
cloudonaut
We are two brothers focusing 100% on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Every other week, one of us prepares the topic of the podcast. The topic is not known to the other one, which results in surprising conversations about all things AWS.
Typically, we are covering the following topics: DevOps, Serverless, Container, Security, Infrastructure as Code, Container, Continuous Deployment, S3, EC2, RDS, VPC, IAM, VPC, and many more.
Latest episodes

Jul 1, 2020 • 57min
#22 Messaging on AWS
Comparing the available options
Newsletter
Every week, we write about all things AWS. For example, we unbox or review new AWS services. We also share pitfalls that we learned about the hard way ourselves. On top of that, we provide code examples for Infrastructure as Code and Serverless applications.
Subscribe to our newsletter for free!
Notes
Don't miss our blog post Messaging on AWS, the written version of this podcast episode.
Support us
We launched cloudonaut.io in 2015. Since then, we have published hundreds of articles, podcast episodes, and videos. It's all free and means a lot of work in our spare time. We enjoy sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Have you learned something new by reading, listening, or watching our content? If so, we kindly ask you to support us in producing high-quality & independent AWS content. We look forward to sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Support us!
Feedback
We ask for feedback! Please rate or review our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Or send us a message via Twitter (Andreas and Michael) or LinkedIn (Andreas and Michael) or send us an email.

Jun 19, 2020 • 57min
#21 Review: API Gateway HTTP APIs
Cheaper and Faster REST APIs?
Newsletter
Every week, we write about all things AWS. For example, we unbox or review new AWS services. We also share pitfalls that we learned about the hard way ourselves. On top of that, we provide code examples for Infrastructure as Code and Serverless applications.
Subscribe to our newsletter for free!
Notes
Don't miss our blog post Review: API Gateway HTTP APIs - Cheaper and Faster REST APIs?, the written version of this podcast episode.
HTTP APIs
An API gateway acts as an API front-end that receives API requests from clients and forwards them to back-end services. Typically, an API gateway offers the following features:
Throttling
Billing
Authentication and authorization
Request validation
Request and response transformation
AWS offers different types of API gateways as a managed service. This review takes a closer look at the new service API Gateway HTTP APIs announced in December 2019 and generally since available in March 2020. The cloud provider promises that HTTP APIs are faster and cheaper than it's predecessor. We will look at hard technical facts instead of flowery marketing promises.
A summary of Amazon's API gateways to avoid confusion:
API Gateway REST APIs is the full-feature flagship service to build REST APIs announced in 2015.
API Gateway HTTP APIs is the fast and straightforward alternative to build REST APIs announced in 2019.
API Gateway WebSocket APIs was announced in 2018 and allows you to build a real-time API using WebSockets.
Application Load Balancer (ALB) is a layer-7 load balancer with similarities with an API gateway.
This review focuses on HTTP APIs.
Further AWS reviews
Looking for more reviews of AWS services? Here you go!
Review: AWS Backup - A centralized place for managing backups?
Review: Amazon Aurora Serverless - A cloud-native and production-ready relational database?
Review: AWS Global Accelerator - Improving Latency and Design for Failure
[Review: Amazon Connect – A Programmable Telephone System](https://cloudonaut.io/review-amazon-connect-programmable-telephone-system/]
marbot available for Microsoft Teams
We are happy to announce, that marbot, our chatbot monitoring your AWS infrastructure is now available not only for Slack but for Microsoft Teams as well. marbot sets up CloudWatch Alarms and EventBridge Rules for all parts of your AWS infrastructure. CloudFormation and Terraform are supported. Your team receives alerts as direct messages or channel messages via Slack or Microsoft Teams. The alert includes relevant details to understand and solve the problem.
Give marbot for Micrsoft Teams a try!
Support us
We launched cloudonaut.io in 2015. Since then, we have published hundreds of articles, podcast episodes, and videos. It's all free and means a lot of work in our spare time. We enjoy sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Have you learned something new by reading, listening, or watching our content? If so, we kindly ask you to support us in producing high-quality & independent AWS content. We look forward to sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Support us!
Feedback
We ask for feedback! Please rate or review our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Or send us a message via Twitter (Andreas and Michael) or LinkedIn (Andreas and Michael) or send us an email.

