AWS Step Functions is a workflow service used to orchestrate your AWS services, automate processes, and build serverless applications and microservices.

With AWS Step Functions, you can configure a state machine that handles the decision making throughout your workflows. This is done by defining a collection of states using the Amazon States Language. The most common type of state to define in a state machine is a task state which is a single unit of work performed by the state machine. Naturally, developers may feel inclined to configure these units of work to utilize AWS Lambda functions and the AWS SDK to make the necessary API calls.

However, AWS Step Functions contains built-in service integrations that allow you to make certain API calls directly from your state machine, without needing to author this additional Lambda function. With these service integrations, developers can reduce overhead and the amount of Lambda functions they would need to maintain and update as their application grows.

In this lab, you will work with two examples of these state machine service integrations and discover how to implement them using the Amazon State Language.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this intermediate level lab, you will be able to:

• Explore the AWS Step Functions Workflow Studio
• Create and test a simple AWS state machine
• Directly integrate a state machine with the Amazon DynamoDB API
• Directly integrate a state machine with the Amazon Simple Queue Service API

Intended Audience

• Cloud Architects
• DevOps Engineers
• Software Engineers

Prerequisites

Familiarity with the following will be beneficial but is not required:

• AWS Step Functions
• Amazon DynamoDB
• Amazon Simple Queue Service

The following lab can be used to fulfill the prerequisites:

• Introduction to AWS Step Functions

Updates

September 4th, 2023 - Updated screenshots and instructions to reflect latest UI