In recent years, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has become one of the most popular cloud computing platforms in the world, providing businesses with powerful tools to manage and scale their infrastructure. As we head into 2023, it's more important than ever for companies to stay up-to-date with the latest AWS capabilities and extend their use of the platform to maximize their efficiency and agility. In this blog post, we will explore four ways to extend your AWS capabilities in 2023, including using serverless computing, implementing containers, and leveraging machine learning services.
In this guide, learn three ways to extend AWS capabilities with DreamFactory, the open-source API management solution that runs on top of AWS so you can integrate and secure data sources without any stress.
REST APIs allow AWS apps to access data, functionality, and business logic from backend services. That enables you to extend your AWS capabilities significantly.
Amazon API Gateway is a native tool that lets you create, maintain, and monitor REST APIs at scale, making it easier to access AWS or other web services and data stored in the AWS cloud.
API Gateway integrates well with AWS security controls. However, understanding the various components of this platform can be difficult. First, you need to know about Amazon's complicated usage plans, as well as API keys, quota limits, and throttling limits. As AWS is a paid-for service, creating REST APIs at scale could set your organization back thousands of dollars.
DreamFactory provides an alternative method for creating and monitoring REST APIs that support AWS apps. It's a free platform that helps you create scripted APIs that incorporate third-party packages and libraries so you can implement API composition, data masking, data hiding, and other tasks. With DreamFactory, you can REST any data source and use a simple interface to facilitate backend functions for mobile and web applications without code. It's safe, simple, and provides live API documentation, so you can improve AWS capabilities without the expensive price tag.
Create and manage REST APIs for AWS at scale with DreamFactory. Develop instant APIs without code. Click here for a free trial.
Authenticating APIs on AWS can be difficult. That's because each API varies in how it authenticates users, and this gets more complicated when you integrate AWS tools with third-party authentification providers. Different endpoints allow users to sign in, log in, log out, and access APIs. You might need to authenticate users on AWS DynamoDB APIs with Active Directory, for example, which can require lots of code and resources.
DreamFactory can improve AWS capabilities by centralizing API authentication for various AWS tools and authentication providers. It comes with pre-built connectors that facilitate authentication automatically, requiring no code whatsoever. The result? Users can sign up and log into services without the hassle.
DreamFactory automated API key management platform provides granular role-based access controls that let you restrict APIs to particular endpoints. You can even limit API access by HTTP method, providing your organization with an additional layer of security. You can't achieve these security goals if you authenticate users through AWS' native tools.
Other security benefits of authenticating AWS APIs via DreamFactory include the ability to extend endpoints with custom scripts, which allows for geofencing, input validation, and data masking. You can even request volume limiting on a per-user, per-service, or per-endpoint basis. With DreamFactory, you get more flexibility over API security and control who accesses your AWS tools and data.
Another way to improve AWS capabilities is to create a REST API for Amazon S3. While Simple Storage Service already has a REST API capable of standard CRUD operations such as creating, updating, and deleting buckets and objects, it can be difficult to use. You'll need to use a specific SDK to execute REST calls, which can be tricky for businesses that lack data engineering experience.
DreamFactory's AWS S3 connector simplifies the above process by providing a REST-based interface for using buckets and objects on S3. This connector supports the standard CRUD operations executed by Amazon's native REST API but makes it easier to manage S3 data and integrate S3 actions with other API-specific tasks. These tasks include creating S3 buckets as part of a DevOps workflow and uploading new user avatars to the platform.
DreamFactory lets you create a REST API for Amazon S3 quickly and manage buckets and objects more effectively than ever before. Start your free trial.
Another way to extend your AWS capabilities is to implement AWS CloudFormation, which is a useful tool that allows you to automate the deployment of infrastructure resources and applications. With AWS CloudFormation, you can create templates that define the resources you need, such as Amazon EC2 instances, Amazon RDS databases, and Amazon S3 buckets, and then use those templates to create and manage those resources in a repeatable and scalable way. This helps you save time and reduces errors by automating your infrastructure provisioning and configuration processes, and makes it easier to manage your resources across different environments and regions.
AWS CloudFormation can also be integrated with other AWS services such as AWS CloudTrail, AWS Config, and AWS CloudWatch to provide you with additional visibility and control over your infrastructure. Overall, AWS CloudFormation is a valuable tool that can help you extend your AWS capabilities and improve your infrastructure management processes.
Investing in AWS can provide various cloud solutions for your business. However, using a third-party service to extend AWS capabilities can result in enhanced security, better API management, and the ability to create REST APIs without relying on Amazon's often-complicated native tools. DreamFactory's auto generated, secure, and fully documented REST APIs can help.
Start your free 14-day trial with DreamFactory today to see how it can help improve your company's AWS capablities.
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