Sandro Volpicella
@sandrovolpicella.com
I teach developers about the cloud ⛅
👨🏽💻 Platform Lead @hashnode
📕 New Book: https://cloudwatchbook.com
⛅ AWS Fundamentals Book: https://awsfundamentals.com
😼 Builds https://kitlytics.com
🤗 AWS Community Builder
👨🏽💻 Platform Lead @hashnode
📕 New Book: https://cloudwatchbook.com
⛅ AWS Fundamentals Book: https://awsfundamentals.com
😼 Builds https://kitlytics.com
🤗 AWS Community Builder
Honeycomb published a blog post called "The End of Observability as We Know It."
I've been using observability tools for years now. Heck, I wrote a book about CloudWatch ⛅
And honestly? I like the take of this post.
Let's see a typical daily observability issue:
- You have 5 AWS accounts.
I've been using observability tools for years now. Heck, I wrote a book about CloudWatch ⛅
And honestly? I like the take of this post.
Let's see a typical daily observability issue:
- You have 5 AWS accounts.
November 26, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Honeycomb published a blog post called "The End of Observability as We Know It."
I've been using observability tools for years now. Heck, I wrote a book about CloudWatch ⛅
And honestly? I like the take of this post.
Let's see a typical daily observability issue:
- You have 5 AWS accounts.
I've been using observability tools for years now. Heck, I wrote a book about CloudWatch ⛅
And honestly? I like the take of this post.
Let's see a typical daily observability issue:
- You have 5 AWS accounts.
You can now stream AI responses through API Gateway natively!
The main changes:
- Integration timeout extended to 15 minutes
- Larger payloads possible
You can even stream your whole documents & media files from S3 without pre-signed links now 🤯
The main changes:
- Integration timeout extended to 15 minutes
- Larger payloads possible
You can even stream your whole documents & media files from S3 without pre-signed links now 🤯
November 26, 2025 at 3:02 PM
You can now stream AI responses through API Gateway natively!
The main changes:
- Integration timeout extended to 15 minutes
- Larger payloads possible
You can even stream your whole documents & media files from S3 without pre-signed links now 🤯
The main changes:
- Integration timeout extended to 15 minutes
- Larger payloads possible
You can even stream your whole documents & media files from S3 without pre-signed links now 🤯
Public Lambda Roadmap is live 🔥
And OTEL is already in the researching state 👀
🔗 github.com/orgs/aws/pr...
And OTEL is already in the researching state 👀
🔗 github.com/orgs/aws/pr...
November 26, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Public Lambda Roadmap is live 🔥
And OTEL is already in the researching state 👀
🔗 github.com/orgs/aws/pr...
And OTEL is already in the researching state 👀
🔗 github.com/orgs/aws/pr...
We added semantic search to our blog in one afternoon.
No vector database. No extra infrastructure.
Just S3 and Bedrock.
100+ posts now have intelligent related content suggestions. The setup was surprisingly simple:
1️⃣ Upload Content to S3
Store your markdown files in S3.
No vector database. No extra infrastructure.
Just S3 and Bedrock.
100+ posts now have intelligent related content suggestions. The setup was surprisingly simple:
1️⃣ Upload Content to S3
Store your markdown files in S3.
November 25, 2025 at 2:58 PM
We added semantic search to our blog in one afternoon.
No vector database. No extra infrastructure.
Just S3 and Bedrock.
100+ posts now have intelligent related content suggestions. The setup was surprisingly simple:
1️⃣ Upload Content to S3
Store your markdown files in S3.
No vector database. No extra infrastructure.
Just S3 and Bedrock.
100+ posts now have intelligent related content suggestions. The setup was surprisingly simple:
1️⃣ Upload Content to S3
Store your markdown files in S3.
"Based on this feedback, CodeCommit is returning to full General Availability, effective immediately." - that is a new one!