Jun 4, 2020 • 35min
#20 End-user monitoring of your website with CloudWatch Synthetics
Newsletter
Every week, we write about all things AWS. For example, we unbox or review new AWS services. We also share pitfalls that we learned about the hard way ourselves. On top of that, we provide code examples for Infrastructure as Code and Serverless applications.
Subscribe to our newsletter for free!
Notes
Don't miss our blog post End-user monitoring of your website with CloudWatch Synthetics, the written version of this podcast episode.
CloudFormation template mentioned: https://github.com/marbot-io/monitoring-jump-start/blob/master/marbot-synthetics-website.yml
Support us
We launched cloudonaut.io in 2015. Since then, we have published hundreds of articles, podcast episodes, and videos. It's all free and means a lot of work in our spare time. We enjoy sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Have you learned something new by reading, listening, or watching our content? If so, we kindly ask you to support us in producing high-quality & independent AWS content. We look forward to sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Support us!
Feedback
We ask for feedback! Please rate or review our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Or send us a message via Twitter (Andreas and Michael) or LinkedIn (Andreas and Michael) or send us an email.

May 8, 2020 • 58min
#19 Scaling Container Clusters on AWS: ECS and EKS
Comparing different approaches to manage a container cluster on top of EC2
Newsletter
Every week, we write about all things AWS. For example, we unbox or review new AWS services. We also share pitfalls that we learned about the hard way ourselves. On top of that, we provide code examples for Infrastructure as Code and Serverless applications.
Subscribe to our newsletter for free!
Notes
Don't miss our blog post Scaling Container Clusters on AWS: ECS and EKS, the written version of this podcast episode.
ECS with Cluster Auto Scaling
ECS task lifecycle, new state PROVISIONING for clusters with capacity provider.
Check out Deep Dive on Amazon ECS Cluster Auto Scaling when interested in more details.
ECS with DIY Auto Scaling
Scale out with CloudWatch event SERVICE_TASK_PLACEMENT_FAILURE.
Scale in based on CloudWatch metrics CPUReservation and MemoryReservation.
Auto Scaling Lifecycle Hooks
Container Instance Draining
Check out our open source project widdix/aws-cf-templates including an implementation of the discussed DIY Auto Scaling for ECS clusters.
EKS with Cluster Autoscaler
EKS Managed Node Groups
K8s Cluster Autoscaler
Specifying a Disruption Budget for your Application
Rapid Docker on AWS
Become a Docker on AWS professional! Our ebook/video course Rapid Docker on AWS is designed for DevOps engineers and web developers who want to run dockerized web applications on AWS. We lead you with many examples: From dockerizing your application to Continuous Deployment and Infrastructure as Code on AWS. No prior knowledge of Docker and AWS is required. Learn more!
Support us
We launched cloudonaut.io in 2015. Since then, we have published hundreds of articles, podcast episodes, and videos. It's all free and means a lot of work in our spare time. We enjoy sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Have you learned something new by reading, listening, or watching our content? If so, we kindly ask you to support us in producing high-quality & independent AWS content. We look forward to sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Support us!
Feedback
We ask for feedback! Please rate or review our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Or send us a message via Twitter (Andreas and Michael) or LinkedIn (Andreas and Michael) or send us an email.

Apr 21, 2020 • 47min
#18 CloudFormation vs. Terraform
Newsletter
Every week, we write about all things AWS. For example, we unbox or review new AWS services. We also share pitfalls that we learned about the hard way ourselves. On top of that, we provide code examples for Infrastructure as Code and Serverless applications.
Subscribe to our newsletter for free!
Notes
Don't miss our updated blog post CloudFormation vs. Terraform, the written version of this podcast episode.*
Our open-source CloudFormation template projects:
aws-cf-templates
cfn-modules
Our open-source Terraform modules can be found in the Terraform Registry
List of missing CloudFormation coverage.
Support us
We launched cloudonaut.io in 2015. Since then, we have published hundreds of articles, podcast episodes, and videos. It's all free and means a lot of work in our spare time. We enjoy sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Have you learned something new by reading, listening, or watching our content? If so, we kindly ask you to support us in producing high-quality & independent AWS content. We look forward to sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Support us!
Feedback
We ask for feedback! Please rate or review our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Or send us a message via Twitter (Andreas and Michael) or LinkedIn (Andreas and Michael) or send us an email.

