Chapter 4. Building Scalable Infrastructure with AWS

At this point, you’ve got the basics in place—your app can run, and the network is up. What comes next is the part that keeps things running day after day.

Start by figuring out what you actually need. Not everything, just the pieces that matter. Are you storing images? Is there a database? What happens if the server crashes? You’ll sketch out a setup before building it. That way, you’re not just guessing what the answers to all those questions could be.

Once you’ve got a plan, you’ll build the space around it. That’s your VPC. It’s like setting up a quiet part of the internet just for your app. You’ll create some subnets, set the rules, and plug in a gateway to reach the outside world.

When the server’s ready, don’t build it from scratch every time. You’ll use an AMI—a snapshot of a working machine. Save it once, then launch it again whenever you need the same setup. It’s fast, and it saves you headaches later.

Your app probably needs a database too. Instead of running one on your own server, you’ll let AWS handle it with RDS. It’s still your database—but managed. You’ll launch it, lock it down, and hook it into your app.

And finally, traffic. When things get busy, one server might not cut it. You’ll set up a load balancer to distribute the workload. That way, users won’t notice if one machine slows down or goes offline.

None of this is complicated on its own. Just move through it all step by step. You’ll be surprised how much clearer things become in the end.