Using Multiple kubectl Versions with Minimal Faff

In a previous article I explained how subcommands let developers make command line tools that other people can extend. Here’s a way to use that technique to support multiple versions of kubectl with minimal faff. kubectl only officially supports a version skew of one minor version; if you have the latest kubectl and want to […]

Securing S3 Buckets with s3audit

These days it can seem like we don’t have to wait very long for another data breach involving an insecure S3 bucket. Such data breaches generally involve private data being stored in an S3 bucket which allows public access. Photo by Gregory Culmer on Unsplash This year alone we’ve seen data breaches from Teletext Holidays, […]

Migrating to Fargate from ECS with EC2

You’ve heard all the reasons why you should migrate to Fargate, but what do you need to think about when doing a migration? You have two options for deploying a containerised application to AWS ECS. With the EC2 launch type you deploy your applications to a fleet of EC2 instances which you manage. The Fargate […]

Using CodePipeline to Deploy to an S3 Bucket In Another Account

A common strategy when using CodePipeline is to upload files to an S3 bucket as part of the deployment process. This works great for a simple pipeline where the pipeline and the S3 bucket exist in the same account. But imagine a more complicated situation where you want to deploy artifacts to another AWS account. […]

How To Use Service Control Policies in AWS

Using multiple AWS accounts to provide separation of concerns within a system is a good practice which is increasingly being adopted. This shift has become easier with the introduction of new features which make managing a multi-account system easier. One of these features is Service Control Policies (SCPs), which makes it easier to apply controls […]

Should You Use AWS EC2 Instance Connect to SSH Into Your Instances?

Short answer yes you should. Here’s why I think it’s superior to standard Public Key authentication. Last week Amazon launched EC2 Instance Connect, dubbed a “Simple and secure way to connect to your instances using SSH and managed by IAM”. Let’s spend the next few minutes diving in to find out how simple it really […]

Serverless Authentication for S3

Are you a developer looking to protect your S3 content using G Suite, Active Directory, Auth0 or GitHub for authentication? At The Scale Factory, we host a static website containing documentation of our customers’ infrastructure that we support. Internally we use Google’s G Suite of apps. We wanted to find a solution to authenticate requests […]

5 Reasons to use AWS Fargate

“Serverless” is all the rage right now, but what actually is it? Is it just a marketing term coined by cloud providers, or does it bear any relevance in today’s world? AWS Fargate Logo The serverless paradigm is a huge change in focus for development teams. With the introduction of serverless offerings from technology platforms, […]

Boring is Powerful

As human beings, we’ve evolved to treat boredom as the enemy. Every day we pursue more mental stimulation, seeking out new ways to occupy our minds lest we succumb to the horrors of having to sit quietly in our own thoughts. We restlessly thumb through content on our permanently connected devices, seeking the dopamine hit […]