Unveiling the ECS SaaS Reference Architecture

Hello, Builders! 👋

I hope you're as excited as I am because today, we unveiled something truly game-changing for the SaaS community. On the latest episode of Building SaaS on AWS, we welcomed Dhammika Sriyananda and Karthik Annamalaisamy from the AWS SaaS Factory team to introduce their brand new Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) based SaaS Reference Architecture.

If you're a builder of SaaS solutions or someone looking to dive into the world of multi-tenant environments, this episode is an absolute must-watch. Dhammika and Karthik took us on a deep dive into the world of the ECS and how it can be leveraged as a powerful compute platform for building SaaS applications.

One of the key highlights was understanding the simplicity and reduced complexity that ECS brings to the table compared to other container orchestrators. With its native integration with AWS services like routing, observability, and service discovery, ECS provides a seamless experience for developers building SaaS solutions.

But that's not all! Dhammika and Karthik walked us through the technical considerations when building SaaS on ECS, addressing crucial aspects like quota limits, scalability, and strategies to overcome them. They unveiled three distinct architectural tiers – Basic, Advanced, and Premium – each catering to different deployment models and tenant requirements (silo and pooled models).

What really caught my attention was the open-source ECS SaaS Reference Architecture they've developed. This comprehensive codebase and configuration, available on GitHub, provides a complete exemplified solution for deploying and managing SaaS applications on ECS. From an admin console for tenant management to a sample e-commerce application simulating deployments across different tiers, this reference architecture is a goldmine for anyone building SaaS solutions on AWS. Furthermore, this reference solution was built using the latest best practices and infrastructure recommendations out of the AWS SaaS Factory's SaaS Builder Toolkit which you can find out more about here.

Also during the episode, we witnessed live demos of the tenant onboarding process, deployment strategies, and how the architecture leverages services like AWS CloudFormation, CDK, and ECS Service Connect for seamless integration and service discovery.

I can't stress enough how valuable this episode is for anyone in the SaaS community. Whether you're a seasoned SaaS provider or just starting your journey, the insights shared by Dhammika and Karthik are invaluable. So, what are you waiting for?

Head over to our Twitch channel or YouTube and watch the full episode now! And don't forget to share your thoughts, questions, and feedback with us. We're always eager to hear from the community and continue pushing the boundaries of SaaS on AWS.

Happy building, folks! 🚀