AWS Services

Understanding Amazon RDS, Lambda, and IAM

By- Chris Wilson

Introduction to AWS Key Services
AWS Overview Amazon RDS AWS Lambda AWS IAM

Amazon Web Services is RDS simplifies database Lambda is a serverless IAM enables you to
a comprehensive and setup, operation, and compute service that lets manage access to AWS
evolving cloud scaling, supporting you run code without services and resources
computing platform. Its engines like MySQL and provisioning servers. It securely. It offers
global infrastructure of PostgreSQL. It's cost- uses a pay-per-use granular permissions
data centers provides efficient, resizable, model, automatically control, multi-factor
scalable and cost- automates tasks, and scales, reduces authentication,
effective solutions, enhances security, overhead, and supports centralized access
trusted by millions of seamlessly integrating multiple languages. management, and
businesses worldwide. with other AWS services. Triggers from other AWS compliance support,
services enable event- working across all AWS
driven architectures. services.
Amazon RDS: Managed
Relational Database
Service
Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) is a fully managed
database service that simplifies the process of setting up,
operating, and scaling relational databases in the cloud. With RDS,
you can focus on your applications while AWS handles the
underlying infrastructure. RDS supports a variety of database
engines to meet the needs of different applications and use cases.
Introduction: What is Amazon RDS?
Definition Benefits Managed Service

Amazon RDS is a Relational Enjoy easy setup, operation, and AWS handles patching, backups,
Database Service in the cloud, scaling capabilities, allowing you to and maintenance, reducing the
providing a managed platform to focus on your application operational burden on your team.
deploy and scale relational development.
databases.
Database Engines: Powering
Your Applications
1 MySQL
A widely-used open-source database, perfect for web applications and
small to medium-sized businesses.

2 PostgreSQL
An advanced open-source database known for its reliability, data integrity,
and rich feature set.

3 MariaDB
A community-developed fork of MySQL, providing enhanced performance
and compatibility.

4 Amazon Aurora
A MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible database built for the cloud, offering
improved performance and availability.
Architecture: Under the Hood
DB Instance
The core unit of RDS, representing an isolated database environment.

Storage
Provides scalable and durable storage options, including SSD and magnetic
storage.

Network
Integrates with VPC to provide secure and isolated network access to your
database instances.

Management
RDS manages the underlying infrastructure, allowing you to focus on data
management.
Scalability: Grow as You Go

Read Replicas Auto Scaling Vertical Scaling

Scale read-heavy Automatically adjust Easily change the
workloads by database capacity instance size to
distributing read based on real-time scale up or down
traffic across application demand. based on
multiple read performance
replicas. requirements.
Backup and Recovery: Protecting Your Data
Multi-AZ Deployment 1
Enhance availability and enable automatic failover to
a standby instance in another Availability Zone.
2 Automated Backups
Enable point-in-time recovery with automated
backups stored in Amazon S3.
Database Snapshots 3
Create manual backups for archiving or restoring
databases to a specific state.
Security: Protecting Your
Database
IAM
Control access to RDS resources using AWS Identity
and Access Management (IAM).

Encryption
Secure your data at rest and in transit using
encryption keys managed by AWS KMS.

VPC
Isolate your RDS instances within a Virtual Private
Cloud (VPC) for enhanced network security.
Pricing: Pay as You Go

Pay as you go Instance Size

1
Only pay for what you use. Choose the correct instance size
2

Free Tier 4 Storage

Get started with a free trial. 3 Pay for storage and I/O.
Real-World Use Cases

Web Applications Mobile Applications E-commerce

RDS provides a scalable backend for Store user data, game state, and Manage product catalogs, orders,
dynamic websites and web other critical information for mobile and customer data for e-commerce
applications, handling millions of applications with RDS. platforms using RDS.
requests.
Amazon RDS Today
Explore the simplicity and power of Amazon RDS to streamline your
database management and accelerate your application
development. Take advantage of the scalable, secure, and cost-
effective benefits that RDS offers.
AWS Lambda: Serverless
Computing
AWS Lambda is a serverless computing service that lets you run
code without provisioning or managing servers. You pay only for
the compute time you consume, and there is no charge when your
code is not running. With Lambda, you can run code for virtually
any type of application or backend service, all with zero
administration. Just upload your code, and Lambda takes care of
everything required to run and scale it with high availability.
Introduction: What is AWS Lambda?
Serverless Compute Focus on Code Pay-per-use

