-based communication vehicles in AWS for distributing work and processing sequenced data

Exploring the Emerging Cloud Development Tooling Landscape

1 HN point • 20 Mar 23
🕹 Technology Infrastructure as Code Framework Tooling Serverless
  1. The landscape of cloud development tooling is evolving, with a focus on creating abstractions and frameworks to simplify the process of building and deploying distributed cloud applications.
  2. Infrastructure-as-code languages are transitioning towards statically typed programming languages like TypeScript for better developer experiences and easier maintenance.
  3. New frameworks like Eventual, Ampt, Nitric, and others are emerging to abstract away infrastructure complexities, provide end-to-end type-safe development experiences, and offer seamless integrations with existing cloud environments.
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How an Azure migration kicked my butt

2 HN points • 08 Aug 22
  1. Migrating from AWS to Azure can present challenges due to different platform limitations and requirements.
  2. Adapting to roadblocks in Azure migration may require re-evaluating and changing the initial plan.
  3. Azure development experiences may have constraints and limitations, leading to the preference for AWS in some cases.

Organizing and Integrating Distributed Processes with AWS

1 HN point • 03 Jan 23
  1. Identifying components like Message fan-out, Rule-based conditional routing, and Workflow engines can help tackle messaging complexity in distributed systems.
  2. Event-driven choreography allows for loosely coupled services that react to events, while engine-driven orchestration provides explicit control over process steps.
  3. Using AWS services like SNS, EventBridge, and Step Functions can streamline the management of reliable and observable distributed processes on AWS.

Re: re:Invent 2022

1 HN point • 20 Dec 22
  1. Attending re:Invent in person is a different experience than watching from afar.
  2. Key part of re:Invent is meeting people interested in cloud and exploring AWS.
  3. Highlights from AWS announcements at re:Invent, like Serverless OpenSearch and Lambda SnapStart.

Monitoring Shard Allocation In OpenSearch and ElasticSearch

2 HN points • 07 Mar 22
  1. AWS OpenSearch Service requires custom tuning for optimal performance and can be costly if not managed correctly.
  2. Monitoring shard allocation in OpenSearch domains is crucial as it directly impacts the success of write operations.
  3. Creating a proactive monitoring system for shard allocation can help prevent clusters from being over-allocated and facing operational issues.

An OpenSearch Service Ghost Story

1 HN point • 28 Feb 22
  1. Operating an ElasticSearch cluster, especially with AWS's managed OpenSearch Service, requires effort and can be costly.
  2. Issues with network connectivity can arise unexpectedly in OpenSearch clusters, affecting some nodes while leaving others unaffected.
  3. In situations where debugging tools are limited, considering strategies like software updates or reaching out to AWS support may help resolve OpenSearch cluster issues.