Amazon Prime Video Ditches AWS Serverless Architecture to Go ‘Back’ to Monolith Infrastructure

At first glance, it seems a contradictory story. Everyone and everything seems to be convinced of the benefits of the cloud and microservices to easily develop and deliver services and apps, but streaming provider Amazon Prime Video is throwing out its distributed serverless architecture (from AWS) to go ‘back’ to a monolith infrastructure. And yet it is a logical step that perhaps more companies will take.
This will not be a plea for microservices or a monolith architecture. It is, however, a compliment to an organization that dares to evaluate itself and a call to other companies to do the same.
The reason in short: Many companies have switched to a serverless or microservices architecture in recent years, at the expense of a monolith. The main reason was that a monolith infrastructure would have little scalability and would provide huge networks, so changes to an application meant that an entire stack had to be updated. But an internal Amazon Prime Video business case now shows that they can save 90 percent on infrastructure costs by moving to a monolith environment.
The exact definition of a monolith infrastructure is currently up for debate, but I’ll leave that aside to make the point: Keep validating whether the path you’re taking is the right one. What the company has done really well is tracking whether the architecture can keep up with the company’s growth and support future growth. The answer from the engineers to this is ‘no’. This requires a few elements. Amazon Prime Video is given the space by parent company Amazon to make free decisions as a business unit about the design of their environment. This way they can say goodbye to AWS services. In addition, there is room for engineers to spend time validating the architecture, and their findings are apparently listened to and acted upon.

Continuous Validation and Evaluation

The digital backbone of an organization is exactly that: the backbone that makes or breaks everything. Companies must continuously look at the complexity of an environment, the costs, the runtime and check whether this meets the wishes, business processes and ambitions. Microservices are a very good choice if you want to switch quickly and grow, for an agile design of business processes and management. But they are not the answer to everything.
Continuous validation means, sometimes even after years, that you go back to the drawing board and renew or even redesign an architecture. This is based on three key questions.
Can the costs (for the cloud or another infrastructure) still be justified? And can those costs still be kept under control in the longer term (for example, if the company grows with expansion of services or new customers).
Is the intended scalability actually achieved? Or is it smarter to move to something simpler that better supports the current workload?
Can the company handle the chosen infrastructure in terms of management and complexity? Every environment demands different qualities.

The Benefits of Monolith Infrastructure

It’s no surprise that Amazon Prime Video has decided to switch back to a monolith infrastructure. After all, it offers a number of advantages over serverless and microservices architectures.
The first is cost. Monoliths are much cheaper to maintain and operate than serverless or microservices architectures. This is because they require fewer resources and can be scaled up or down as needed. This makes them ideal for companies that are looking to save money on infrastructure costs.
The second advantage is scalability. Monoliths are much easier to scale up or down than serverless or microservices architectures. This is because they are designed to be flexible and can be easily adapted to meet changing needs. This makes them ideal for companies that are looking to quickly scale up or down their operations.
Finally, monoliths are much easier to manage than serverless or microservices architectures. This is because they are designed to be self-contained and require less maintenance and oversight. This makes them ideal for companies that are looking for a simpler and more efficient way to manage their infrastructure.
Amazon Prime Video’s decision to switch back to a monolith infrastructure is a testament to the importance of continuous evaluation and validation. It shows that companies should not be afraid to re-evaluate their architecture and make changes when necessary. It also shows that monoliths can still be a viable option for companies that are looking to save money and simplify their infrastructure.