Apr 8, 2020 • 48min
#17 AWS Account Structure
Think twice before using AWS Organizations
Newsletter
Every week, we write about all things AWS. For example, we unbox or review new AWS services. We also share pitfalls that we learned about the hard way ourselves. On top of that, we provide code examples for Infrastructure as Code and Serverless applications.
Subscribe to our newsletter for free!
Notes
Don't miss our blog post AWS Account Structure: Think twice before using AWS Organizations, the written version of this podcast episode.
Book tipp: Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
Check out bucketAV: Scan your S3 buckets for viruses, worms, and trojans. bucketAV detects malware in real-time or on-demand..
Support us
We launched cloudonaut.io in 2015. Since then, we have published hundreds of articles, podcast episodes, and videos. It's all free and means a lot of work in our spare time. We enjoy sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Have you learned something new by reading, listening, or watching our content? If so, we kindly ask you to support us in producing high-quality & independent AWS content. We look forward to sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Support us!
Feedback
We ask for feedback! Please rate or review our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Or send us a message via Twitter (Andreas and Michael) or LinkedIn (Andreas and Michael) or send us an email.

Mar 26, 2020 • 43min
#16 CloudWatch Metrics & Alarms reloaded
Refresh your CloudWatch knowledge!
Newsletter
Every week, we write about all things AWS. For example, we unbox or review new AWS services. We also share pitfalls that we learned about the hard way ourselves. On top of that, we provide code examples for Infrastructure as Code and Serverless applications.
Subscribe to our newsletter for free!
Notes
Don't miss our blog post CloudWatch Metrics & Alarms reloaded, the written version of this podcast episode.
Metric Math use cases from our blog:
Monitoring EC2 Network Utilization
Combine CloudWatch metrics for Auto Scaling or to reduce costs
Alarm use case from our blog: Dead man's switch with CloudWatch
marbot takes care of your Amazon Web Services (AWS) monitoring setup. You receive and close all relevant alerts via Slack. marbot integrates with CloudWatch, Elastic Beanstalk, EC2, RDS, any many more. Check marbot out for free!
Support us
We launched cloudonaut.io in 2015. Since then, we have published hundreds of articles, podcast episodes, and videos. It's all free and means a lot of work in our spare time. We enjoy sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Have you learned something new by reading, listening, or watching our content? If so, we kindly ask you to support us in producing high-quality & independent AWS content. We look forward to sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Support us!
Feedback
We ask for feedback! Please rate or review our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Or send us a message via Twitter (Andreas and Michael) or LinkedIn (Andreas and Michael) or send us an email.

Mar 16, 2020 • 53min
#15 Advanced AWS Networking
Pitfalls That You Should Avoid When Designing A Network Architecture
Newsletter
Every week, we write about all things AWS. For example, we unbox or review new AWS services. We also share pitfalls that we learned about the hard way ourselves. On top of that, we provide code examples for Infrastructure as Code and Serverless applications.
Subscribe to our newsletter for free!
Notes
Don't miss our blog post Advanced AWS Networking: Pitfalls That You Should Avoid, the written version of this podcast episode.
AWS offers shiny and powerful networking services. However, you should know about the pitfalls when designing advanced networking architectures for AWS. I will share some pitfalls that came to my attention when consulting clients to get the most out of AWS.
You will learn how to answer the following questions:
VPC Peering or Transit Gateway?
A Transit Gateway simplifies peering VPCs. However, there is a baseline costs of $36.00 per month for each VPC attached to the Transit Gateway.
NAT Gateway or Public Subnet?
Adding NAT Gateways to your architecture costs $96.00 per month for 3 availability zones. Also, the costs for outbound network traffic will increase by 50%. From a economical point of view it makes sense to place workloads with high outgoing network throughput into public subnets.
VPC Endpoints or NAT Gateway?
Always add VPC Endpoints for S3 and DynamoDB. But do the math, when adding VPC Endpoints for other AWS services to your network. Using a NAT Gateway might be cheaper.
CloudFront or Akamai, Cloudflare, Fastly …?
When choosing a CDN provider besides CloudFront, make sure you have taken into account the additional costs for outbound traffic.
Route 53 Resolver or Public Hosted Zone?
Share Route 53 Outbound Resolvers between VPCs and AWS accounts to reduce costs. Think about using Public Hosted Zones instead of paying $180.00 per month for an Route 53 Inbound Resolver.
Amazon Web Services in Action a comprehensive introduction to computing, storing, and networking in the AWS cloud. You'll find clear, relevant coverage of all the essential AWS services you to know, emphasizing best practices for security, high availability and scalability. Buy now!!
Support us
We launched cloudonaut.io in 2015. Since then, we have published hundreds of articles, podcast episodes, and videos. It's all free and means a lot of work in our spare time. We enjoy sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Have you learned something new by reading, listening, or watching our content? If so, we kindly ask you to support us in producing high-quality & independent AWS content. We look forward to sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Support us!
Feedback
We ask for feedback! Please rate or review our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Or send us a message via Twitter (Andreas and Michael) or LinkedIn (Andreas and Michael) or send us an email.

