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Don't just learn the cloud—BYTE it!
Byte the Cloud is your go-to, on-the-go, podcast for mastering AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud certifications and exam prep!
Chris 0:00
All right, cloud engineers, get ready, because we are diving deep into AWS Wavelength today. Yeah, and
Kelly 0:05
this is one you might just see on the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam. So pay attention. That's
Chris 0:11
right. So this service, it's like AWS is saying, hey, let's get even closer to the action. Yeah,
Kelly 0:16
we're talking about putting the power of AWS right inside the telecom providers data center is right there at the edge.
Chris 0:23
Okay, so I'm trying to imagine myself as a user just streaming my favorite game on my phone. What does Wavelength actually do for me, for the user? Let's
Kelly 0:33
picture this. You're playing that game and there's no lag 00. Nice. Your actions are reflected instantly, because the game processing isn't happening in some like, far off data center, right? It's happening right there on the edge of that 5g network, so super close to you. That's what Wavelength allows. So no
Chris 0:52
more rage quitting because of lag. Yeah, I can definitely get behind that, right? But seriously, it's not just about gaming. Oh, absolutely
Kelly 0:58
not. Yeah. Think about real time video analytics where, like, every millisecond counts. So let's say you are a manufacturer, and you're using computer vision, you know, to inspect products on a fast moving production line. Okay, with Wavelength, you can analyze that video feed like instantly, right there at the edge. Wow. And you can catch those defects before they become big problems. That's really interesting.
Chris 1:22
So it's like having the clouds power like on site, yeah, yet I don't have to manage, you know, any physical server, exactly
Kelly 1:29
you got it. And another great example is connected vehicles. Oh, yeah. Imagine autonomous cars making split second decisions based on real time data, right from sensors, cameras, Wavelength can provide that super low latency to process all that information and keep those cars operating safely. Okay,
Chris 1:46
so we've said that Wavelength is important for applications that need really fast response times. But how does this actually work? Sure What's going on behind the scenes.
Kelly 1:55
All right, so here's the magic, okay, AWS partners with telecom companies to actually put AWS infrastructure, like, think the server, storage, all of that, right, within their 5g network. Oh, wow, yeah.
Chris 2:09
And then they create these special zones. They're called Wavelength zones, all right? And these are like extensions of AWS regions, okay, but they're located right at the edge.
Kelly 2:19
So it's like AWS is building these mini regions inside the telecom providers data centers. Yeah, exactly.
Chris 2:26
And here's where it gets really cool for you as a cloud engineer, okay, you can actually deploy your applications in these Wavelength zones, just like you would in a regular AWS region. You can use all the familiar services, like EC two, lambda, EKS, and you can manage them with the same tools and APIs you already know.
Kelly 2:47
So no steep learning curve. Nope. That's a big benefit, definitely. So besides that ultra low latency that we keep talking about, what are some of the benefits that Wavelength brings? Well,
Chris 2:57
like you said, the integration with existing AWS services is a big one, right? It means you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Yeah, you can use your existing cloud skills, right? And another benefit is security Wavelength
Kelly 3:07
zones. They inherit all those security measures of the AWS global infrastructure, so you can be sure that your applications are protected. That makes
Chris 3:16
sense. I'm definitely sold on the benefits. But are there any limitations or things that like we should be aware of when considering Wavelength? Yeah, there
Kelly 3:25
are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, Wavelength zones aren't available everywhere yet, okay? AWS is still expanding those partnerships with telecom providers, right? So coverage really just depends on location. So
Chris 3:37
if I'm building an application for a specific region, I need to check if Wavelink is supported there, right
Kelly 3:42
exactly second. Not every AWS service is available in Wavelength zones. Okay? The focus is on edge, focused compute, networking and storage services you might not find like a full blown data warehouse, for example, or some of the more specialized services. So it's about choosing the right tool for the job, that
Chris 4:01
makes sense. So we've covered the basics of what Wavelength is and why it's important. But now let's dive a bit deeper into the technical details, like how this all fits into the AWS ecosystem. Okay, what are some of the key components we need to understand? So
Kelly 4:15
one of the most important concepts is the role of the carrier gateway, okay, think of it like a bridge that connects your central VPC to a Wavelength zone. So
Chris 4:26
a bridge between my main cloud environment and this edge location, yeah, what does that bridge? Let me do. It basically
Kelly 4:32
enables seamless communication between your resources and the VPC and those deployed in the Wavelength zone, okay, so you can access your data, manage your applications, treat the Wavelength zone as like an extension of your cloud infrastructure. That
Chris 4:46
sounds really powerful. So from a networking perspective, it's all tightly integrated Exactly. That's great. Now, what about subnets? Oh,
Kelly 4:53
yeah. So you can create subnets within a Wavelength zone, just like you would in a regular VPC. This allows you to. To segment your workloads at the edge, okay, and apply like fine grain security controls. So I could
Chris 5:06
have one subnet for my gaming servers, yeah, another one for my video analytics application and so on, all within the same Wavelength zone, exactly. And then I can use security groups to control the traffic flow, yes, between those subnets in the outside world,
Kelly 5:21
yes, just as you would in a traditional VPC. Okay, this is
Chris 5:25
starting to paint a really clear picture of how Wavelength fits into that overall AWS networking model. Yeah, it feels like a natural extension, uh huh, not like some completely separate island. That's
Kelly 5:36
the beauty of it. AWS has done a great job of making Wavelength feel like a seamless part of the cloud.
