My Cloud Resume Experience
Published: 2021-12-15 14:25:15

Wesley Sebastian
[Website
](https://wesleysebastian.com)

Throughout this cloud resume challenge, I have learned a lot about AWS cloud and its services. Additionally, I learned valuable skills like HTML and CSS which I hope to bring into the professional field. Personally, there were a lot of challenges I had to overcome in learning certain concepts. More specifically, I had trouble understanding the concept of DynamoDB and also API Gateways. Although I had to remind myself of these concepts by going back to the learning material, I soon understood its use and benefits.
	The first service I used in AWS cloud is S3 which is a scalable storage service. Essentially, it is a service which allows you to store objects such as images  or files. For this challenge, I used S3 to store my HTML file for my static website and also images that are in my website. Furthermore, I also used S3 to host my static website and create the subdomains that would later connect to the main domain website.
	Next, I had to set up Route 53 to connect my registered domain name to a DNS server. Route 53 is a domain name server service which allows you to connect your end users to the static website. Additionally, I also connected the other subdomains to connect to the main domain. In other words, if a user were to type in a link like “www.wesleysebastian.com” it would automatically redirect to the main domain “wesleysebastian.com”. I also had to set up a cloudfront distribution on AWS to deliver the content to visitors from around the world. CloudFront is another service on AWS which is a global content delivery service which caches the content in different edge locations to allow users from around the world to access the content rapidly. In cloudfront I also created custom SSL certificates to support HTTPS on my website so that communication is encrypted. 
	As part of the challenge, I had to create a visitor count to keep track of how many visitors entered the website. To accomplish this, I used a mix of AWS Lambda, DynamoDB and also the API Gateway. The visitor count feature in the website required tables to continuously update the count and reflect the count back onto the website. Thus, I used DynamoDB to create the tables in a NoSQL Database. This was one of the concepts I was most confused about throughout this challenge. From my understanding now, DynamoDB is a NoSQL database service based on key value pairs and document type data. The main benefit of DynamoDB is its scalability where it adjust according to how much traffic there is. To deploy the visitor counter onto the website, I had to use the API Gateway service. This service is almost a method of how the frontend code will communicate with the backend code when the user makes a request. For example, in the case of the visitor counter, when a user makes a request to enter the website it will communicate with the API Gateway which is then sent to AWS Lambda to later update the visitor count number. In AWS Lambda I coded the function that will update the visitor counter using Javascript. AWS Lambda is a serverless service that allows you to run code and deploy it. The code is executed as a result of an event and does not require any management as it is fully serverless.
	Subsequently, I had to write my code for my website in HTML and CSS. Before this challenge, I had almost no knowledge on CSS and HTML, so I found HTML templates which allowed me to modify the code to my own preferences. Along the way, I also added some of my own code as a result of what I interpreted and learned from the template code. Personally, this step was quite challenging as I had to teach myself about how to use CSS and HTML using resources like youtube and those provided by the cloud resume challenge. I found it very relieving to see my code translate into what I wanted it to look like on the website. 
	After my code was finished, I had to transfer the visitor counter function onto the new index.html file to reflect the same function as it did in the older file. Finally, I transferred my files onto S3 to display the code and all the other files including the images. 
	Overall, this challenge was very interesting and satisfying. I think the feeling of satisfaction came when I had the final product in front of me and that everything was working as I wanted. Initially, I feared one of the AWS would go wrong or the visitor counter function would not work when I transferred it onto the new file. However, there were very minimal problems in relation to the AWS services. I hope to become more proficient in using cloud and expanding my knowledge in languages like HTML or CSS. Personally, cloud computing has become a really interesting topic for me and I also realize its importance now as many are shifting to the cloud.