{"id":175616,"date":"2023-12-22T22:47:01","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T21:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/liora.io\/en\/?p=175616"},"modified":"2026-08-09T18:49:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:49:29","slug":"amazon-sns-the-messaging-service-connected-to-aws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/liora.io\/en\/amazon-sns-the-messaging-service-connected-to-aws","title":{"rendered":"Amazon SNS: The messaging service connected to AWS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Amazon SNS is a service for sending push notifications from an application to the end user or other programs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

It’s a comprehensive messaging service that enables communication between applications (A<\/strong>application T<\/strong>o A<\/strong>application , A2A<\/strong>) or persons (A<\/strong>application T<\/strong>o P<\/strong>erson , A2B<\/strong>). It allows you to create topics (i.e. subjects) that will be the logical access and communication channel. <\/p>\n\n\n

SNS uses the pub\/sub<\/strong> paradigm (publish \/ subscribe<\/strong>) for message delivery. This principle establishes that publishers (publishers<\/strong>) send messages via common communication channels called “topic” (topic<\/strong>), while subscribers (subscribers<\/strong>) automatically receive messages corresponding to the topics for which they are subscribed.<\/p>\n\n\n

We can visualize the topics<\/strong> as a virtual “mailbox” that allows individual subscribers to retrieve messages without having to communicate directly with the editors. In this way, each subscriber can specify the types of messages they wish to receive, via their various subscriptions.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Source
Source : aws.amazon.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Definition of important terminology <\/h2>\n\n\n

It’s important to understand certain terms related to messaging services before proceeding. The table below will help you understand these key terms:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/tr>\n\n\n<\/tr>\n\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n

The diagram below perfectly illustrates the elements provided above:<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Source
Source : aws.amazon.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

What are the features of AWS SNS?<\/h2>\n\n\n

Here are some of the key features of AWS SNS:<\/p>\n\n\n

Term<\/th>\nDescription<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Publisher\"Illustration<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • The publisher is the entity responsible for sending messages on various topics and endpoints. We can think of a publisher as a person who sends messages to a mailbox.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
      • Endpoints can be emails, SMS, HTTP, mobile applications, or other Amazon services (such as Lambda or SQS).<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Subscriber\"Illustration<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • The subscriber is the entity that receives published messages on a topic. We can think of the subscriber as a person who retrieves their mail from their mailbox.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
      • Subscribers subscribe to a topic in order to receive messages.<\/li>\n
      • By default, SNS offers 10 million subscriptions per topic.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Topic\"Illustration<\/td>\n\n
    \n
  • The topic is the communication channel that allows publishers to publish their messages and subscribers to receive them. We could imagine this as a shared mailbox among several people, where each person can receive letters addressed to them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
      • By default, SNS offers 100,000 topics per account.<\/li>\n
      • Except for SMS messages, Amazon SNS messages can contain a maximum of 256 KB of text data, including XML, JSON, or plain text format.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Feature<\/th>\nAmazon SNS\"Icon<\/th>\nAmazon SQS\"Icon<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Model<\/td>\nPub \/ Sub<\/td>\nQueue<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Primary Use<\/td>\nSending messages and notifications to multiple recipients<\/td>\nQueue management for message delivery<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Distribution<\/td>\nAll subscribers receive messages<\/td>\nMessages are consumed by one consumer at a time<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Communication Protocols<\/td>\nHTTP, HTTPS, email, SMS, mobile, push, etc.<\/td>\nAmazon SQS, HTTP, HTTPS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Message Format<\/td>\nJSON, XML, plain text, etc.<\/td>\nJSON, XML, plain text, etc.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Message Processing<\/td>\nNo built-in processing, but can be coupled with Amazon AWS Lambda<\/td>\nBuilt-in processing via customizable processing workers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Capacity Management<\/td>\nDynamically adjustable<\/td>\nManaged by the number of workers and the number of queues<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n

In short, Amazon SNS is designed to send messages to multiple recipients via a pub\/sub messaging model, while Amazon SQS is designed to manage message queues, with a FIFO (first-in, first-out) messaging model.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Illustration<\/figure>\n\n\n

They can be used together to create a complex, highly scalable messaging architecture.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

As we have just seen, SNS enables a message to be published to different supported endpoints. When an SQS queue subscribes to an SNS topic<\/strong>, every message sent by that SNS topic joins the queue, along with the message body and its various attributes.<\/p>\n\n\n

The message is then almost guaranteed to be correctly distributed. “Almost”, because the SQS queue may be unavailable. In this case, Amazon SNS will make new attempts (exactly 100,010 attempts over 23 days) before the message is deleted.<\/p>\n\n\n

If your queue is unavailable for such a long time, you most likely have a problem with your messaging infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n

For more information on Amazon SQS, read our article on the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n

How can I integrate AWS SNS? \n<\/h2>\n\n\n

As you probably know, one of the great strengths of Amazon AWS is the possible integration and joint operation between its various services. SNS is no exception to this rule, and can be easily integrated with different AWS services to create a complete system. Here are a few examples of possible integrations.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Illustration<\/figure>\n\n\n

Amazon SNS messages can be used as triggers for AWS Lambda functions that perform various operations.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Illustration<\/figure>\n\n\n

As we’ve just discussed, Amazon SNS and SQS are often used together, one for publishing messages, the other for queuing them.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Illustration<\/figure>\n\n\n

If an EC2 instance, database or other resource fails, Amazon SNS can be used to alert system administrators via Cloudwatch.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Illustration<\/figure>\n\n\n

Amazon SNS can publish notifications of events related to the infrastructure (AWS Elastic Beanstalk service, for example).<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Illustration<\/figure>\n\n\n

Your users using your S3 resources can be notified of new events (uploading or modifying information in an S3 bucket, for example).<\/p>\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n

AWS SNS is a powerful and versatile messaging tool that enables messages to be sent to multiple endpoints (such as email, SMS, SQS queues, mobile applications, etc.). Amazon SNS can also be integrated with other AWS services to create resilient, scalable communication architectures.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n

Related articles<\/p>\n\n\n