Chris 5:43
I agree. Now I know our listeners probably wondering how all of this translates into, you know, exam prep for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Certification, uh huh, so let's put on our exam prep hats. Okay, what are some of the key concepts and questions that our listeners should be prepared to tackle, okay?
Kelly 6:01
So first and foremost, you need to be able to identify those real world use cases where Wavelength is you know the best choice think about scenarios that require ultra low latency real time processing, right? Or where you need to put that compute power closer to end users or devices.
Chris 6:21
So if I see a question on the exam that mentions like a mobile gaming platform that requires minimal lag, I should immediately think, Wavelength, exactly.
Kelly 6:29
Okay, good. Let's do an example question right now, right imagine you see this on the exam. A company is building a mobile gaming platform that requires minimal lag for a smooth user experience, which AWS service would best meet this requirement? What would your answer be? Well, based on
Chris 6:47
what we've talked about, the answer has to be AWS Wavelength Yes, because it lets us put those game servers right at the edge of the 5g network to get that really low latency spot
Kelly 6:56
on. Now let's look at another type of question you might see, one that tests your understanding of Wavelengths architecture, okay, and how it integrates with other AWS services. All right, I'm ready to get technical. All right. So think about VPCs, okay, subnets, security groups and that carrier gateway, they might ask, how can you connect your existing VPC to a Wavelength zone?
Chris 7:18
Ooh, that's a good one. Is it something to do with the carrier gateway? You
Kelly 7:22
nailed it. It's all about the carrier gateway. Okay, think of it as a special type of VPC gateway. Okay, that's specifically designed for connecting to Wavelength zones, right? It acts as that secure tunnel, allowing your VPC and the Wavelength zone to communicate. So
Chris 7:39
if I see carrier gateway in a question on the exam, yeah, it's a big clue that they're talking about Wavelength
Kelly 7:46
Absolutely. Now another example question, okay, you are working on a project that requires deploying a latency sensitive application to a Wavelength zone. You need to make sure that this application can communicate with resources in your existing VPC, which AWS service would you use to establish this connectivity? Well,
Chris 8:03
based on what we just discussed, it has to be the carrier gateway again, right? It's that bridge between my VPC and the Wavelength zone.
Kelly 8:10
You got it now, let's move on to another area of the exam, deployment. Okay, be prepared to explain how to deploy applications in Wavelength zones, the steps involved and the services you can use. So
Chris 8:22
a question like, can you deploy a Kubernetes cluster in a Wavelength zone? Yes,
Kelly 8:28
exactly like that. And the answer to that one is yes. Okay, you can definitely use Amazon EKS to create and manage Kubernetes clusters in Wavelength zones, bringing your containerized workloads to the edge.
Chris 8:41
That's awesome. It feels like almost anything we can do in a regular AWS region we can do in a Wavelength zone, yeah, with that added bonus of low latency, right? But what about specific deployment steps, anything I should be aware of?
Kelly 8:56
That's a great question. Let's get into those details and some more exam style questions next time.
Chris 9:00
Okay, sounds good. Stay tuned. Okay, so I'm ready to test my knowledge about Wavelength deployment. All right. Well, the exam,
Kelly 9:05
they want to see if you can walk through that whole deployment process step by step. They want to know you understand not just the what, but also the how.
Chris 9:13
So they want to see that I can apply the knowledge exactly like imagine you
Kelly 9:17
need to deploy a containerized application to a Wavelength zone using EKS, he might give you, like, a bunch of steps all mixed up, and then ask you to put them in order.