Welcome Back CodeCommit 👨🏽💻
Welcome Back CodeCommit 👨🏽💻
November 25, 2025 at 7:05 AM
"Based on this feedback, CodeCommit is returning to full General Availability, effective immediately." - that is a new one!
Welcome Back CodeCommit 👨🏽💻
Welcome Back CodeCommit 👨🏽💻
CloudWatch log centralization takes 3 steps.
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿
Go to your management account.
CloudWatch → Settings → Organization.
Assign one delegated administrator.
I recommend using your dedicated logging account.
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿
Go to your management account.
CloudWatch → Settings → Organization.
Assign one delegated administrator.
I recommend using your dedicated logging account.
November 24, 2025 at 3:00 PM
CloudWatch log centralization takes 3 steps.
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿
Go to your management account.
CloudWatch → Settings → Organization.
Assign one delegated administrator.
I recommend using your dedicated logging account.
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿
Go to your management account.
CloudWatch → Settings → Organization.
Assign one delegated administrator.
I recommend using your dedicated logging account.
AWS finally made centralized logging simple 🎉
Everybody says "you need a central logging account" but creating it was quite a hassle.
Your options before:
🔹 Observability Access Manager (OAM)
Works, but complicated setup.
Requires understanding sinks, sources, and links.
Everybody says "you need a central logging account" but creating it was quite a hassle.
Your options before:
🔹 Observability Access Manager (OAM)
Works, but complicated setup.
Requires understanding sinks, sources, and links.
November 19, 2025 at 3:00 PM
AWS finally made centralized logging simple 🎉
Everybody says "you need a central logging account" but creating it was quite a hassle.
Your options before:
🔹 Observability Access Manager (OAM)
Works, but complicated setup.
Requires understanding sinks, sources, and links.
Everybody says "you need a central logging account" but creating it was quite a hassle.
Your options before:
🔹 Observability Access Manager (OAM)
Works, but complicated setup.
Requires understanding sinks, sources, and links.
Nice new launch - I think that means no more:
- "Bucket with this name already exists"
- "Couldn't delete bucket because it is not empty"
The feedback loop is faster to have it BEFORE it actually starts deploying.
So far it works on:
- "Bucket with this name already exists"
- "Couldn't delete bucket because it is not empty"
The feedback loop is faster to have it BEFORE it actually starts deploying.
So far it works on:
November 19, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Nice new launch - I think that means no more:
- "Bucket with this name already exists"
- "Couldn't delete bucket because it is not empty"
The feedback loop is faster to have it BEFORE it actually starts deploying.
So far it works on:
- "Bucket with this name already exists"
- "Couldn't delete bucket because it is not empty"
The feedback loop is faster to have it BEFORE it actually starts deploying.
So far it works on:
TIL: Step Functions Tasks can assume roles for cross-account access 🤯
November 18, 2025 at 7:00 AM
TIL: Step Functions Tasks can assume roles for cross-account access 🤯
Typically, one of the first issues you will encounter in bad architected systems: 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠
Imagine building a blogging platform.
Your `create-post` API started out with just publishing a post.
But after a few more cool ideas this API is now responsible for:
Imagine building a blogging platform.
Your `create-post` API started out with just publishing a post.
But after a few more cool ideas this API is now responsible for:
June 19, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Typically, one of the first issues you will encounter in bad architected systems: 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠
Imagine building a blogging platform.
Your `create-post` API started out with just publishing a post.
But after a few more cool ideas this API is now responsible for:
Imagine building a blogging platform.
Your `create-post` API started out with just publishing a post.
But after a few more cool ideas this API is now responsible for:
You typically only create metric alarms in CloudWatch but the real value often comes with composite alarms.
Composite alarms let you monitor multiple metrics. For example you can observe:
- Lambda errors
- API Gateway 500 errors
Composite alarms let you monitor multiple metrics. For example you can observe:
- Lambda errors
- API Gateway 500 errors
June 18, 2025 at 6:00 AM
You typically only create metric alarms in CloudWatch but the real value often comes with composite alarms.
