AWS FOR THE REAL WORLD β±οΈ Reading time: 4 minutes π― Main Learning: Which AWS services are worth your time and which ones to skip π¬ Watch on YouTube Hey Reader ππ½ a new week, new AWS video coming out. I (Sandro) used all of my knowledge from the past six plus years building AWS solutions, ranking the services I actually use and the services I hate. For some I've changed my mind A LOT over the years (e.g. DynamoDB). Let me know what you think and check it out.Here you go AWS News But first of...
16 days agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
AWS FOR THE REAL WORLD β±οΈ Reading time: 12 minutes π― Main Learning: The 11 most impactful AWS releases from the past 12 months that have nothing to do with AI. π Blog Post Hey Reader π Every re:Invent recap, every AWS blog, every newsletter from the past year has been dominated by one topic. You know which one. But while everyone was writing about agents and foundation models, the core infrastructure layer kept moving. Quiet releases. No keynote fanfare. Things that actually affect your...
23 days agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
AWS FOR THE REAL WORLD β±οΈ Reading time: 5 minutes π― Main Learning: Deploy AWS's open-source TEAM solution for temporary admin access with approval workflows π¬ Watch on YouTube Hey Reader ππ½ I hope you had a great weekend and have a great week ahead. One thing I see over and over again in AWS setups: admin permissions are either handed out way too easily or way too hard. There is no middle ground. In other systems this was already solved. You shouldnβt have to DM somebody for admin access. We...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
AWS FOR THE REAL WORLD β±οΈ Reading time: 12 minutes π― Main Learning: Run an always-on AI agent on a $5 Lightsail instance with zero open ports, SSM access, and GitHub as a time machine for your agent's brain π Blog Post π¬ Watch on YouTube Hey Reader ππ½ the past weeks there is obviously one driving topic: OpenClaw π¦ We love seeing that a developer from our neighbor country π¦πΉ built a tool that got so MUCH hype. That is why we needed to try it out as well! While I (Sandro) added OpenClaw to my...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
AWS FOR THE REAL WORLD β±οΈ Reading time: 8 minutes π― Main Learning: How to securely connect Claude Code to a private RDS database using MCP, SSM tunnels, and VPC endpoints π Blog Post π» GitHub Repository π¬ Watch on YouTube Hey Reader ππ½ AI coding assistants are great. If you give them the right context. Your database schema is one of the most valuable pieces of context you can provide. But there's a problem: your RDS is in a private subnet. As it should be. So how do you connect Claude Code to...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
AWS FOR THE REAL WORLD β±οΈ Reading time: 8 minutes π― Main Learning: How to pause Step Function workflows for human approval using the callback pattern π Blog Post π» GitHub Repository π¬ Watch on YouTube Hey Reader ππ½ I've used this pattern in almost every project I've built. Whenever you need a human in the loop - approvals, reviews, manual checks - and you still want to see what's happening, Step Functions are perfect. Lambda is my go-to for almost everything. APIs S3 triggers event consumers...
2 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
AWS FOR THE REAL WORLD β±οΈ Reading time: 5 minutes π― Main Learning: How to make Claude write production-ready Terraform instead of technical debt π¬ Watch on YouTube π Blog Post π» GitHub Repository Hey Reader ππ½ We've been heads-down the past weeks. Preparing the live AMA workshops from Black Friday (sorry for the delay!) and recording new YouTube videos. It's been a lot of fun. Speaking of videos - this week Tobi recorded one you'll want to watch. Here's the problem: LLMs want to close the...
2 months agoΒ β’Β 1 min read
AWS FOR THE REAL WORLD β±οΈ Reading time: 8 minutes π― Main Learning: 5 practical techniques to cut Lambda costs (memory, timeouts, ARM, batching, caching) π Blog Post π¬ Watch on YouTube Hey Reader ππ½ Lambda bills can sneak up on you. One function is often not expensive. But then you scale it up and π₯ it costs you $5,000. Sounds familiar? We had this exact problem with our Shopify fraud detection app. Orders coming in via EventBridge, each triggering its own Lambda.And the bill was $150/month...
3 months agoΒ β’Β 2 min read
AWS FOR THE REAL WORLD β±οΈ Reading time: 8 minutes π― Main Learning: Generate AWS architecture diagrams using AI with Kiro and MCP servers - skip the hours of dragging boxes in Lucidchart. π Blog Post π¬ Watch on YouTube Hey Reader ππ½ Big news: We launched our YouTube channel! π¬ We've published 7 videos so far and are almost at 800 subscribers. Our goal is to keep a weekly rhythm, so expect fresh content every week. If you haven't subscribed yet, here's the link. No exciting AWS news this week....
3 months agoΒ β’Β 1 min read