Chris 9:26
Okay, yeah, that would definitely test my understanding, right? Can we do an example? Yeah,
Kelly 9:30
let's say the exam question asks you are deploying a containerized web application to a Wavelength zone using Amazon EKS, arrange these steps in the correct order. A, create a carrier gateway and attach it to your VPC. B, create an EKS cluster in the Wavelength zone. C, deploy your application to the EKS cluster. D, configure your VPC to allow communication with the Wavelength zone. What do you think?
Chris 10:01
Okay, let me think, well, I know I need that carrier gateway to connect my VPC to the Wavelength zone. So step A has to come first, okay. Then I probably need to configure my VPC to allow communication. So step D, right after that, I can create the EKS cluster in the Wavelength zone. That's Step B, okay. And then finally, I can deploy the application, which is C,
Kelly 10:20
you got it. So the order is a, then d, then B, then C, okay, because you can't create that EKS cluster or deploy your application until you have that secure connection. Makes sense and you've configured your VPC for communication.
Chris 10:35
Like building a house, you know, you need the foundation before you can build the walls and roof
Kelly 10:39
Exactly. So these questions, they really make you think about all the dependencies and how a deployment should flow. You know, logically, that's a good
Chris 10:48
way to think about it. What about managing and monitoring applications once they're running in a Wavelength zone? Is that any different than a regular AWS region?
Kelly 10:57
A lot of the tools and principles are the same, but there are a few key differences. Okay, let's start with monitoring. Okay, so you can still use CloudWatch, but you really need to pay attention to where those metrics are coming from. What
Chris 11:11
do you mean by that?
Kelly 11:12
You'll see metrics reported by the Wavelength zone itself, things like network throughput, server utilization, and then you'll also see metrics from your application running in the zone, so I
Chris 11:23
need to be able to tell the difference between the infrastructure metrics and the application metrics. Okay, this is like, super important for troubleshooting, right? Imagine you're seeing high latency, right? Yeah, you need to figure out if that problem is in your application code or if it's somewhere in the Wavelength infrastructure that
Kelly 11:42
makes sense, so I need to make sure I'm looking at the right metrics. Yes, okay. What about logging? Any special considerations there? You can still use CloudWatch logs, okay, but you might need to configure things a little differently depending on what services and applications you are running in the Wavelength zone.
Chris 12:00
Got it so basically, no major surprises, just a few tweaks to my usual logging setup. Yeah, pretty much. Okay, good reminder to self security first. Yes, always speaking of security, how does that work? In Wavelengths, we're deploying applications closer to the edge. So are there special security considerations?
Kelly 12:18
Yeah, you're right to be thinking about security, right? A lot of the best practices from traditional AWS environments, they apply here, okay, things like security groups, IMM, roles, encryption, all of that, right? But there's one key difference, okay, I'm listening. What is it you're now operating within what's called a shared responsibility model. Oh, that includes the telecom provider. So it's not just AWS. I need to think about exactly, okay, both you and the telecom provider are responsible for securing that Wavelength zone. Okay,
Chris 12:50
so that adds another layer of complexity, yeah. So what does that shared responsibility look like? Like, how does it work in practice? Well,
Kelly 12:57
it means you need to, like, really define who's responsible for what? Okay, like, for example, who secures that physical infrastructure that's hosting the Wavelength zone, okay, who manages network security at the edge. All of those responsibilities need to be, like, really clearly defined. So it sounds like
Chris 13:17
communication and documentation are really important.
Kelly 13:19
Yeah, absolutely. You need a solid agreement with the telecom partner about security roles and responsibilities that makes
Chris 13:26
sense. Any other security tips specific to Wavelength that we should be aware of?
Kelly 13:31
Yeah, a few things to remember. First, least privilege. Stick to the principle of least privilege when you're setting up permissions okay for users and applications that are accessing your Wavelength resources, right. Second, network segmentation, okay, use your VPCs, subnets and security groups to segment your Wavelength environment right and control that traffic flow between different components. Got it. Third, encryption, okay, encrypt sensitive data, both in transit and at rest, okay? And use kms to manage your keys securely, makes sense. And last but not least, security monitoring and logging, right? Don't forget about continuous monitoring and logging. Use CloudWatch and other security tools to stay vigilant and respond to any you know potential threats. Okay,
Chris 14:19
those are great reminders. It sounds like security and Wavelength really comes down to defining those shared responsibilities and following the AWS best practices that we already know exactly. Now. What about pricing? How does that work with Wavelength? It seems like it might be more complicated than just the usual AWS resource costs.
Kelly 14:37
You're right. Wavelength pricing is a little different, because you're essentially paying for two things. First, the cost of the Wavelength zone infrastructure itself. This covers the physical infrastructure network connectivity all provided by that telecom partner.
