What's changed: In-scope service coverage (axis B): added Kinesis Data Streams streaming definition, role, and selection vs SQS/SNS/Firehose to s2 (EventBridge).
2.2Event-Driven Architecture with EventBridge
Understand event-driven design with Amazon EventBridge: event buses and rules (pattern matching), scheduling, and routing to targets.
Amazon EventBridge routes events by rules from many services and apps to handlers, enabling serverless, loosely coupled event-driven designs.
2.2.1Event bus and rules
- Event bus: the channel events flow on; receives events from AWS services, your apps, and SaaS (partners).
- Rules: select events matching an event pattern (JSON match) and send them to targets.
- Schedule: trigger periodic runs via cron/rate expressions (formerly CloudWatch Events).
- Targets: route to many (Lambda/SQS/SNS/Step Functions); a schema registry manages event types.
EventBridge is an "event router." An event bus receives events from AWS services, your apps, and SaaS, and rules (event patterns) declaratively decide which events go to which targets. The difference from SNS: SNS is "simple fan-out to topic subscribers," while EventBridge filters on event content (fields) and routes to many AWS services. It also runs scheduled jobs via cron/rate (from the former CloudWatch Events). Use EventBridge for service integration, content-based routing, and scheduling; use SNS for simple fan-out.
| Goal | Choice |
|---|---|
| Route by event content | EventBridge rules |
| Periodic run (cron) | EventBridge schedule |
| Simple fan-out to many | SNS |
| Buffer & process once | SQS |
Scenario: event-driven integration. To route by event content—e.g., "invoke fraud-check Lambda only when order amount ≥ threshold"—use an EventBridge rule. For nightly batch aggregation, trigger Lambda via an EventBridge schedule (cron). But if you just broadcast a confirmation to inventory/billing/notify, SNS suffices. Choose by whether content-based routing or AWS-service integration is needed.
Watch the mix-ups: (1) EventBridge (content-based routing, AWS-service integration, scheduling) vs SNS (simple fan-out). (2) Periodic runs = EventBridge schedule (formerly CloudWatch Events). (3) EventBridge is a push router, distinct from SQS (buffering)—though SQS can be a target.
Q. EventBridge vs SNS? SNS is simple topic-subscription fan-out; EventBridge filters on event content and routes to many targets (plus scheduling). Q. Periodic runs? EventBridge schedule (cron/rate). Q. What do rules match on? Event patterns (JSON match conditions).
Common on DVA: route events by content = EventBridge rules, periodic runs = EventBridge schedule (formerly CloudWatch Events), simple broadcast = SNS. EventBridge for content/service routing; SNS for simple fan-out.
2.2.2High-volume streaming: Kinesis Data Streams
Whereas EventBridge and SNS/SQS handle individual events/messages, Kinesis Data Streams fits streaming—a continuous high-volume flow of records per second (clickstreams, IoT telemetry, logs). Kinesis Data Streams is an ordered, durable stream that ingests in parallel across shards, and—within the retention window—multiple consumers can re-read the same data repeatedly (replay). Independent apps can process the same stream separately, so real-time aggregation and archival can run side by side. Rule of thumb: streaming needing order, replay, and massive parallelism = Kinesis Data Streams; reliable one-at-a-time decoupling = SQS; simple fan-out notifications = SNS. If you only need to deliver records as-is to S3/OpenSearch without code, choose Data Firehose.
| What you want | Choice |
|---|---|
| Ordered, replayable, high-parallel streaming | Amazon Kinesis Data Streams |
| Reliable one-at-a-time decoupling | Amazon SQS |
| No-code delivery to S3/OpenSearch | Amazon Data Firehose |
2.2.3Section summary
- EventBridge = route to many targets via event-pattern rules (content-based)
- Strong at scheduled (cron) runs and AWS integration; simple broadcast = SNS
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Quick check
(just a quick review)Q1. Which service routes events from AWS services/apps to targets by matching patterns?
Q2. You want to run a Lambda every night at a fixed time. What fits best?
Q3. What does an EventBridge rule use to select events?