Aws Serverless Applications: the Beginner’s Guide

Serverless applications are changing the way companies do business by enabling them to deploy much faster and more frequently—a competitive advantage.

Amazon’s AWS Serverless Application Model (AWS SAM) has been a game changer in this space, making it easy for developers to create, access and deploy applications, thanks to simplified templates and code samples.

(This tutorial is part of our AWS Guide. Use the right-hand menu to navigate.)

What you’ll learn in this guide

This guide is a primer for developers who are interested in learning how to program in AWS SAM. We’ll discuss the following key AWS SAM topics and features:

• Key Terminology
• Who uses AWS SAM?
• The AWS Serverless Application Model
• What AWS resources are used in AWS SAM?
• The benefits of programming in AWS SAM

Key terminology

Here are three key terms you need to understand to start programming in AWS SAM:

• Function-as-a-Service (FaaS). Think of FaaS as a ready-to-implement framework that can be easily tailored to the needs of an enterprise business. FaaS allows customers to develop and run code without the need to provision and manage infrastructure.
• Compute service. An on-demand FaaS that specializes in serverless computing.
• Serverless application. An application, programmed in the cloud, that requires no server maintenance.

(Learn more about serverless architecture.)