Keeping Things Running- Developing a Reliable API Gateway on AWS by Raj Pathak

Keeping Things Running- Developing a Reliable API Gateway on AWS

Raj Pathak

Cloud Infrastructure Architect

Frontend Engineer

Fullstack Engineer

AWS

AWS VPN

Python

The Big Headache I was solving

Look, the main thing i needed to fix was making sure this application stayed running smoothly, no matter what. Imagine trying to use a website and it keeps crashing – that's what i wanted to avoid.

Specifically, we had a few key issues:

I needed to make sure the application was always available, even if some of the services it relied on went down for a bit.

If something did break, I needed the system to automatically switch to a backup, without anyone noticing.

We had to protect the data and communication without making users log in every single time they interacted with an outside service.

We were dealing with a bunch of different external services (think of them like different apps that our app talks to). We needed a way to simplify that communication and make it less messy.

How I Fixed It

Basically, I built a smart traffic controller using some tools from Amazon Web Services (AWS). how it worked-

I set up a main entry point, like a receptionist, that handles all the incoming requests. This let us control who gets in and where they go

I used a traffic cop to spread the workload across multiple servers. This made sure things didn't get overloaded and kept the application running smoothly

I created these little automated helpers that could make decisions on the fly. They could reroute traffic, manage loads, and even switch to a backup if something went wrong.

I put a security guard in place to protect the system without requiring users to constantly log in. This allowed us to control who had access to what, but without making it a hassle for users

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