Word of the Day: Amazon Simple Notification Service

Word of the Day
Daily updates on the latest technology terms \|September 15, 2017

Amazon Simple Notification Service

Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) is a cloud service for coordinating the delivery of push messages from software applications to subscribing endpoints and clients. All messages published to Amazon SNS are warehoused across several availability zones to prevent loss.

Amazon SNS allows users to push messages to Windows, Google, Apple and certain internet-connected smart devices by using an application programming interface (API) or the AWS Management Console. Once a message is published to the service, it can be sent multiple times to different recipients. Service users also have the flexibility to send direct messages to several devices or to one subscriber by using a sole publish request.

To get started with Amazon SNS, developers first have to create a topic, which is an access point for subscribers who are interested in receiving notifications about a specific subject. Developers publish a message to a topic when they have an update for subscribers and this action prompts Amazon SNS to distribute the message to all appropriate subscribers.

Amazon SNS has pay-as-you-go-pricing and no upfront costs. Users who sign up for AWS Free Tier receive 1 million mobile push notifications. Topic owners are able to set policies specifying which types of protocols will be supported. They can also be used to limit who can subscribe to notifications or publish messages. The subscribers, who are also called clients, can choose how notifications will be delivered.

Quote of the Day
	"Push architectures can reduce CPU and network usage and bring greater energy efficiency to mobile devices." - George Lawton

Learning Center

Compare Amazon SNS to other push notification services
These push notification services from the big three cloud providers enable mobile app messaging and let developers focus on coding application logic.

Can AWS push notifications improve service performance?
AWS push notifications can be harbingers of bad news, but they provide a necessary service for IT teams operating in the AWS cloud.

Amazon cloud services: What's new?
Expert Chris Moyer discusses whether Amazon cloud services are new or simply updates of older services.

Find an AWS messaging service to fit your needs
AWS messaging services meet different enterprise needs. Choose carefully between Amazon SQS and SNS to ensure you're using the right system for the job.

Real-time app development helps minimize delays
AWS provides several services for real-time app development, but developers must be careful to reduce delays throughout the development pipeline.

Quiz Yourself

_______ notfications are CPU-intensive because they must continually poll a remote server.
a. Push
b. Pull
Answer

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