How to Build a Stateful Cloud App on Nimbella vs. AWS

Are you looking for a developer-friendly solution for building serverless cloud applications? In this blog, we’re going to compare the user experience of building the same voting app with Nimbella and AWS.

Which Stateful Serverless Cloud App did I Build?

I built a voting app that keeps track of people who prefer cats or dogs. This application is stateful because I need to save user input data from one session for use in the next session.

In order to build this app, I need two things.

1. A frontend with two buttons to vote.
2. Two cloud functions that call on key-value storage to save the application’s “state”.

A. How to organize the code files?

Before we even start talking about launching the code to the cloud. I’m going to go over how you’d structure your code for this project.

Both projects have two folders. One folder for static content (Web) and the second one where I keep my cloud functions (Packages). The main differences are structuring the cloud functions.

With Nimbella: I have to create only the cloud functions by writing them in two files (addVotes.js and getVotes.js).

With AWS: I have to create separate folders for each cloud function, add the JS files, add their dependencies to each folder, and add the .zip file with the node-modules folder, the JS file, and the package.json.

B. How to Make your App Stateful for the Cloud?

In order to make the app stateful, I need key-value storage to hold the votes and present the current amount of votes when the page refreshes. Here’s how I was able to achieve that with Nimbella.

With Nimbella:

1) Adding Redis (key-value storage) to your project:

Step 1: Run nim project create ProjectName  to create a new project template

Redis is instantly available inside the project

2) Calling Redis from within your functions:

Step 1: Import nim  into the function

Step 2: Import Redis  from nim within the function

Step 3: Add code logic that calls on Redis to either update the number of votes or to return the current number of votes (See image below)

3) Deploying your stateful functions to the cloud:

Step 1: Make sure your functions are inside the Packages folder in your project

Step 2: Run nim project deploy ProjectName  in your command prompt

Overall, I didn’t have to set up any services because the services I needed to make my app stateful were available from the start. I just had to focus on code logic to call on the services I needed.

Here is an example of the code I used to increment the number of votes:

With AWS:

Making an application stateful requires several steps and AWS services. Here’s how I was able to create stateful key-value storage with AWS.

1) Deploy Redis (key-value storage) cluster on AWS:

Step 1: Select the AWS ElastiCache service and pick Redis

Step 2: Configure Redis settings by providing a name, version, port, parameter group, node type, and how many replicas you want

Step 3: Select which VPC you want to connect Your Redis cluster too

Step 4: Once complete, hold on to the Primary Endpoint. This is important in the next step

2) Deploying EC2 on AWS:

Step 1: Click the service tab and search for EC2. Be sure to select the region of your choice

Step 2: Click “Launch Instance”

Step 3: Choose an instance Type

Step 4: Configure the instance (Important: Make sure to select the same VPC you used for ElastiCache)

Step 5: Add Storage

Step 6: Add tags

Step 7: Configure Security Group & review

Step 8: Connect SSH to your EC2 instance and then install the Redis CLI

Step 9: Connect Redis instance via Redis CLI, making sure you add the primary endpoint of Redis (mentioned in “Deploy Redis cluster on AWS” Step 4)

3) Deploying Lambda functions on AWS and connecting it with API Gateway:

Step 1: Search Lambda in the service tab. Make sure your correct region is selected

Step 2: Create one function at a time. Select “Author from Scratch”, the functions name, what type of code it is (NodeJS, Python, etc)

Step 3: Connect your function with the same VPC as Redis. Go through and select the correct ports

Step 4: Connect your functions with API Gateway. Select a trigger for the function, request an HTTP API as the trigger type. You’ll get a URL. You’ll use these URLs to call your functions in your code

C. How do you Deploy your Stateful App to the Cloud with Static Assets?

Now that the static web assets and the cloud functions are complete, It’s time to deploy the entire app to the cloud!

With Nimbella:

Deploying to the cloud with Nimbella:

With Nimbella, you don’t have to configure cloud storage for your front-end static assets or configure a content delivery network (CDN) to serve the application from the cloud. You just tell your code logic to get sent to the cloud and the configuration is handled for you.

Step 1: run nim project deploy ProjectName  in your Command Prompt

Step 2: Get the URL that’s provided and paste it in your browser

Need to update the code with Nimbella?:

Step 1: Run nim project deploy ProjectName  after updating the code

With AWS:

Deploying to the cloud with AWS:

Step 1: Go to AWS Services and select AWS S3 to get started making an S3 bucket

Step 2: Click the “Create Bucket” button and give the bucket the name and region

Step 3: Provide the bucket with the permissions you want it to have

Step 4: Upload all the files and folders to the S3 bucket

Step 5: Once the files are uploaded, select the option “Static Website Hosting”

Step 6: Take the Endpoint and paste it into your browser

Need to update the code with AWS?:

Step 1: Build it again

Step 2: Delete all existing files from the bucket and upload the new build version

Step 3: Cross-check that index.html is mentioned in the static web host tab

Conclusion:

By removing architectural complexity and providing built-in key-value storage and object storage, Nimbella simplifies the big aspects of developing a stateful cloud app and let you and the developer focus on code logic.

If you’re interested in deploying your stateful app to the cloud, you can get started today for free with Nimbella Platform. You can also join Nimbella’s Community Slack channel to ask questions and share the project you're working on with our growing community.

If you’re interested in seeing the code. You can click here for the Nimbella version and click here for the AWS version.