Ran Isenberg (Ran the Builder)

Guide to AWS re:Invent 2025 - Tips & Tricks AWS re:Invent 2025 is massive, intense, and full of opportunities. In my latest guide, I share practical tips from three years of experience as both speaker and attendee. From arriving early to beat j...

AWS re:Invent is massive and full of opportunities.
I share practical tips from two years of experience as both speaker and attendee —this post helps you plan smart, learn deeply, and connect with the AWS community like a pro.

www.ranthebuilder.cloud/post/guide-t...

Go to Market with MCP | Let's Build a Startup S3E2: Sedna and Ran Isenberg YouTube video by AWS Events

🚀 Had a great time with Giuseppe Battista on the AWS Startups Twitch stream!

We explored building serverless MCP servers on AWS— how to make it as production-grade as possible (within reason 😄).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuB4...

🚀 Excited to join forces with Giuseppe Battista on the AWS Startups Twitch stream next Tuesday, July 22nd, at 2 PM BST!

We’ll explore building Lambda based MCP servers on AWS—what works, what breaks, and how to make it as production-grade as possible (within reason 😄).

Join: bit.ly/basup-twitch

14 AWS Lambda Security Best Practices to Secure Your Serverless Applications AWS Lambda makes it easy to build serverless apps—but security is often an afterthought. This post covers 14 real-world Lambda security best practices, from input validation, secret management, and le...

Getting started with AWS Lambda is easy—securing it isn’t.
I wrote a practical guide to help you build secure serverless apps from day one.
✅ Input validation
✅ Least privilege IAM
✅ Secrets, caching, observability & more

www.ranthebuilder.cloud/post/14-aws-...
#AWS #Serverless

There's more than one answer and many variations

Serverless Platform Engineering | Serverless Office Hours YouTube video by Serverless Land

check this out then:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lus0...

I highly suggested you view the webinar, I talk about all of these and provide examples.

GitHub - ran-isenberg/aws-lambda-handler-cookbook: This repository provides a working, deployable, open source-based, serverless service blueprint with an AWS Lambda function and AWS CDK Python code w... This repository provides a working, deployable, open source-based, serverless service blueprint with an AWS Lambda function and AWS CDK Python code with all the best practices and a complete CI/CD ...

AWS Lambda handler cookbook 7.1.0 is out!

- DevEx update: run 'make update-deps,' which updates the CDK version to the latest version and also all Python dependencies. I'm surprised I didn't implement this sooner!

github.com/ran-isenberg...

From 18 Weeks to 3 Hours: How CyberArk Delivers Business Value Faster Using Serverless Technology on AWS | Case Study | AWS Learn how CyberArk, a global leader in identity security, created an internal development platform using serverless computing on AWS.

Of course. I'm a serverless architect in a platform engineering division.
I did a webinar about that with aws a few weeks ago.

www.linkedin.com/posts/ranbui...

Also:
aws.amazon.com/solutions/ca...

Agentic AI & MCP for Platform Teams: Strategy and Real-World Patterns learn how to build a secure, governed foundation for AI adoption using three key building blocks: a centralized prompt library and CLI, MCP server blueprints, and connectors to organizational data. Di...

🔥 Agentic AI is moving fast—are your guardrails keeping up?
Platform teams must lead adoption by wrapping Agentic AI & MCP with secure, scalable foundations.
New blog post → Foundations, CLI, prompt libraries, & real patterns.
www.ranthebuilder.cloud/post/agentic...
#PlatformEngineering #MCP #DevE

🎉 1,000+ subscribers!

I share real-world lessons from the front lines:
🧠 Using AI for architectural design, not just code
⚙️ Scaling platforms for 1,000+ developers
☁️ Building production-ready serverless services with security, observability, and governance baked in

www.linkedin.com/newsletters/...

it doesn't make sense to me to migrate to another provider just for MCP. I'd rather use AppRunner or Fargate ECS

I Tried Running an MCP Server on AWS Lambda… Here's What Happened | Ran Isenberg 🚨 I tried running an MCP server on AWS Lambda. Spoiler: It ran—but not before it crawled, cried, and cold-started for 5 seconds. 🐢🔥 In this new blog post, I break down what worked, what didn't, a...

🚨 I tried running an MCP server on AWS Lambda. Spoiler: It ran—but not before it crawled, cried, and cold-started for 5 seconds. 🐢🔥

I break down what worked, what didn't, and why the current developer experience is bad

www.linkedin.com/posts/ranbui...?

Build Serverless WebSockets with AWS AppSync Events and Powertools for AWS Lambda Build serverless WebSocket APIs with AWS AppSync Events using Lambda as event handlers for publish/subscribe, powered by Powertools for AWS Lambda and AWS CDK

Check out the latest article in my newsletter: Build Serverless WebSockets with AWS AppSync Events and Powertools for AWS Lambda www.linkedin.com/pulse/build-... via @LinkedIn

Build Serverless WebSockets with AWS AppSync Events and Powertools for AWS Lambda In this post, you'll learn how to use AWS Lambda functions as both data sources and event handlers for publish and subscribe actions in AWS AppSync Events. We’ll walk through setting up a namespace, w...

🧠 Real-time apps just got easier with AppSync Events, Lambda, and Powertools for AWS Lambda!
Build a serverless WebSocket API with CDK, direct event handling, and full observability.
Check out my blog post for full code and first impressions!
www.ranthebuilder.cloud/post/aws-app...