Chris 14:51
So it's like paying for the real estate and the utilities of that edge location. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. And then I'm also paying for the AWS resource. Resources I'm
Kelly 15:00
using, yeah, exactly. Like your EC two instances, lambda functions, EKS clusters, all running in that Wavelength zone. So it's
Chris 15:07
like a combination of infrastructure and usage costs, yeah, exactly. Got it. So the pricing will depend on a few things. Then yeah, like the telecom provider, the location of the Wavelength zone and the AWS resources that I'm using exactly. So it's really important to check those pricing details. Uh huh, before I, you know, get started, make sure I'm not surprised. Yes. Now, before we wrap up, I want to hear from our listeners, okay, what are some real world scenarios where you think Wavelength could be a game changer? What applications or industries come to mind? We'll
Kelly 15:40
talk about some more use cases, yeah, and the broader implications of Wavelength next time. Yes, but we want to hear your ideas too.
Chris 15:46
Absolutely share your thoughts with this in the comments. Yes, we'll be back soon with part three. Okay, so we're back for the final part of our Wavelengths deep dive, right? We've talked about a lot, you know, the technical details, exam prep, but now I kind of want to take a step back and think about, like, the bigger picture of
Kelly 16:05
all of this. I like that, you know, getting out of the weeds and looking at the forest, yeah, exactly. And with Wavelength, the why is just as important as the how,
Chris 16:13
right, exactly. We've talked about ultra low latency, edge computing all that. But like, what does that actually mean for the real world, yeah. How is Wavelength, you know, changing the game.
Kelly 16:24
Okay, so think back to that example with the gaming. Imagine a world where those massive multiplayer online games, yeah, even the ones with crazy graphics, right? They run perfectly on your phone with no lag, no matter where you are. That's the dream. That's the kind of experience that Wavelength enables.
Chris 16:44
No more blaming lag for your losses, exactly. And it's not just gaming, right? We have a health care Oh, yeah, good one, like telemedicine, remote surgery. These applications need real time video and analysis, yeah, with no delays, definitely Wavelength can provide that low latency in the bandwidth to, like, make those life saving applications a reality. Yeah, it's
Kelly 17:07
powerful stuff. It's
Chris 17:08
like bringing that specialized medical care to people who don't have access to it. Exactly. That's amazing. And then what about the transportation industry? Oh, yeah, huge autonomous vehicles, right? Relying on all that real time data, yeah, to make those split second decisions, it's
Kelly 17:22
almost like the car needs to think and react as fast as a human, if not faster, exactly. And that's where Wavelength comes in.
Chris 17:29
It brings that cloud power right to the vehicle, enabling those decisions that are critical for safety. So
Kelly 17:35
we've got gaming, health care, transportation. It seems like Wavelength is touching so many industries, yeah,
Chris 17:43
pretty much every industry in some way that's really interesting. What else? What are some other examples? Well, we're seeing it being used in manufacturing for real time process control, oh, in retail, for interactive shopping experiences. Oh, wow. Even in smart cities, for things like traffic management and public safety, it's
Kelly 18:03
really cool to see how this is all you know, shaping the future. Yeah, and
Chris 18:06
it all comes back to edge computing, which is really what Wavelength is all about, right? Pushing the boundaries of where computation can happen, putting the power of the cloud closer to the user or the device.
Kelly 18:18
It's like the cloud is becoming more distributed, more integrated into our lives Exactly.
Chris 18:23
And as this trend keeps going, it just opens up a ton of possibilities for new applications and experiences that we can't even imagine right now. That's so cool. Well, this has been a fantastic deep dive into AWS Wavelength. It has. I feel like I learned a lot about the service, its use cases and its impact. Me too. It was great exploring this with you and for everyone listening out there, we hope you learned some valuable things to help you on your cloud journey.
Unknown Speaker 18:49
Definitely,
Chris 18:50
before we go, let's leave everyone with a thought to like think about as Wavelength and edge computing evolve. How will this impact the way we design, develop and deploy applications in the future. That's a really great question, what new challenges and opportunities will
Kelly 19:06
come up? Yeah, it's a challenge for sure. Yeah, to think beyond you know what we know now, today's limitations, and to imagine that future where the cloud is just like seamlessly integrated with everything, a
Chris 19:18
future where we have the power of the cloud anywhere, anytime. It's an exciting prospect. It really is. Thanks for joining us on this deep dive into AWS Wavelength. We'll see you next time on The Deep Dive.