AWS Step Functions is a visual workflow that allows you to organize AWS services, automate business processes, and build serverless apps. Workflows handle failures, service integrations and parallelization. This allows developers to concentrate on the important business logic.
AWS Step Functions provides three workflow options: Standard Standard Express and Custom. Standard should be chosen if a business procedure will take longer than five minutes to complete. A long-running workflow is one example. The ETL orchestration pipeline is another example. Express workflows can be used for processes that take less time than five minutes. They are also suitable when large execution capacities are required, such 100,000 invocations per seconds. You can either use Express or Standard separately or combine them so that an extended Standard workflow triggers shorter Express workflows that run in parallel. Let’s now discuss the benefits of AWS step functions.
Step Functions’ built in controls allow us to check the status of each stage of the workflow and ensure that the programme runs in its correct order. Step Functions can use AWS services such as Lambda to complete tasks depending on the case. You can create workflows to prepare and promote machine learning models. Step Functions can be used to manage AWS services like AWS Glue to perform extract, transform and load (ETL). We may also automate long-running workflows for applications that do not require human contact.
Benefits of AWS Step Functions:
AWS step functions offer the following benefits:
1. Rapidly build and deploy
Let’s start with a simple drag-and-drop interface. Step Functions can formulate complicated business logic as low-code,event-drivenworkflows that combine services, systems, or characters within minutes.
2. Write less integration code
ComposeAWS resourcesincorporating ECS, Lambda, Fargate, Batch, SNS, DynamoDB, EventBridge, SQS, SageMaker, or EMR into resilient business workflows, data pipelines, or applications.
3. Create fault-tolerant, stateful workflows
Step Functions keeps track of checkpoints, states, restarts and restarts to ensure that workflows are administered in the correct order. Built-in try/catch and retry capabilities and rollback abilities automatically handle mistakes and exceptions based upon the specified business logic.
4. For any use
Next, Step Functions extends two workflows -Standard and Express – depending on the specific use case.
Next, we will discuss Use cases.
Some Use Cases
Here are some use cases we should be aware of.
1. Automate Extract, Transform and Load (ETL).
It ensures that multipleETL jobs are administered in order and executed successfully. This is in contrast to manually organizing the jobs or managing separate applications.
2. Prepare Data for Machine Learning (ML).
Machine learning requires that source data be consolidated, processed, and normalized in order to allow ML modeling systems like Amazon SageMaker to take over. The Step Functions make it easier to sequence the steps required to automate the ML pipeline.
3. Orchestrate microservices
Step Functions allow you to consolidate different AWS Lambda functions into learning microservices and serverless determinations. We can also organize data and services that run on Amazon EC2 instances or on-premises servers or containers.
4. Liberty Mutual
Liberty Mutual created an event-driven workflow using the Step Functions. This means that data from each line is converted into a variety of events or financial transactions.
5. Freebird
Step Functions allow you to connect different AWS Lambda functions to understand serverless applications and microservices. You don’t need to write code for error handling, workflow logic, timeouts, parallel processing, retries, or workflow logic. We can also arrange data or services that run on Amazon EC2 instances, containers, and on-premises servers.
6. The Guardian
The Guardian organized data flow between multiple systems, saving 4 hours per week in standard account deletion.
Next, let’s talk briefly about the AWS Step Functions!
AWS Step Functions: How to get started
These steps are important to understand!
Step 1: Create a state machine
A state machine is a graphic representation of the workflow that can be used to monitor the various steps that make up the process.
To build a state machine
Register to access the Step Functions console.
Click on Create state machine.
Select the authoring methodsheet you want to use and then choose Design your workflow visually.
UnderType, choose Standard. Step Functions offers two workflow types: Standard and Express. These workflows show how Step Functions integrate with AWS services and maintain pricing. We can’t change the workflow type of a state machine after it is created.
Select Next. It will open Workflow Studio.
Select Flowpanel, then drag aPassstate to an empty state labelledDrag the first state here.
Review the state machine’s workflow under the Definition.
This code determines 2 Passstates. OnePassstate is called Hello, while the otherPassstate can be named World.
Select Next. The Amazon States Language Workflow Definition can be viewed.
ChooseNext. Give the workflow the nameHelloWorld.
Select the following options:Create an IAM Role- This is what you do when you create a statemachine. It defines the resources that the state machine can access during execution. Choose from the following options. Create a new IAM Role- This option is for when you want Step Functions, based on your definit, to create a new IAM Role.