A deep dive into Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD automation, and cloud architecture best practices
Why This Project?
Most DevOps tutorials barely scratch the surface — a container here, a pipeline there. But when you step into real-world production, you quickly realize there’s more at stake:
- Security across tiers
- Scalability that doesn’t break the budget
- Monitoring that catches issues before customers do
- Environments that mimic production without wasting resources
This project was my attempt to go beyond “Hello World” DevOps and design a production-grade three-tier pipeline on AWS.
The Architecture at a Glance
Instead of reinventing the wheel, I leaned on the proven three-tier model — frontend, backend, database — but built it with cloud-native services and IaC for resilience and automation.
- Frontend: React SPA hosted on S3 + CloudFront
- Backend: Spring Boot API on ECS Fargate + ALB
- Database: Managed RDS MySQL with multi-AZ support
Frontend: Global Delivery with CloudFront
Static doesn’t mean simple. The frontend setup ensures global speed and security:
- React SPA → S3 → CloudFront CDN → Route 53
- HTTPS enforced with ACM certificates
- SPA-friendly error pages and routing
- OAC restricting S3 access to CloudFront only
Result: Fast, cost-effective and secure delivery to users anywhere in the world.
Backend: Serverless Containers with ECS Fargate
No servers to babysit. Fargate handles orchestration:
- Load-balanced across multiple AZs
- Zero-downtime rolling deployments
- Spot instances for cost savings
- Security groups with least-privilege rules
Result: Scalable API that grows or shrinks with traffic.
Database: Resilient RDS MySQL
AWS RDS took care of the heavy lifting:
- Multi-AZ failover
- Automated backups
- Encryption at rest and in transit
- Isolated private subnet
Result: Reliable data persistence with minimal ops overhead.
Infrastructure as Code: Modular Terraform
Instead of a messy monolith, I split the infra into reusable modules:
infra/modules/
├── network/
├── frontend/
├── backend/
├── db/
└── domain/
This gave me:
- Cleaner code reviews
- Easier debugging
- The ability to swap modules without breaking others
CI/CD Pipelines
Two kinds of pipelines — infra and apps.
Infra Pipeline (Terraform)
-
terraform validate+ linting - tfsec/Checkov for security scanning
- Approval gates before
apply - Drift detection alerts
Application Pipelines
Frontend: Build React → Test → Deploy → CloudFront invalidate
Backend: Build Spring Boot → Dockerize → Push to ECR → Deploy to ECS
Automation handled the boring stuff; approval gates kept prod safe.
Security by Design
I baked in security instead of bolting it on later:
- VPC isolation + subnet separation
- SSL everywhere
- IAM with least privilege
- Secrets stored in GitHub + SSM
- Container + infra scans in every pipeline
Cost Optimization
- Fargate Spot for ~50% savings
- CloudFront caching reduces origin load
- Lifecycle policies for logs & S3 storage
- Smaller instances in dev/staging
Monitoring and Observability
CloudWatch everywhere:
- Logs for ECS containers
- Alarms for CPU/memory spikes
- RDS performance insights
- Cost alerts to avoid surprises
Multi-Environment Setup
Terraform workspaces + env-specific tfvars files gave me:
- Lightweight dev (single AZ, smaller instances)
- Staging mirroring prod for testing
- Hardened production with HA + stricter security
Lessons Learned
- Keep infra modular — it pays off when debugging
- Automate security checks early
- Separate pipelines → less mess, more control
- Tag everything for cost tracking
- Don’t underestimate monitoring — it’s your lifeline
What’s Next
- Add WAF and advanced security
- Introduce distributed tracing with X-Ray
- Explore ElastiCache + DB read replicas
- Automate secrets rotation
Final Thoughts
This wasn’t just about “getting it to work” — it was about proving you can build cloud infra that’s production-ready from day one.
Key takeaways:
- Modular IaC makes scaling and reuse painless
- CI/CD with guardrails builds trust in automation
- Security and cost optimization must be designed in, not patched later
- Monitoring turns chaos into control
Check out the source code at GitHub for more details.
📬 Contact
If you’d like to connect, collaborate, or discuss DevOps, feel free to reach out:
- Website: hasan-ashab
- GitHub: github.com/HasanAshab
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/hasan-ashab
Top comments (2)
Gonna Implement on my next project! Thanks Brodah
Its my duty bro 🫡