Infrastructure Components in a Cloud-Native Architecture

Comprehensive Guide to Key Infrastructure Components in a Cloud-Native Architecture

Introduction
A well-architected cloud infrastructure ensures high availability, security, and scalability. This guide explores key components of a Kubernetes-based cloud architecture, their roles, examples, and real-world applications.

Domain & Load Balancer Domain Registry
A Domain Registry allows users to access applications using human-readable domain names (e.g., https://routeclouds.com).
Example: When a user enters https://routeclouds.com, the request is routed to the Application Load Balancer (ALB).

Application Load Balancer (ALB)

Receives external traffic and distributes it across multiple backend services.
Forwards requests to the Nginx Ingress Controller for further processing.
Example: If a user visits https://example.digit.org/login, the ALB routes the request to the relevant authentication service in Kubernetes.

Ingress & Routing Nginx Ingress Controller
Manages ingress traffic to Kubernetes clusters.
Uses Path-Based Routing to direct traffic to appropriate microservices.
Example:
- /api/v1/users → User Service
- /api/v1/orders → Order Service

Cert Manager

Automates SSL/TLS certificate management to enable secure HTTPS communication.
Example: It provisions Let's Encrypt certificates for https://routeclouds.com.

Web Application Firewall (WAF) Rules

Protects applications from common threats such as SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and DDoS attacks.
Example: A WAF rule can block malicious requests containing suspicious SQL queries.

Kubernetes Cluster (Amazon EKS) Amazon EKS Control Plane
Fully managed by AWS for high availability and scalability.
Handles API requests and schedules workloads on worker nodes.

Worker Nodes

Hosted on EC2 instances, divided into multiple groups for fault tolerance.
Example:
- Worker Node Group 1: Hosts microservices (e.g., authentication, order management).
- Worker Node Group 2: Hosts data processing services (e.g., analytics, background jobs).

Security Groups & Private Subnets

Security Groups act as a firewall to restrict unauthorized access.
Private Subnets ensure worker nodes are not directly accessible from the internet.

Database & Storage RDS PostgreSQL
Manages structured data for the application (e.g., user records, transactions).
Example: An e-commerce platform stores order details in PostgreSQL.

EBS Volumes (Elastic Block Storage)

Persistent storage for services like Kafka, Zookeeper, and Elasticsearch.
Example: Logs stored on an EBS volume can be used for debugging.

S3 Bucket

Stores logs, backups, media files, and other unstructured data.
Example: Product images and invoices in an e-commerce system are stored in S3.

Networking & Internet Access Public & Private Subnets
Private Subnet: Hosts worker nodes with no direct internet access.
Public Subnet: Hosts the NAT Gateway, allowing secure outbound internet access.

NAT Gateway

Enables private instances to access the internet securely.
Example: Worker nodes need internet access to download security patches and dependencies.

Internet Gateway

Allows public-facing services (e.g., ALB) to connect to the internet.
Example: A user accessing https://routeclouds.com reaches the application through the Internet Gateway → ALB → Kubernetes Cluster.

Use Cases & Applications

E-Commerce Platforms: Secure and scalable online stores with microservices architecture.
Banking & Finance: Secure transactions and fraud detection with WAF rules.
SaaS Applications: Multi-tenant cloud platforms with secure networking.
Healthcare Systems: HIPAA-compliant data storage with RDS PostgreSQL and S3.
Enterprise Data Processing: Real-time analytics using EKS, Kafka, and Elasticsearch.

Conclusion
A well-architected Kubernetes-based cloud infrastructure enables secure, scalable, and highly available applications. By leveraging AWS services like EKS, RDS, ALB, and S3, organizations can optimize their DevOps and cloud-native deployments efficiently.