AWS Best Practices

Architectural patterns, security best practices, and cloud infrastructure expertise gained through real-world implementations and AWS Solutions Architect experience.

AWS Services Expertise

Core AWS Services

EC2 & Auto Scaling: Elastic compute with automatic scaling
VPC & Networking: Secure network architecture
S3 & Storage: Scalable object storage solutions
RDS & DynamoDB: Managed database services
Lambda: Serverless computing patterns

Security Services

GuardDuty: Threat detection and monitoring
IAM: Identity and access management
WAF: Web application firewall
CloudTrail: Audit and compliance logging
Config: Configuration compliance

Analytics & DevOps

QuickSight: Business intelligence and visualization
CloudFormation: Infrastructure as code
CodePipeline: CI/CD automation
CloudWatch: Monitoring and alerting
X-Ray: Distributed tracing

Architectural Patterns

Multi-Tier Architecture

Implement scalable multi-tier architecture with proper separation of concerns, load balancing, and auto-scaling capabilities.

Presentation Tier: CloudFront + S3 for static content
Application Tier: ALB + EC2/ECS for business logic
Data Tier: RDS Multi-AZ with read replicas
Caching Layer: ElastiCache for performance

# CloudFormation Template Example
Resources:
  ApplicationLoadBalancer:
    Type: AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::LoadBalancer
    Properties:
      Scheme: internet-facing
      Type: application
      SecurityGroups:
        - !Ref ALBSecurityGroup
      Subnets:
        - !Ref PublicSubnet1
        - !Ref PublicSubnet2
      
  AutoScalingGroup:
    Type: AWS::AutoScaling::AutoScalingGroup
    Properties:
      MinSize: 2
      MaxSize: 10
      DesiredCapacity: 4
      TargetGroupARNs:
        - !Ref TargetGroup
      VPCZoneIdentifier:
        - !Ref PrivateSubnet1
        - !Ref PrivateSubnet2

Microservices Architecture

Design and implement microservices using containers, API Gateway, and service mesh for scalable, maintainable applications.

API Gateway: Centralized API management
ECS/EKS: Container orchestration
Service Discovery: Route 53 or AWS Cloud Map
Message Queues: SQS/SNS for async communication

# Go Microservice Example
package main

import (
    "encoding/json"
    "net/http"
    "github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws"
    "github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/service/dynamodb"
)

type UserService struct {
    db *dynamodb.DynamoDB
}

func (s *UserService) GetUser(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    userID := r.URL.Query().Get("id")
    
    result, err := s.db.GetItem(&dynamodb.GetItemInput{
        TableName: aws.String("users"),
        Key: map[string]*dynamodb.AttributeValue{
            "id": {
                S: aws.String(userID),
            },
        },
    })
    
    if err != nil {
        http.Error(w, err.Error(), http.StatusInternalServerError)
        return
    }
    
    w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
    json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(result.Item)
}

Serverless Architecture

Leverage serverless computing for cost-effective, scalable applications with event-driven architecture patterns.

Lambda Functions: Event-driven compute
API Gateway: RESTful API management
Step Functions: Workflow orchestration
EventBridge: Event routing

# SAM Template for Serverless API
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Transform: AWS::Serverless-2016-10-31

Resources:
  UserAPI:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Api
    Properties:
      StageName: prod
      Cors:
        AllowMethods: "'GET,POST,PUT,DELETE'"
        AllowHeaders: "'Content-Type,Authorization'"
        AllowOrigin: "'*'"
      
  GetUserFunction:
    Type: AWS::Serverless::Function
    Properties:
      CodeUri: src/
      Handler: main
      Runtime: go1.x
      Events:
        GetUser:
          Type: Api
          Properties:
            RestApiId: !Ref UserAPI
            Path: /users/{id}
            Method: GET
      Environment:
        Variables:
          TABLE_NAME: !Ref UsersTable
      
  UsersTable:
    Type: AWS::DynamoDB::Table
    Properties:
      BillingMode: PAY_PER_REQUEST
      AttributeDefinitions:
        - AttributeName: id
          AttributeType: S
      KeySchema:
        - AttributeName: id
          KeyType: HASH

Security Best Practices

VPC Security

Network Segmentation: Public, private, and database subnets
Security Groups: Principle of least privilege
NACLs: Additional layer of network security
VPC Endpoints: Private connectivity to AWS services
Flow Logs: Network traffic monitoring