I'm honored to be in the list :)

The "in addition to" in the blog was a reference to the fact that we have added 2 new logging destinations—S3 and Firehose—natively (without having to use Extensions or other alternatives). "

One issue though - EMF metrics will only work if you're sending to CloudWatch Logs.

AWS Lambda introduces tiered pricing for Amazon CloudWatch logs and additional logging destinations | Amazon Web Services Effective logging is an important part of an observability strategy when building serverless applications using AWS Lambda. Lambda automatically captures and sends logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs. This...

LOVE this!
Mostly lots of pros with just one con:

"Yes. When you select S3 or Firehose, the logs won't be stored in CloudWatch Logs and you will pay a lower price for delivery to S3/Firehose. You don't need to add any IAM deny statement." >>

aws.amazon.com/blogs/comput...

AWS Lambda standardizes billing for INIT Phase | Amazon Web Services Effective August 1, 2025, AWS will standardize billing for the initialization (INIT) phase across all AWS Lambda function configurations. This change specifically affects on-demand invocations of Lamb...

I'm conflicted about this. I don't like paying of all of a sudden for something I didn't before, plus some of it is AWS controlled.

Luckily, I have a blog post that will help you:

aws.amazon.com/blogs/comput...

www.ranthebuilder.cloud/post/is-aws-...

Release v3.11.0 · aws-powertools/powertools-lambda-python Summary We are excited to announce a new integration for Event Handler to work with AWS AppSync Events APIs. This utility provides a structured way to handle AppSync real-time events through dedica...

✨ AWS Powertools for Python v3.11.0 brings first-class support for AppSync Events!

I need to get my hands dirty with it :)

Read more: github.com/aws-powertoo...

Building Serverless MCP Servers and What Does Peppa Pig Have To Do With It This post walks through building a stateless Model Context Protocol (MCP) server on AWS Lambda using Streamable HTTP—no custom bridges or transports. It explores MCP internals, tool/resource definitio...

🐷💻 MCP, Serverless Agentic AI… and Peppa Pig? You read that right.
In a hilarious + technical guest post, Anton Aleksandrov builds a stateless MCP server on Lambda, books Peppa Pig tix with OINK-GPT, and drops a GitHub repo.
#Serverless #MCP #AI #AWS
www.ranthebuilder.cloud/post/buildin...

Serverless is good for the Earth Day 🌎 - Off-by-none In this issue, AWS introduces a new Well-Architected GenAI Lens, Amazon Q Developer launches a new agent, and Serverless, Inc. joins the MCP party.

Issue #325 of Off-by-none is out! In this issue, AWS introduces a new Well-Architected #GenAI Lens, Amazon Q Developer launches a new agent, and Serverless Inc. joins the MCP party. #offbynone offbynone.io/issues/325/

🧠 Unpopular opinion: Not everything needs to be agentic AI.

I've seen too many systems use agents just because. Often, "boring" code works better—simpler, cheaper, and maintainable.

Solve the problem first. Choose the tech second.
Not every solution needs to brag.
#AI #Architecture

AWS re:Invent 2024 - Best practices for serverless developers (SVS401) YouTube video by AWS Events

AWS re:invent session: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wok...

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AWS Serverless and Platform Engineering Consulting | Ran The Builder Ran Isenberg (Ran The Builder) provides tailored AWS Serverless and Platform Engineering consultation, helping organizations enhance security, automation, and scalability. Explore his blog for expert ...

In the last 4 months since speaking at re:Invent with @julianwood.com , a lot has happened:

✅ Launched a LinkedIn newsletter
✅ Started consulting
✅ Blogging at ranthebuilder.cloud
✅ Serverless & platform eng focus
✅ Conference talks

👉 Follow for more! #Serverless #AWS

AWS on the roof!, Tue, May 6, 2025, 6:00 PM | Meetup Join us for **AWS on the Roof**, a rooftop hangout with great people, great views, and sharp takes on cloud tech. This meetup brings together talks we couldn’t squeeze into

🎤 Speaking at the AWS Israel Meetup on May 6, 18:00 IDT!

Sharing 5 serverless patterns you should stop using (and what to do instead).
From monolith Lambdas to bad scheduling—real lessons & better alternatives.

🔗 www.meetup.com/aws-il/event... #Serverless #AWS

AWS Lambda Input Validation Best Practices | AWS Lambda Cookbook AWS Lambda handler. This blog focuses on AWS Lambda input validation and parsing best practices.

Powertools for AWS Lambda 3.10.0 is out with new AppSync resolver Pydantic models for the parser utility, which makes input validations easier!

Want to learn more about input validation best practices for Lambda? Check out my blog post: www.ranthebuilder.cloud/post/aws-lam...
#AWS #Serverless

API Gateway Restricting Resource Path with IP Allow Listing with WAF In the example, we will restrict one resource path on API Gateway to specific IP addresses using AWS WAF.

API Gateway Restricting Resource Path with IP Allow Listing with WAF

"In the example, we will restrict one resource path on API Gateway to specific IP addresses using AWS WAF."

medium.com/@leejamesgil...

#AWS #Serverless

Stop Building Internal Tools Nobody Wants: A Platform Engineer’s Guide Stop building internal tools nobody wants. Platform engineering tips to boost adoption, DevX, feedback, and internal open-source mindset

Has your platform engineering team ever built internal tools nobody used?

In my latest post, I share practical strategies to boost adoption, enhance DevX, and build tools developers actually want!

www.ranthebuilder.cloud/post/platfor...

#PlatformEngineering #InternalTools #DevEx #AWS

A must read, as always