Lambda is a serverless compute With Lambda, you focus on writing You only pay for the compute time
service, so you can run code code, not managing infrastructure. you consume, so there are no
without provisioning or managing Lambda automatically scales and charges when your code isn't
servers. This means less overhead manages the underlying resources running. This can save you money
and more time to focus on your for you. compared to traditional server-
code. based compute services.
Execution: How AWS Lambda Runs Code

Upload Code Trigger Event Execution Isolated, Secure

Environment
You upload your code as Lambda executes your Code runs in an isolated,
a "Lambda function". code in response to Lambda automatically secure environment with
Lambda supports triggers: events from provisions the necessary limited access to the
various programming AWS services or custom resources (CPU, underlying
languages, making it sources. memory) to run your infrastructure.
easy to get started. code.
Supported Runtimes: Choose Your Language
1 Node.js 2 Python
Supports Node.js: v16.x, v18.x (JavaScript) Supports Python: 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11

3 Java 4 .NET
Supports Java: 8, 11, 17 Supports .NET: Core 3.1, 6.0
Event Triggers: Connect Lambda to AWS

Amazon S3 API Gateway Amazon DynamoDB

Triggered by object uploads and Triggered by HTTP requests through Triggered by table updates.
deletions. API Gateway.
Scalability: Automatic and Instant
Auto-Scaling No Provisioning Concurrent Executions
Automatically adjusts capacity No need to provision or manage Scales to handle thousands of
based on incoming traffic, scaling; Lambda handles it requests simultaneously,
ensuring your application can transparently, saving you time ensuring high performance even
handle any load. and effort. under heavy load.
Security: Built-in and Configurable
2 VPC Support
Run Lambda functions in private
subnets within a VPC.
IAM Roles
Control access to AWS resources 1
using IAM roles.
Encryption
Encrypt data at rest and in transit to
protect sensitive information.
3
Pricing: Pay Only For What You Use
Pay-Per-Use Free Tier Cost-Effective

Charged based on compute time Includes 1 million free requests per Avoid paying for idle resources,
consumed (in milliseconds), so you month and 400,000 GB-seconds of making it a cost-effective solution
only pay for what you use. compute time. compared to traditional servers.
Real-World Use Cases: Endless Possibilities

Web Applications Mobile Backends Data Processing

Process API requests and generate Handle user authentication and data Transform and analyze data from
dynamic content for web apps. storage for mobile apps. various sources using Lambda
functions.
AWS Lambda Today
Simplify Development 1
Streamline application development and
deployment with serverless computing.
2 Reduce Overhead
Reduce operational overhead and costs by
eliminating server management.
Focus on Innovation 3
Focus on innovation, not infrastructure, by
leveraging Lambda's capabilities.
AWS IAM: Secure Access
to Your AWS Resources
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a crucial service for
controlling who can access your AWS resources and what actions
they can perform. It enables you to manage permissions and
access policies, ensuring a secure and compliant AWS
environment.
Introduction to AWS IAM: What is Identity and
Access Management?
1 Definition 2 Key Benefits 3 Access Management
AWS IAM enables you to Granular permissions, IAM serves as the central point
manage access to AWS centralized control, and free of for managing access to
services and resources charge for AWS customers, various AWS services, such as
securely, providing centralized ensuring secure resource EC2, S3, and RDS.
control and enhanced security. access.
IAM Users & Groups: Roles and Permissions
IAM Users IAM Groups Access Control