# Terraform VPC Security Example
resource "aws_security_group" "web_sg" {
  name_prefix = "web-"
  vpc_id      = aws_vpc.main.id

  ingress {
    from_port   = 443
    to_port     = 443
    protocol    = "tcp"
    cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
  }

  egress {
    from_port       = 3306
    to_port         = 3306
    protocol        = "tcp"
    security_groups = [aws_security_group.db_sg.id]
  }
}

IAM Best Practices

Least Privilege: Minimal required permissions
Role-Based Access: Use roles instead of users
MFA: Multi-factor authentication
Regular Audits: Review and rotate permissions
Policy Conditions: Time and IP-based restrictions

# IAM Policy Example
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "dynamodb:GetItem",
        "dynamodb:PutItem",
        "dynamodb:UpdateItem"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:dynamodb:*:*:table/MyTable",
      "Condition": {
        "DateGreaterThan": {
          "aws:CurrentTime": "2023-01-01T00:00:00Z"
        },
        "IpAddress": {
          "aws:SourceIp": "203.0.113.0/24"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Zero Trust Architecture

Never Trust, Always Verify: Continuous authentication
Micro-Segmentation: Granular access controls
Encryption: Data in transit and at rest
Continuous Monitoring: Real-time threat detection
Identity-Centric: User and device validation

# Zero Trust Implementation
func AuthenticateRequest(r *http.Request) error {
    // Validate JWT token
    token := r.Header.Get("Authorization")
    if !validateJWT(token) {
        return errors.New("invalid token")
    }
    
    // Check device fingerprint
    deviceID := r.Header.Get("X-Device-ID")
    if !isKnownDevice(deviceID) {
        return errors.New("unknown device")
    }
    
    // Verify user permissions
    userID := getUserFromToken(token)
    if !hasPermission(userID, r.URL.Path) {
        return errors.New("insufficient permissions")
    }
    
    return nil
}

GuardDuty Integration

Threat Detection: ML-powered security monitoring
Automated Response: Lambda-based remediation
Custom Rules: Business-specific threat patterns
Multi-Account: Centralized security management
Integration: SIEM and security tools

# GuardDuty Finding Handler
func HandleGuardDutyFinding(finding GuardDutyFinding) {
    switch finding.Type {
    case "UnauthorizedAPICall":
        // Block IP address
        blockIPAddress(finding.Service.RemoteIpDetails.IpAddressV4)
        
    case "InstanceCredentialExfiltration":
        // Rotate credentials
        rotateInstanceCredentials(finding.Resource.InstanceDetails.InstanceId)
        
    case "CryptoCurrency":
        // Stop instance
        stopInstance(finding.Resource.InstanceDetails.InstanceId)
    }
    
    // Send alert
    sendAlert(finding)
}

SOC 2 Compliance & Governance

Trust Service Criteria

Security

Logical and physical access controls, encryption, and security monitoring

Availability

System uptime, disaster recovery, and business continuity planning

Confidentiality

Data classification, encryption, and access controls

Implementation Tools

AWS Config

Configuration compliance monitoring and remediation

CloudTrail

Comprehensive audit logging and event tracking

Security Hub

Centralized security finding management and compliance

CI/CD Pipeline Best Practices

Automated Deployment Pipeline

Pipeline Stages

Source: GitHub integration with webhooks
Build: Go compilation and testing
Security: SAST/DAST scanning
Deploy: Blue/green deployment
Monitor: Health checks and rollback

Security Integration

• Container image scanning
• Infrastructure as Code validation
• Dependency vulnerability checks
• Runtime security monitoring

# GitHub Actions CI/CD Pipeline
name: Deploy to AWS
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      
      - name: Setup Go
        uses: actions/setup-go@v2
        with:
          go-version: 1.19
      
      - name: Run tests
        run: |
          go test ./...
          go vet ./...
      
      - name: Security scan
        run: |
          gosec ./...
          
      - name: Build
        run: |
          CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux go build -o main
      
      - name: Deploy to Lambda
        run: |
          aws lambda update-function-code \
            --function-name my-api \
            --zip-file fileb://deployment.zip
        env:
          AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
      
      - name: Health check
        run: |
          curl -f ${{ secrets.API_ENDPOINT }}/health

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