Aerostack vs. Traditional Infrastructure Setup

When building custom APIs, developers traditionally face days of infrastructure configuration. Here’s how Aerostack changes that equation.

The Traditional Approach

Building a production-ready API with database, cache, queue, and storage typically involves:

Step 1: Database Setup (2-4 hours)

# Choose provider (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB)
# Set up connection pooling
# Configure SSL certificates
# Write migration files
# Set up backup strategy
# Configure read replicas for scaling

Challenges:

• Connection pool management
• Migration versioning across environments
• Backup and disaster recovery
• Monitoring and alerting
• Cost optimization (reserved instances, auto-scaling)

Step 2: Cache Setup (1-2 hours)

# Provision Redis or Memcached
# Configure cluster mode for high availability
# Set up eviction policies
# Configure persistence (RDB vs AOF)
# Set up monitoring and alerts

Challenges:

• Key namespace collisions
• TTL strategy management
• Memory optimization
• Failover configuration

Step 3: Message Queue Setup (3-5 hours)

# Choose provider (SQS, RabbitMQ, Redis Queue)
# Set up queue workers
# Configure retry logic and dead letter queues
# Implement job scheduling
# Set up monitoring dashboards

Challenges:

• Worker process management
• Error handling and retries
• Job prioritization
• Scaling workers based on queue depth

Step 4: Object Storage (1-2 hours)

# Create S3/GCS buckets
# Configure CORS and permissions
# Set up CDN
# Configure lifecycle policies
# Set up access logging

Challenges:

• Permission management (IAM policies)
• CDN cache invalidation
• Cost optimization (storage classes)

Step 5: Deployment & DevOps (2-3 hours)

# Set up CI/CD pipeline
# Configure environment variables
# Set up secrets management
# Configure monitoring and logging
# Set up rate limiting
# Configure authentication

Total Time: 1-3 days minimum for experienced developers

The Aerostack Approach

Write Your API (2-5 minutes)

export default async function(sdk, event) {
  const { query, category } = event.data;
  
  // Cache is ready
  const cached = await sdk.cache.get(`search:${query}`);
  if (cached) return cached;
  
  // Database is ready
  const products = await sdk.db.query(
    'SELECT * FROM products WHERE name LIKE ? AND category = ?',
    [`%${query}%`, category]
  );
  
  // Cache with TTL
  await sdk.cache.set(`search:${query}`, products, 3600);
  
  // Enqueue background job
  await sdk.queue.enqueue('update-search-stats', { query, count: products.length });
  
  return { results: products };
}

What’s included automatically: ✅ Database (auto-scoped to your project)
✅ Cache (namespace isolation, TTL support)
✅ Queue (workers auto-managed)
✅ Secrets (encrypted storage)
✅ Rate limiting (per-endpoint configuration)
✅ Authentication (API keys or public access)
✅ Global edge deployment
✅ Monitoring and logging

Total Time: 2-5 minutes (write code → deploy)

Side-by-Side Comparison

Real-World Scenario: E-commerce Product Search

Traditional Infrastructure (AWS)

Infrastructure needed:

• RDS PostgreSQL (database)
• ElastiCache Redis (cache)
• SQS + Lambda (queue)
• S3 + CloudFront (storage)
• Secrets Manager (API keys)
• API Gateway + Lambda (API)
• CloudWatch (monitoring)

Monthly cost estimate: $200-500 for low-medium traffic

Time to production: 2-3 days for setup + ongoing maintenance

Aerostack

All infrastructure included in one SDK:

export default async function(sdk, event) {
  const { query, filters, page = 1 } = event.data;
  
  const cacheKey = `search:${query}:${JSON.stringify(filters)}:${page}`;
  const cached = await sdk.cache.get(cacheKey);
  if (cached) return cached;
  
  const results = await sdk.db.query(`
    SELECT * FROM products 
    WHERE name LIKE ? 
    AND category = ? 
    AND price BETWEEN ? AND ?
    ORDER BY popularity DESC
    LIMIT 20 OFFSET ?
  `, [`%${query}%`, filters.category, filters.minPrice, filters.maxPrice, (page - 1) * 20]);
  
  await sdk.cache.set(cacheKey, results, 3600);
  
  // Track search analytics async
  await sdk.queue.enqueue('track-search', { query, results: results.length });
  
  return { results, page };
}

Monthly cost: Included in Aerostack subscription

Time to production: 5 minutes

When to Choose Each

Choose Traditional Infrastructure When:

• ❌ You need complete control over every infrastructure detail
• ❌ You have existing infrastructure investments
• ❌ You’re building infrastructure-first architecture
• ❌ You have a dedicated DevOps team managing infrastructure

Choose Aerostack When:

• ✅ You want to focus on business logic, not DevOps
• ✅ You need production-ready infrastructure immediately
• ✅ You’re building a SaaS with 10-100 custom endpoints
• ✅ You value time-to-market and developer experience
• ✅ You want predictable pricing without infrastructure surprises
• ✅ You need pre-built APIs (auth, ecommerce) + custom logic

Developer Experience

Traditional Setup

# Every new developer needs:
- Access to AWS/GCP console
- Understanding of infrastructure architecture
- Knowledge of connection strings, secrets
- Setup local development environment
- Configure multiple services
Time: 1-2 days onboarding

Aerostack

// Every developer gets:
import { sdk } from '@aerostack/sdk';
 
// Everything just works
await sdk.db.query('...');
await sdk.cache.set('...');
await sdk.queue.enqueue('...');
 
// Time: 5 minutes to first API

Try Aerostack Free

Ready to skip the infrastructure setup?