Welcome to this week’s edition of the DevOps Bulletin!

Unlock the secrets of seamless user version transitions with Lambda@Edge and master Terraform debugging with this easy guide. Discover the optimizations that make processing over 5 million records with Lambda possible 😱

Dive into why Nix could be your go-to for Docker image building. Learn from a real-life tale of cloud cost optimization, where merging projects into a single ECS cluster and shared RDS reaped unexpected benefits.

In the news: Explore the hidden costs of managed databases, HashiCorp’s potential sale, AWS’s new data transfer policy, Mintlify’s security incident, PlanetScale’s strategic changes, why Postgres is dominating the database scene, and how Doctolib is combating alarm fatigue syndrome 😅

Tutorials of the week

• Switch users between app versions with Lambda@Edge: how to seamlessly direct a portion of your users to a new app version while letting others finish up on the old one using Lambda@Edge.

• Add a switch to simplify Terraform debugging: how to use Azure DevOps capabilities to make it easier to analyze IaC Terraform.

• Processing 5M+ records with Lambda: the learning outcomes of optimizing the Kinesis Data Stream flow to support high throughput.

• Nix is a better Docker image builder: great talk about why Docker's image builder sucks!

• How I unified my cloud to save big: by bringing all the projects under one roof, using a single ECS cluster and a shared RDS, with a neat Terraform setup!

• Serverless auth self-serve platform: how to create an internal platform for managing external clients with M2M flows in Amazon Cognito, with full examples.

• DynamoDB hot partitions: consider creating additional partitions via GSI, replicating data across multiple partitions, or a hybrid approach combining GSIs with data replication.

• When Step Functions shine and when to decline: choosing between Step Functions and Lambda depends on your workflow's complexity and requirements—simple tasks might lean towards Lambda, while business-critical operations could benefit from the robustness and extended capabilities of Step Functions.

• Avoiding DynamoDB pitfalls for peak performance: actionable solutions to enhance your DynamoDB implementation, from leveraging TTL for efficient data management to optimizing GSIs for scalability and cost-effectiveness.

• Auditing AWS EKS Pod permissions: three different ways to audit EKS pod permissions.

• How to use GitHub reusable workflows and GitHub environments to build enterprise-scale multi-environment infrastructure deployments in Azure.

• Pre-Merge planning with GitHub Actions: reviewing infrastructure changes pre-merge without GitHub Enterprise 💰

Projects of the week

Highlighting cool DevOps projects to keep an eye on:

• Cognito Clean: Effortlessly maintain a clean and verified user pool by automatically removing unconfirmed accounts with this straightforward tool.

• CloudGrappler: Secure your AWS and Azure cloud environments by easily detecting threats with this tool.

• Pgzx: Develop PostgreSQL extensions with ease using Zig. This library offers essential utilities and a development environment that simplifies integration with PostgreSQL.

• Diagram-as-code: Generate AWS infrastructure diagrams through YAML code directly from your command line.

• Pretzel: Explore and visualize your data intuitively with this offline, browser-based tool, designed for efficient data analysis.

• Song Fingerprinting: Implement song identification for both streaming and stored media files on AWS.

• pg_hint_plan: Optimize PostgreSQL execution plans by incorporating hints within SQL comments.

Newsworthy Stories

Stay informed with the latest news impacting the DevOps and SRE world:

• The hidden cost of using managed databases.

• HashiCorp exploring potential sale.

• Free data transfer out to internet when moving out of AWS.

• Mintlify recent security incident.

• PlanetScale pricing plan change and layoff.

• Why Postgres is eating the database world?.

• How Doctolib is avoiding alarm fatigue syndrome?

Meme of the week