🏆 AWS Cloud Resume Challenge - aaronke.com

📌 Overview

This project is my implementation of the AWS Cloud Resume Challenge, demonstrating a full-stack serverless application hosted on AWS. It showcases my ability to work with cloud technologies, CI/CD automation, and infrastructure as code.

The website is live at aaronke.com.

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🛠️ Technologies Used

Frontend (Static Website)

• 🗂 S3 – Hosts the static files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript).
• 🚀 CloudFront – Serves the website via a global CDN for performance and security.
• 🌍 Route 53 – Manages the custom domain (aaronke.com).
• 🔒 AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) – Provides SSL/TLS certificates for HTTPS encryption.

Backend (Serverless)

• 🏗 Lambda – Serverless function that updates and retrieves visitor count from DynamoDB.
• 💾 DynamoDB – NoSQL database used to store and track website visits.

CI/CD & Infrastructure as Code

• 🤖 GitHub Actions – Automates deployment by pushing website updates to S3 and invalidating the CloudFront cache.
• ⚙️ Terraform – Defines and provisions the cloud infrastructure as code.

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📌 How It Works

1️⃣ Frontend Flow

1. End User visits aaronke.com.
2. A DNS request is sent via Route 53, which resolves to a CloudFront distribution.
3. CloudFront caches and serves the static content stored in an S3 bucket.
4. The website loads, and a JavaScript function calls AWS Lambda directly to update and display the visitor count.

2️⃣ Backend Flow (Without API Gateway)

1. The website triggers an AWS Lambda function directly via the AWS SDK in JavaScript.
2. The Lambda function:
   • Retrieves the visitor count from DynamoDB.
   • Increments the count and updates it in DynamoDB.
3. The updated count is returned and displayed on the website.

3️⃣ CI/CD Deployment

• Frontend Updates: Any push to the GitHub repository triggers GitHub Actions, which:
  • Uploads files to S3.
  • Invalidates the CloudFront cache to reflect changes.
• Backend Updates: Terraform is used to provision and manage AWS resources.

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📝 Disclaimer

The architecture diagram includes API Gateway, but in my actual implementation, I did not use API Gateway to invoke the Lambda function. Instead, I granted my Lambda function an IAM role with direct permissions to read from and write to DynamoDB. This approach was chosen for cost efficiency and simplicity, as API Gateway was not required for this specific use case. The frontend calls the Lambda function directly using the AWS SDK.

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