Composite alarms let you monitor multiple metrics. For example you can observe:
- Lambda errors
- API Gateway 500 errors
Composite alarms let you monitor multiple metrics. For example you can observe:
- Lambda errors
- API Gateway 500 errors
One feature I really love about CDK ➡️ CDK Aspects
You can apply certain configurations or modifications of one kind of a construct.
Typical CDK aspects:
- attach alarm actions to every CloudWatch alert
- assign tags to every construct
- set log retention
And they are created SUPER easily!
You can apply certain configurations or modifications of one kind of a construct.
Typical CDK aspects:
- attach alarm actions to every CloudWatch alert
- assign tags to every construct
- set log retention
And they are created SUPER easily!
June 17, 2025 at 6:00 AM
One feature I really love about CDK ➡️ CDK Aspects
You can apply certain configurations or modifications of one kind of a construct.
Typical CDK aspects:
- attach alarm actions to every CloudWatch alert
- assign tags to every construct
- set log retention
And they are created SUPER easily!
You can apply certain configurations or modifications of one kind of a construct.
Typical CDK aspects:
- attach alarm actions to every CloudWatch alert
- assign tags to every construct
- set log retention
And they are created SUPER easily!
I'm still using Leapp daily for all of my accounts. My typical setup looks like this:
🏦 AWS Organization -> e.g. AWS Fundamentals
🧾 AWS Management Account -> Paying Account
🧾 AWS Account -> Dev/Prod
∎ AWS Profile -> ck-dev / ck-prod (those are the ones used in my IAC)
🏦 AWS Organization -> e.g. AWS Fundamentals
🧾 AWS Management Account -> Paying Account
🧾 AWS Account -> Dev/Prod
∎ AWS Profile -> ck-dev / ck-prod (those are the ones used in my IAC)
June 16, 2025 at 6:00 AM
I'm still using Leapp daily for all of my accounts. My typical setup looks like this:
🏦 AWS Organization -> e.g. AWS Fundamentals
🧾 AWS Management Account -> Paying Account
🧾 AWS Account -> Dev/Prod
∎ AWS Profile -> ck-dev / ck-prod (those are the ones used in my IAC)
🏦 AWS Organization -> e.g. AWS Fundamentals
🧾 AWS Management Account -> Paying Account
🧾 AWS Account -> Dev/Prod
∎ AWS Profile -> ck-dev / ck-prod (those are the ones used in my IAC)
Finally having a serverless SQL database at hand with no monthly costs within AWS is simply amazing.
We are running a mini application on DSQL for quite some time to track our subscribers & sales
I just calculated how much it would cost us monthly: $0.00287
We are running a mini application on DSQL for quite some time to track our subscribers & sales
I just calculated how much it would cost us monthly: $0.00287
June 15, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Finally having a serverless SQL database at hand with no monthly costs within AWS is simply amazing.
We are running a mini application on DSQL for quite some time to track our subscribers & sales
I just calculated how much it would cost us monthly: $0.00287
We are running a mini application on DSQL for quite some time to track our subscribers & sales
I just calculated how much it would cost us monthly: $0.00287
First two YouTube videos are up 🙌🏽
We're not planning on building a huge channel now, but we focus more on adding videos to blog posts and socials now.
So, we thought "why not reuse them on our own channel" 📹
We're not planning on building a huge channel now, but we focus more on adding videos to blog posts and socials now.
So, we thought "why not reuse them on our own channel" 📹
June 14, 2025 at 6:00 AM
First two YouTube videos are up 🙌🏽
We're not planning on building a huge channel now, but we focus more on adding videos to blog posts and socials now.
So, we thought "why not reuse them on our own channel" 📹
We're not planning on building a huge channel now, but we focus more on adding videos to blog posts and socials now.
