Ryan's Portfolio

My approach to cloud architecture is pragmatic: use the right tool for the job. I started with EC2-based deployments but evolved toward serverless and containerized solutions. I use AWS Lambda for quick, focused APIs and Docker containers (via services like Lightsail) for robust, long-running applications like this portfolio.

I prefer microservices for their clarity. They allow me to track costs at a granular level (knowing exactly which feature is driving the bill) and significantly boost developer velocity. New team members can onboard and contribute to a specific service without needing to understand a massive monolithic codebase.

However, microservices bring their own challenges, like "function sprawl." In one role, our environment grew to over 50 Lambda functions in a single year. To manage this, I rely heavily on Terraform and structured Git repositories to keep infrastructure organized. I also lean on CloudWatch for detailed logging and debugging, which is essential when you're trying to figure out why a Lambda layer is failing to connect to a legacy MSSQL server from 2004.