Represent individuals or Collections of IAM users for IAM Roles define what users or
applications accessing AWS simplified permission applications can do with those AWS
resources, associated with unique management. Apply permissions to resources. Access is granted based
security credentials like access groups instead of individual users on roles defined for specific tasks
keys and passwords. for consistency. or services, which is easier to
administrate.
IAM Policies: Managed vs. Inline
IAM Policies
Define permissions granted to users, groups, or roles, written in JSON, specifying actions, resources,
and conditions.

Managed Policies
Standalone policies managed by AWS or created by you, reusable, easily attached to multiple
identities, with versioning and centralized updates.

Inline Policies
Directly embedded within a single user, group, or role, not reusable, tightly coupled to the identity,
best for specific, unique permissions.
Authentication: MFA & Access Keys
Multi-Factor IAM Access Keys Authentication
Authentication (MFA)
Used for programmatic access to Always secure your accounts
Adds an extra layer of security AWS resources, consisting of an with access keys or better yet
beyond username and password, access key ID and a secret MFA. Doing so will ensure no
requiring a time-based one-time access key. Rotate access keys unathorized users can connect to
password (TOTP) from a device. regularly to minimize risk. your AWS resources and cause
malicious harm.
IAM Security Best Practices: Least Privilege
and Logging

Principle of Least Privilege AWS CloudTrail Logging Security

Grant only the minimum Tracks all API calls made to your Follow the security standards and
permissions required to perform a AWS account, enabling auditing and implement them to your services.
task, reducing the blast radius of security monitoring. Helps identify
security breaches. Regularly review and respond to suspicious activity.
and refine permissions.
Compliance and Monitoring
AWS Config

1 Assesses, audits, and evaluates the configurations of your AWS resources, helping ensure
compliance with internal policies and regulatory standards.

AWS Trusted Advisor

Provides recommendations for security, cost optimization, and
2 performance improvements, ensuring a well-architected AWS
environment.

Compliance

3 Always adhere to Compliance to ensure your

resources are up to par.
IAM Use Cases

EC2 Deployments S3 Backups Cross-Account Auditing

Granting access to developers to Enabling a third-party application to Allowing cross-account access for
deploy applications to EC2 instances back up data to S3 with appropriate auditing purposes with controlled
securely. permissions. access policies.
Conclusion: Securing Your AWS Environment
with IAM
AWS IAM is a fundamental component of AWS security, implementing best practices is crucial for protecting your AWS
resources. Regularly review and update your IAM configuration to adapt to changing security needs, ensuring a robust
security posture.

By starting to implement these best practices today you will ensure that your AWS resources will remain secure and
protected.
AWS Trio: RDS, Lambda,
and IAM
Unleash the power of secure, scalable, and serverless applications
on AWS. Amazon RDS simplifies database management, AWS
Lambda enables serverless computing, and AWS IAM ensures
secure access control. Together, they form a powerful suite for
building modern cloud solutions.
Final Thoughts: Secure, Scalable, and Efficient
Cloud Solutions

Amazon RDS AWS Lambda AWS IAM

RDS provides managed database Lambda offers serverless IAM delivers secure access control
services for simplified setup, computing, allowing code execution to AWS services, reducing the risk of
operation, and scaling. It supports without server management. Scale unauthorized access using its best
multiple database engines like MySQL automatically from a few requests to practices. Reduce risk of unauthorized
and PostgreSQL, reducing database thousands per second, paying only for access by 90% using IAM best
administration tasks by up to 70%. the compute time consumed, offering practices.
cost savings.

Explore AWS RDS, Lambda, and IAM today to transform your cloud infrastructure. AWS security services help customers identify
and respond to security events 69% faster. Deploy applications 3x faster than traditional methods. Customers report up to 40%
reduction in operational costs.