This course focuses on AWS Step Functions which is designed to solve many serverless and execution pipeline problems. It looks at how to create simple state machines using AWS Step Functions and understand the workflow associated with creating one. The course also covers the main benefits and limitations of AWS Step Functions, and where it might be applicable for your architectures.
If you have any feedback relating to this course, get in touch with us at support@cloudacademy.com.
Learning Objectives
- Learn how to create your own simple state machines using AWS Step Functions
- Understand the workflow associated with creating simple state machines using Step Functions
- Understand the main benefits and limitations of AWS Step Functions
Intended Audience
This course is recommended for anyone who is looking to understand the fundamentals of AWS Step Functions and how it integrates with the rest of the AWS ecosystem.
Prerequisites
To get the most out of this course, you should have a decent understanding of cloud computing and cloud architectures, specifically with Amazon Web Services. A basic understanding of serverless computing and related AWS services such as AWS Lambda would also be beneficial.
Step functions is one of those services that is a great addition to any architect's toolbox. Having the ability to create serverless workflows that can negotiate the difficulties of waiting for additional inputs, such as having human approvals or completing tasks in parallel is extremely powerful.
Although it can be a little difficult to get started with AWS Step functions if you are not familiar with programming or JSON formatting, you will find working with the visual workflow graphs provides enough feedback to get started fairly quickly.
Amazon also provides a fair number of getting started templates, which give a basic floor plan for many common use cases. I recommend you use these to start building quickly and tinker with them until you get the hang of the Amazon State Language, and can build what you want.
Additionally, there are few AWS quickstarts available for AWS Step functions, that can create entire fully-fledged architectures that have been thoroughly vetted by AWS’ solutions architects.
https://github.com/awslabs/video-on-demand-on-aws
As per usual though, just remember that these do cost money to run and to implement, so make sure you have evaluated them fully before deployment.
Well, that brings us to the end of this course. My name is Will Meadows and I'd like to thank you for spending your time here learning about AWS Step Functions. It's one of my favorite services and it’s really amazing the things you can create with it, so I fully encourage you to play around, experiment, and see what you can come up with. Anyways... If you have any feedback, positive or negative, please contact us at support@cloudacademy.com.
William Meadows is a passionately curious human currently living in the Bay Area in California. His career has included working with lasers, teaching teenagers how to code, and creating classes about cloud technology that are taught all over the world. His dedication to completing goals and helping others is what brings meaning to his life. In his free time, he enjoys reading Reddit, playing video games, and writing books.