Key learnings when building a serverless cloud platform on AWS
- Alyssa Dunn
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Startup healthcare app builds on the right foundation
If you want your MVP or pre-launch app to scale smoothly, stay secure, and be easy to manage as it grows, it all starts with laying the right cloud infrastructure foundations from day one.
We recently worked with a healthcare tech startup to design and deploy a serverless AWS platform to support their new pathology web application.
While they’re still finalising development, the infrastructure foundations we put in place offer practical takeaways for any team building cloud-native apps that need to scale with confidence.
KEY LEARNINGS
Start with a Solid Cloud Foundation
We built a secure, multi-account AWS Landing Zone using AWS Organisations—ensuring governance, access control, and logging were baked in from day one.
Design for Development Velocity
Two fully serverless environments (Dev/Test and UAT) were deployed using:
AWS App Runner for backend containers
AWS Amplify for frontend deployment
GitHub integration for CI/CD automation
RDS (PostgreSQL) for database needs
Lambda to eliminate the need for EC2
CloudWatch for observability
Reduce Operational Overhead
Choosing App Runner and Amplify over EC2-based stacks eliminated unnecessary infrastructure management. This serverless setup ensures agility while maintaining enough control for regulated environments.
Prioritise Security & Resilience from Day One
From identity management, public and private subnets and native firewalls to multi-tier backups and multi-AZ high-availability, everything was designed with security and resilience in mind, essential for apps in healthcare or other regulated sectors.
Cloud Architecture Matters
The cloud architecture decisions you make early on directly impact your ability to adapt, scale, and ship quickly so make sure you build with the future in mind.
BUSINESS OUTCOMES
Scalability & Reliability – The serverless architecture scales on demand, optimising performance and cost.
Seamless Deployment & Automation – Developers can push code changes to GitHub and have them instantly deployed via AWS App Runner and Amplify.
Enhanced Security & Compliance – A secure AWS Landing Zone now enforces best practices for identity management, governance, and monitoring.
Reduced Operational Overhead – With App Runner and Amplify managing deployments, the dev team can stay focused on shipping features—not infrastructure.
By leveraging AWS App Runner, Amplify, RDS, Lambda and S3, Habitat3 delivered a reliable, scalable, and secure serverless platform. This solution empowers the dev team to accelerate development, reduce cloud complexity, and stay focused on bringing their pathology application to life—without the burden of manual infrastructure management.
Learn more about how different cloud architectures could suit your application hosting needs at:Â https://www.habitat3.com.au/aws-cloud-architectures
