Always set AWS CDK Defaults

We are nearing the end of the year, the time to reflect on the past year and definitely share the things that went “wrong” or in this case the things that could have been done better. This is one of those things that I wish I knew earlier, and I hope it helps you too.

AWS CloudShell in your own vpc

Until recently, I was completely unaware of AWS CloudShell, and I’m glad I finally decided to give it a try. CloudShell provides a shell environment right in your browser, and to my surprise, you can start an instance within your own VPC!

Avoiding CloudFormation Stack Outputs

Recently I’ve been working on a new project where we created many resources in a lot of different stacks. A feature of CloudFormation is that you can output values from your stack, which is great for referencing resources in other stacks. However, while there is a use-case for this, I’ve …

Multiple ways to retrieve SSM parameters in AWS CDK

When working with AWS CDK and using SSM Parameters to store information in between stacks there are multiple ways to retrieve the value, with both advantages and disadvantages. In this post, I’ll go over the different ways to retrieve SSM parameters in AWS CDK and when to use them.

AWS Parameter Store vs AWS Secrets

Recently I’ve been using AWS Secrets to retrieve API keys which are needed to access external API’s, however, this turned out to be a more expensive service than we initially thought when starting.

AWS Learning badge assignments

Besides the AWS Certification program, there are also the newer AWS Learning skill badges. A new-ish way of learning the skills necessary to work on the aws platform and illustrate your knowledge. These are like the certifications except they are not certifications of some kind and you can take …