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AWS SNS (Simple Notification Service)

What is it​

A fully managed messaging service that allows sending messages from publishers (producers) to subscribers (customers).

What it's for​

Send push notifications, SMS, emails, and messages to other AWS services (such as SQS, Lambda) in a scalable and reliable way.

Use cases​

  • Application notifications (e.g., status updates, alerts)
  • Messages between microservices
  • SMS delivery for two-factor authentication
  • Event distribution to multiple consumers
  • System monitoring and alerts

Key points​

  • Pub/Sub (Publish/Subscribe): Allows a publisher to send a message to a topic, and all subscribers of that topic receive the message
  • Fully managed: AWS handles infrastructure and scalability
  • Multiple protocols: Supports HTTP/S, email, SMS, SQS, Lambda, push notifications
  • High availability: Designed to be highly available and durable
  • Message filtering: Allows subscribers to filter the messages they want to receive

Comparison with AWS SQS​

  • AWS SNS: A pub/sub notification service where a message is sent to a topic and delivered to all subscribers. Ideal for scenarios where the same message needs to be delivered to multiple consumers.
  • AWS SQS (Simple Queue Service): A message queue service that allows decoupling of application components. Messages are stored in a queue until a consumer processes them. Ideal for scenarios where messages need to be processed by a single consumer or where order and delivery guarantee are crucial.