AWS Step Functions Reviews

I use Step Functions for orchestrating several application workflows. Specifically, I often use Step Functions to automate processes requiring multiple steps and for application orchestration. I focus on integrating with multiple AWS services and managing automations.

Step Functions provide seamless integration with AWS services, which enhances the speed of application development. The JSON app launched recently allows us to define data execution more easily. 

The Standard Workflows feature includes error replay capabilities, which are crucial for efficient error management. The Amazon State Language (ASL) in JSON format facilitates workflow automation and accelerates the deployment of Step Functions.

I worked with Step Functions about a year ago for six months. Currently, I don't have any use cases for Step Functions. But overall, I was pretty amazed with it. It has great integration with many AWS services, and if you use it correctly, it could save you a ton of money. 

Again, it leverages AWS serverless features. If you want to create a workflow to call one Lambda function after another, and other serverless features, it could save you a ton of money. That's for sure.

One use case was running OCR on PDFs for regulatory compliance. We had two options: launch an EC2 instance with OCR or use Lambda. But we didn't need OCR running all day, just at specific times. Using EC2 instances for OCR operations was pretty expensive. Plus, scalability was an issue if multiple users were using the model. So we shifted it to Lambda and Step Functions.

We dropped our OCR infrastructure cost by 90% due to the efficiency. We paid 90% less for our infrastructure cost by using Step Functions for our OCR processes.

AWS Step Functions is a useful tool for orchestration, particularly when using various AWS services. It helps create workflows and manage the order between services like Lambda and Glue jobs.

It provides advanced workflows that can save time and make processes more resilient and efficient, reducing delays and improving consistency.

The major feature of AWS Step Functions is interdependency. Step Functions can determine what action to take next if one step returns a false status based on predefined logic. Step Functions aims to ensure that pipelines or workflows run smoothly by providing a backup function to execute in case of failures.

The integration capability is easy, whereas building state machines is tricky.

I was the second member to join a team tasked with creating a proof of concept. My responsibility was to demonstrate how to orchestrate microservices effectively using AWS Step Functions. Essentially, there are two approaches to orchestrating microservices within AWS: one involves using Step Functions as a master workflow to coordinate various microservices, while the other entails integrating the Amazon Java SDK into your products and using TechTokie to ensure smooth orchestration flow.

The biggest benefit is that it allows us to work with complex systems in a user-friendly manner. Having the ability to easily debug and monitor through the GUI adds significant value from my perspective.

The visual workflow interface of Step Functions has significantly enhanced our ability to design and debug state machines. The color-coded visualization, such as yellow and red indicators, is particularly useful, especially in web-based environments. However, when it comes to debugging deeper issues, such as understanding test results, we encountered some challenges. We felt the need for more detailed insights, such as knowing which step is causing issues, especially when dealing with token validation.

In terms of our use case, we are building a pipeline to manage data. It's pretty simple. We validate the data and then write it in the database.

It has enabled my organization to create workflows with a lot of different AWS services. It's a general solution that you can adapt to your own needs and is simple to use.

I use Amazon Step Functions to visually design and simplify the development of functions, automate various tasks, and coordinate workflows across different AWS services. I also use it to streamline the development of my Azure tool by visually orchestrating Lambda Functions and integrating them with different API services for a more efficient workflow.

The main benefit of Amazon Step Functions for me is the ability to visualize automated processes and logical parameters, enhancing manageability and understanding of program logic.

You can use Amazon Step Functions if you want to run multiple ETL jobs or in parallel, where you want to run your source data sets at different times.

The number of historical events is great. But, usually, those numbers are very limited, and with this solution, we can control the maximum number of historical events.