As you probably already know, Step Functions is a serverless Workflow Service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). There’s a lot to discuss about this service, and you’ll find plenty of vital information in our as well as in our series of articles that’ll dive deep into various aspects regarding this AWS service. AWS Step Functions: The Ultimate Guide Moreover, if you’re eager to learn more about cloud computing, make sure to register for where you’ll hear a lot from AWS experts and cloud leaders about what’s new and what’s coming up next from AWS or feel free to browse our . AWS re:Invent virtual event extensive Knowledge Base We’ll dive deep into Step Functions’ benefits and shortcomings in today’s article, but our primary focus goes to the best Step Functions use cases. Quick Reminder About Step Functions Step Functions are utilized with . You’ll write little pieces of code into Lambda, and then . Moreover, Step Functions provide some advanced capabilities like in parallel and then . AWS Lambda you’ll stitch them all together with Step Functions multiple task execution wait for a specified period of time before proceeding They’re quite useful for that’ll help you build complex workflows. Step Functions are completely , and this means that users the resources when the incoming requests decrease or increase because . orchestrating multiple small tasks serverless won’t have to worry about scaling up or down Step functions will take care of it all Now, let’s discuss the of using Step Functions, so you’ll later better understand Step Functions use cases. benefits Benefits of Using Step Functions These are some of the benefits worth mentioning since they’ll help you figure out the things that make Step Functions so much important. Auto Scaling is Possible Whenever you come across a drop in incoming requests or a surge, Step Functions will for executing the workflows. immediately allocate or deallocate the required resources It Has a Modular Code Considering that the entire business workflow is broken down into small Lambda functions, . This logic makes the code much more readable. It’s also incredibly helpful with writing separate, small, and reusable AWS Lambda functions that can . every Lambda function focuses on a small, independent piece of logic easily be plugged into different Step Functions Importance of Maintainability & Testability Since the logic in every Step Function’s Lambda function is small, it’s much . Moreover, it’s vital to know that all Lambda functions can be deployed independently. easier to write test cases for every one of them It Allows Development in Various Languages Because Step Functions communicate with independent Lambda functions, these Lambda functions can , etc. Therefore, one Step Function can be made out of code written in more than a single language. integrate into many supported programming languages like Java, NodeJS, Python Code Reusability is Possible Workflows usually involve conditional code execution, which means that if the reimbursement amount is lower than $10 within the reimbursement workflow, it’ll be reimbursed directly, or it’ll notify . Therefore, , another Lambda function that’ll , and one more to . After writing these three Lambdas, you can connect them via Conditions within the Step Functions. Now, you can reuse the second Lambda function in any other Step Function to send notifications. person X you’ll have to write a single Lambda function to get the reimbursement amount inform a person do the reimbursement Step Functions are Resilient Step Functions can . They also provide built-in try or catch, rollback, and retry features to help you automatically deal with exceptions or errors. manage restarts, state, and checkpoints Challenges of Using Step Functions Although we’ve seen some of the most beneficial aspects of using Step Functions, there are some other areas of concern. For example: Self-Service User Interface Isn’t Great While this might not be a shortcoming of Step Functions service per se, the Step Functions since it makes it difficult to validate or edit the definitions. defining console isn’t very user-friendly Pricing Based Per Transition AWS happening during the Step Function execution. Therefore, if you have a one-step Step Function, you’ll be charged one unit. On the other hand, if you have a complex 30-step function, you’ll be charged staggering 30 units per each execution. Since users usually know the number of workflow executions, this method makes it . In case Step Functions charges were designed to operate per workflow-execution instead of their current charge method (per-state-transition), it might’ve been much more straightforward. charges are based on the number of transitions quite challenging to make initial cost estimations Read more about about . how to cut cost on Step Functions Basic Condition Checks Condition nodes within Step Functions are pretty basic. Since December 2019, they support comparing variables with constants, but you won’t be able to compare two variables since this option isn’t supported. Therefore, you Additionally, a bit more complex logical conditions don’t work either. won’t be able to compare the output of a Lambda function with an input variable, nor you’ll be able to compare the output of two Lambda functions. Now that you’re aware of both upsides and downsides of using Step Functions, we’ll turn to actual Step Function use cases. AWS Step Function Use Cases AWS Step Functions are or . This is especially true in cases where you have to control the information flow and process execution based on results and/or rules from all previous tasks. excellent for handling all sorts of workflows processes that require coordination of multiple services to accomplish a higher-level task These are some workload examples that can bring quite useful results from utilizing Step Functions: AI and ETL Jobs Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) jobs have