Feb 25, 2020 • 36min
#14 What's the best AWS Compute option for your project?
EC2, Fargate, or Serverless?
Newsletter
Every week, we write about all things AWS. For example, we unbox or review new AWS services. We also share pitfalls that we learned about the hard way ourselves. On top of that, we provide code examples for Infrastructure as Code and Serverless applications.
Subscribe to our newsletter for free!
Notes
Don't miss our blog post What''s the best AWS Compute option for your project?, the written version of this podcast episode.
There are many good reasons why you should move to the cloud and AWS in particular. Benefit from the latest innovations or consume sophisticated technology as a commodity (relational databases, Hadoop clusters, data warehouses, …) to lower your time to market. You can automate every single task to increase the quality of your operations. Pay as you go by default for maximum freedom with options for longer-term commitments for lower prices. An elastic world allows new services and processes that will transform the way you think IT. Last but not least, you get the same capabilities across the globe. The only downside: AWS offers so many choices and freedom!
Support us
We launched cloudonaut.io in 2015. Since then, we have published hundreds of articles, podcast episodes, and videos. It's all free and means a lot of work in our spare time. We enjoy sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Have you learned something new by reading, listening, or watching our content? If so, we kindly ask you to support us in producing high-quality & independent AWS content. We look forward to sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Support us!
Feedback
We ask for feedback! Please rate or review our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Or send us a message via Twitter (Andreas and Michael) or LinkedIn (Andreas and Michael) or send us an email.

Feb 14, 2020 • 57min
#13 Review: Amazon Connect
Amazon Connect – A Programmable Telephone System
Newsletter
Every week, we write about all things AWS. For example, we unbox or review new AWS services. We also share pitfalls that we learned about the hard way ourselves. On top of that, we provide code examples for Infrastructure as Code and Serverless applications.
Subscribe to our newsletter for free!
Notes
Don't miss our blog post Review: Amazon Connect – A Programmable Telephone System, the written version of this podcast episode.
Do you provide services to consumer or business clients? Which channels do you provide for clients to get support, leave feedback, or let off frustration?
Amazon Connect provides a contact center solution in the cloud. Your clients contact you via phone or chat. A group of agents answers their phone calls and chat conversations. The workflows are fully customizable to your specific needs.
This review puts Amazon Connect to the test. I set up Amazon Connect for our consulting agency widdix, recently. While doing so, I had a look into the technical details as well.
Support us
We launched cloudonaut.io in 2015. Since then, we have published hundreds of articles, podcast episodes, and videos. It's all free and means a lot of work in our spare time. We enjoy sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Have you learned something new by reading, listening, or watching our content? If so, we kindly ask you to support us in producing high-quality & independent AWS content. We look forward to sharing our AWS knowledge with you.
Support us!
Feedback
We ask for feedback! Please rate or review our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Or send us a message via Twitter (Andreas and Michael) or LinkedIn (Andreas and Michael) or send us an email.