Tactical edge – Architecting for Disconnected Edge Computing Scenarios

Tactical edge refers to edge computing environments that support military operations. Such situations are characterized by limited connectivity, high mobility, and the most intense security requirements. At the tactical edge, the most common needs include deploying, managing, and securing the following technologies: IoT: Cameras and sensors of every description get cheaper every day. The number […]

Moving Greengrass to the SATCOM terminal – Architecting for Disconnected Edge Computing Scenarios

Imagine a situation like we had in the previous section where we want to put an IoT gateway in the middle of nowhere behind a SATCOM terminal, but for various reasons, AWS Snowcone isn’t ideal. Maybe we intend to deploy it once and never physically visit the site for 5 years. How could we run […]

Embedded Linux devices as IoT gateways – Architecting for Disconnected Edge Computing Scenarios

Millions of smart devices around the world are built on AWS IoT Greengrass. From doorbell cameras to washing machines to industrial HVAC units, Greengrass is deployed at a massive scale – the quiet hero of IoT. Let’s elaborate a bit on two types of embedded device solutions based on AWS IoT Greengrass: Wearable devices for […]

The AWS Snow family as an IoT gateway – Architecting for Disconnected Edge Computing Scenarios

When running AWS IoT Greengrass on an AWS Snow family device, customers find the ability to host small ML models that have been pre-trained in the cloud particularly useful. Here are some real-world examples: Transcription/translation: Passengers on trains cannot always hear the announcer (or hear them clearly). To improve accessibility, passengers can subscribe to an […]

Amazon CloudFront special request headers – Utilizing the Capabilities of the AWS Global Network at the Near Edge

In Chapter 2, we discussed the mechanisms Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) systems such as Amazon Route53 use to determine the geographic location of a client’s IP address on the internet. Amazon CloudFront makes use of these same facilities to determine which edge location is closest to a given user so that it can steer […]

Content distribution – Utilizing the Capabilities of the AWS Global Network at the Near Edge

Amazon CloudFront uses a construct known as distributions to establish and govern this behavior. When a new distribution is created, it is pointed at an origin – this is the server or service that holds the content we want to cache in our POPs. Amazon CloudFront supports several types of origins – including S3 buckets, […]

Availability Zones (AZs) – Utilizing the Capabilities of the AWS Global Network at the Near Edge

To understand the full benefits of utilizing the AWS global backbone, we must first start at the foundational units that make up the AWS cloud – AZs. CLOS (leaf/spine) topology The physical network fabric in AZs is a fully Layer 3 CLOS architecture, also known as a leaf/spine design. To simulate Layer-2 adjacency between EC2 […]

Overview of the AWS Global Network – Utilizing the Capabilities of the AWS Global Network at the Near Edge

The AWS Global Network is the cornerstone of everything AWS does. It represents an expansive and cutting-edge infrastructure designed to offer unparalleled performance, reliability, and security. It’s more than just a network; it’s a testament to AWS’s commitment to delivering a seamless cloud experience to businesses and end users across the world. By understanding and […]

AWS Cloud WAN – Utilizing the Capabilities of the AWS Global Network at the Near Edge

For relatively simple, static situations like what we’ve described so far, AWS Direct Connect SiteLink is sufficient. But let’s say we want to build a SaaS offering on top of AWS that connects to physical elements at the edge. Some of these are in true data centers, with AWS Direct Connect links set up to […]

Traffic dials for endpoint groups/regions – Utilizing the Capabilities of the AWS Global Network at the Near Edge

By default, these are set to 100% for all endpoint groups attached to a listener. This results in the default behavior where connections always go to the closest region. When these values are altered, things can get a little tricky to understand, so let’s walk through some examples: Figure 8.20 – AWS Global Accelerator traffic […]

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