become pretty standard in numerous apps and companies. The significant rise of AI and data analytics tools made it almost inevitable to deal with vast amounts of data. It often happens that . all these data points need to be manipulated in multiple steps before becoming analysis-ready Step Functions: Example of ETL Jobs The same goes for Deep Learning and Machine Learning tasks. These tasks in which you have to before . usually involve processing pipelines follow a series of steps reaching a classification or prediction result Step Functions are excellent for solving these needs since they’re connected to other services like AWS Batch or AWS Lambda, and they’ll run custom logic upon the data. Moreover, Step Functions will ultimately use DynamoDB and S3 to retrieve and store all information along with workflow processing. Orchestrating Microservices All applications that implement microservices architecture will significantly benefit from Step Functions. What happens is that they’ll . Composing higher-level tasks is possible, thanks to multiple well-coordinated services in a decoupled but centralized manner. simplify the orchestration work Rules and complex logic apply to the workflow so they would account for exceptional cases. The “retry mechanism” that’s embedded into Step Functions, including integration services like , makes it much . AWS Lambda easier to implement composition strategies like fault-tolerant microservices Parallel Processing (Fan-Out) Step Functions can also be used for of tasks that need a breakdown. All this is required so that these tasks could be . processing several tasks in parallel or even to control the fan-out process tackled in small steps Datapoint List Handling Step Functions also . You can implement this feature when there’s a list of . Moreover, you can design the same workflow for the entire list, but note that Step Functions will process each item sequentially and separately. support logic for loops data points that have to be processed in a similar but independent way Step Functions are excellent in other use case examples as well, and here are the most important ones: Very Straightforward Integration with Manual Tasks AWS Step Functions service is the best solution for . A good example is “Employee Promotion Process.” For this process to be completed successfully, it requires the manager’s approval. That’s where Step Functions comes in. It’ll send the email via AWS SES service with a “Approve” or “Reject” link, and once it’s received, it’ll trigger another action using ECS jobs or Lambda. coordinating a workflow requiring manual intervention/approval Batch Job Processing In case your workflow requires sequential processing and data coordination, sequential batch job processing is the best solution. For example, on an e-commerce website, the first job is to access and read the product data, while the next job will discover which products will soon be out of stock, and then, the third job will notify all vendors so they could expedite the upcoming supply process. Step Functions: Example of Batch Job ProcessingCoordinating Container Tasks in Serverless Workflow AWS Step Functions are capable of helping you make decisions on how to process the data in the best way possible. By looking at the file size, you can either choose to utilize ECS, Lambda, or even on-premise activity so you could successfully optimize both runtime and the cost. Real-Life Step Function Use Cases If your workflow has a long sequence of steps, it means that it’s never a good idea to place all the logic in a single codebase. Ordering workflow involves several steps when the user places his order, and the steps are as follows: Long Sequences: Waiting for payment to succeed —> Generating Invoice —> Sending email —> Sending SMS —> Deducting from Inventory —> Starting Shipment —> Creating Tracking Info. You can also check for the completion of async operations by polling. , and you don’t know how much time it requires, don’t wait for the process to complete synchronously. What you should do instead is . The Step Function can then check the operation status at regular intervals until the successful completion of this operation. Step Function will notify the client when the process is completed successfully. Async Operations: If your logic is third-party service operation-dependent trigger a Step Function upon calling the third-party service If that’s your case, you should . Every Lambda function can easily be both developed and maintained by different teams or developers. Larger companies with multiple teams that work on each step can find it more difficult. define several Lambda functions for each step and combine them through a single Step function Wrapping Up Our final verdict regarding Step Function actual use cases is that it . The only thing developers have to worry about is the , and Step Functions will take care of things like Step Functions as a service is still growing, and it may evolve into a perfect solution for any business workflow management in the upcoming years. can come in quite handy by successfully managing business workflows core logic scaling, hosting, configurations, etc. Don’t forget that you can also (both standard and express workflows) with Dashbird and start receiving Well-Architected insights on how to optimize them even better for cost efficiency and operational excellence. You can try it out for free by . 2-minute easy setup, no credit card required, no code changes and you can cancel any time. monitor your Step Functions signing up here (Psst, we also have an early Black Friday deal: you can use code BLACK2020 an checkout to get your first 2 months for free). Previously published at https://dashbird.io/blog/aws-step-functions-use-cases/

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AWS Step Functions: When They Might Come In Handy

AWS Step Functions: When They Might Come In Handy

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