Amazon SNS

What is Amazon SNS?

Amazon SNS (Amazon Simple Notification Service) is a fully managed pub/sub messaging service that can be used to send out notifications to end users using multiple messaging channels like mobile push, SMS, and email.

How To Use Amazon SNS? (Features)

• Event sources and destinations – Amazon SNS is an event-driven computing hub that has a local affiliation with a wide variety of other event sources. The subscriber services spontaneously perform work just as they receive events prompted by publisher services. Amazon SNS event source services include database, networking, computing, storage, analytics and many more.
• Message filtering – This feature provides the subscriber with an opportunity of filtering. With the help of this, the subscriber receives only the notifications of his interest instead of receiving every single message about the topic. This feature is time-saving as unnecessary messages are ignored.
• Message privacy – It provides encrypted topics so that your messages are protected from uncertified and unknown access. This feature gives additional security and aids to advance the privacy of data. When a certain topic is encrypted, messages sent to that topic are quickly encrypted by Amazon SNS. The process of encryption occurs on a server. The Amazon SNS messages can also be published privately.
• Mobile notifications – It is a cost-effective system that lets you display mobile push notifications to Android, iOS or Windows. You can even fan out SMS and e-mail to more than 200 countries.  Message fan-out occurs when a message is sent to a topic, duplicated and sent to several endpoints.

Pros (Advantages)

• Message delivery and storage – Amazon SNS has the ability of high message substantiality. Its topics are highly available to your applications whenever needed. All the messages are additionally stored on multiple servers and data centers.
• Filter – It helps you offload redundant messages by notifying you about the messages of your interest rather than all the messages related to the topic. It assists to filter messages in an automated and encrypted manner. 
• Message software – It does not require the need to install, configure, or even update your messaging software.

Cons (Disadvantages)

• Message limit – It has a limit for SMS and subscribers and publishers find the tool hard to navigate. 
• Undelivered messages – You may even be paid for undelivered messages if you accidentally attempted to send it to a phone number that does not exist or a landline number.
• Troubleshooting networking problems – Troubleshooting networking problems also provide difficulty with any SNS issue. It leaves the issue for you to resolve if any message fails to deliver as it gives you very slight information regarding it. 
• Web Push – It does not support web push notification from your website to your visitors.

How Does Amazon SNS Work? (Conclusion)

Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) gives the user an easy system to set up, incorporate and send notifications. An easy mechanism is provided to developers to run an efficient notification system. It is instantaneous, inexpensive, and can be integrated with applications. With multiple transfer protocols, it provides a smooth message delivery. A highly private and readily available tool is availed by many companies worldwide.

How Much It Costs? (Pricing)

You don’t have to pay anything upfront. Amazon SNS has a “pay as you go” model where you pay based on the number of notifications you publish, the number of notifications you deliver, and any additional API calls. Delivery pricing varies by endpoint type. You can get started for free with the SNS free tier.

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