So, we thought "why not reuse them on our own channel" 📹
We've updated pricing of our Shopify App 🔥
(not as straightforward as we thought - feedback incoming)
We wanted to try it out a few more things:
- Smallest price is MUCH bigger -> Target bigger stores
- We DITCHED the Free Plan and have only a free trial now
(not as straightforward as we thought - feedback incoming)
We wanted to try it out a few more things:
- Smallest price is MUCH bigger -> Target bigger stores
- We DITCHED the Free Plan and have only a free trial now
June 10, 2025 at 10:00 AM
We've updated pricing of our Shopify App 🔥
(not as straightforward as we thought - feedback incoming)
We wanted to try it out a few more things:
- Smallest price is MUCH bigger -> Target bigger stores
- We DITCHED the Free Plan and have only a free trial now
(not as straightforward as we thought - feedback incoming)
We wanted to try it out a few more things:
- Smallest price is MUCH bigger -> Target bigger stores
- We DITCHED the Free Plan and have only a free trial now
I just integrated @posthog into our second @Shopify app - MergeIT ✅
Some events we capture:
- pageviews / leaves
- orders merged + source (extension, dashboard, suggestion page)
- suggestions viewed
- settings changed
- subscription activated
- subscription cancelled
Some events we capture:
- pageviews / leaves
- orders merged + source (extension, dashboard, suggestion page)
- suggestions viewed
- settings changed
- subscription activated
- subscription cancelled
June 10, 2025 at 5:04 AM
I just integrated @posthog into our second @Shopify app - MergeIT ✅
Some events we capture:
- pageviews / leaves
- orders merged + source (extension, dashboard, suggestion page)
- suggestions viewed
- settings changed
- subscription activated
- subscription cancelled
Some events we capture:
- pageviews / leaves
- orders merged + source (extension, dashboard, suggestion page)
- suggestions viewed
- settings changed
- subscription activated
- subscription cancelled
The main difference you have in event-driven systems vs. traditional systems is how you think about incoming events. ⚡
Typically, your API is orchestrating other functions to do certain things. In an event-driven system you let your consumers decide what to do.
Typically, your API is orchestrating other functions to do certain things. In an event-driven system you let your consumers decide what to do.
June 9, 2025 at 6:00 AM
The main difference you have in event-driven systems vs. traditional systems is how you think about incoming events. ⚡
Typically, your API is orchestrating other functions to do certain things. In an event-driven system you let your consumers decide what to do.
Typically, your API is orchestrating other functions to do certain things. In an event-driven system you let your consumers decide what to do.
Finally having a serverless SQL database at hand with no monthly costs within AWS is simply amazing.
We are running a mini application on DSQL for quite some time to track our subscribers & sales
I just calculated how much it would cost us monthly: $0.00287
We are running a mini application on DSQL for quite some time to track our subscribers & sales
I just calculated how much it would cost us monthly: $0.00287
June 6, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Finally having a serverless SQL database at hand with no monthly costs within AWS is simply amazing.
We are running a mini application on DSQL for quite some time to track our subscribers & sales
I just calculated how much it would cost us monthly: $0.00287
We are running a mini application on DSQL for quite some time to track our subscribers & sales
I just calculated how much it would cost us monthly: $0.00287
DSQL is GA now! That was much faster than I expected tbh.
I'm finishing up my blog post about the pricing and publish it soon as a post and newsletter.
TBH - understanding DPUs and how it is exactly billed is not as straightforward as I would have thought 😬
I'm finishing up my blog post about the pricing and publish it soon as a post and newsletter.
TBH - understanding DPUs and how it is exactly billed is not as straightforward as I would have thought 😬
June 2, 2025 at 9:41 AM
DSQL is GA now! That was much faster than I expected tbh.
I'm finishing up my blog post about the pricing and publish it soon as a post and newsletter.
TBH - understanding DPUs and how it is exactly billed is not as straightforward as I would have thought 😬
I'm finishing up my blog post about the pricing and publish it soon as a post and newsletter.
TBH - understanding DPUs and how it is exactly billed is not as straightforward as I would have thought 😬
Serverless isn't just Next.js API Routes or Vercel functions. There's an entire ecosystem of powerful "forgotten middle" serverless services:
• CloudFront
• API Gateway
• Step Functions
• SNS
• SQS
• EventBridge
• CloudFront
• API Gateway
• Step Functions
• SNS
• SQS
• EventBridge
May 23, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Serverless isn't just Next.js API Routes or Vercel functions. There's an entire ecosystem of powerful "forgotten middle" serverless services:
• CloudFront
• API Gateway
• Step Functions
• SNS
• SQS
• EventBridge
• CloudFront
• API Gateway
• Step Functions
• SNS
• SQS
• EventBridge
Oh oh, a few more deprecations are coming in from AWS ☠️
- Timestream for LiveAnalytics
- Pinpoint (this one existed for ages)
- AWS IQ
- AWS IoT Analytics
- AWS IoT Events
- AWS SimSpace Weaver
- AWS Panorama
- Amazon Inspector Classic
- Amazon Connect Voice ID
- AWS DMS Fleet Advisor
- Timestream for LiveAnalytics
- Pinpoint (this one existed for ages)
- AWS IQ
- AWS IoT Analytics
- AWS IoT Events
- AWS SimSpace Weaver
- AWS Panorama
- Amazon Inspector Classic
- Amazon Connect Voice ID
- AWS DMS Fleet Advisor
May 21, 2025 at 5:18 AM
Oh oh, a few more deprecations are coming in from AWS ☠️
- Timestream for LiveAnalytics
- Pinpoint (this one existed for ages)
- AWS IQ
- AWS IoT Analytics
- AWS IoT Events
- AWS SimSpace Weaver
- AWS Panorama
- Amazon Inspector Classic
- Amazon Connect Voice ID
- AWS DMS Fleet Advisor
- Timestream for LiveAnalytics
- Pinpoint (this one existed for ages)
- AWS IQ
- AWS IoT Analytics
- AWS IoT Events
- AWS SimSpace Weaver
- AWS Panorama
- Amazon Inspector Classic
- Amazon Connect Voice ID
- AWS DMS Fleet Advisor
One thing that changed about cold starts in Lambda - they are 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 💸
Cold starts typically do the following things:
💾 Download the code from S3 or image from ECR
⚒️ Bootstrap environment
🆕 Initiate extensions
📠 Execute static code
Cold starts typically do the following things:
💾 Download the code from S3 or image from ECR
⚒️ Bootstrap environment
🆕 Initiate extensions
📠 Execute static code
May 19, 2025 at 6:00 AM
One thing that changed about cold starts in Lambda - they are 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 💸
Cold starts typically do the following things:
💾 Download the code from S3 or image from ECR
⚒️ Bootstrap environment
🆕 Initiate extensions
📠 Execute static code
Cold starts typically do the following things:
💾 Download the code from S3 or image from ECR
⚒️ Bootstrap environment
🆕 Initiate extensions
📠 Execute static code
Your CloudWatch Costs could go down by itself with this launch 💸
AWS counts Logs coming from Lambda now as "vended logs" and they come with a volume tiered pricing model.
AWS counts Logs coming from Lambda now as "vended logs" and they come with a volume tiered pricing model.
May 16, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Your CloudWatch Costs could go down by itself with this launch 💸
AWS counts Logs coming from Lambda now as "vended logs" and they come with a volume tiered pricing model.
AWS counts Logs coming from Lambda now as "vended logs" and they come with a volume tiered pricing model.
Yes 🎉
One more year of AWS Community Builder Program 😊
One more year of AWS Community Builder Program 😊
May 15, 2025 at 5:20 AM
Yes 🎉
One more year of AWS Community Builder Program 😊
One more year of AWS Community Builder Program 😊