Building a Mini Vercel-Inspired Cloud Hosting Platform - A Technical Deep Dive

Table of contents

Introduction

Creating a cloud hosting platform similar to Vercel involves orchestrating a complex ecosystem of services and technologies. This technical deep dive explores the architecture, AWS services integration, scaling strategies, and advanced features that form the backbone of such a system.

Core Architecture Components

The platform consists of three main components working in harmony:

1. The Builder
2. The Main Server
3. The Proxy

Each component interacts with various AWS services to provide a seamless deployment and hosting experience.

The Builder: Compilation and Packaging

The Builder, implemented as a Docker container, runs on AWS Elastic Container Service (ECS) and handles application compilation and packaging. Its workflow includes:

• Repository cloning
• Dependency installation
• Build command execution

Here’s how the Builder handles S3 uploads:

const { S3Client, PutObjectCommand } = require('@aws-sdk/client-s3');

async function uploadToS3(filePath, s3Key) {
  const fileContent = await fs.readFile(filePath);
  const command = new PutObjectCommand({
    Bucket: process.env.AWS_BUCKET_NAME,
    Key: s3Key,
    Body: fileContent,
    ContentType: mime.lookup(filePath) || 'application/octet-stream'
  });
  await s3Client.send(command);
}

The Main Server: Orchestration and Management

The Main Server orchestrates incoming requests and manages the build process, leveraging several AWS services:

1. AWS ECS for Builder container management
2. AWS S3 for application storage
3. AWS CloudFront for CDN capabilities
4. AWS Route 53 for DNS management

Example of ECS task initiation:

const { ECSClient, RunTaskCommand } = require('@aws-sdk/client-ecs');

const command = new RunTaskCommand({
  cluster: process.env.ECS_CLUSTER,
  taskDefinition: process.env.ECS_TASK_DEFINITION,
  launchType: 'FARGATE',
  networkConfiguration: {
    awsvpcConfiguration: {
      assignPublicIp: 'ENABLED',
      subnets: process.env.ECS_SUBNETS.split(','),
      securityGroups: [process.env.ECS_SECURITY_GROUP],
    },
  },
  overrides: {
    containerOverrides: [
      {
        name: 'builder-container',
        environment: [
          { name: 'GIT_REPOSITORY_URL', value: gitURL },
          { name: 'PROJECT_ID', value: projectSlug },
        ],
      },
    ],
  },
});

await ecsClient.send(command);

The Proxy: Request Handling and Content Delivery

The Proxy serves as the entry point for incoming requests, interfacing with S3 and CloudFront. Here’s how it routes requests:

const proxy = httpProxy.createProxy()

app.use((req, res) => {
    const hostname = req.hostname;
    const subdomain = hostname.split('.')[0];
    const resolvesTo = `${BASE_PATH}/${subdomain}`
    return proxy.web(req, res, { target: resolvesTo, changeOrigin: true })
})

proxy.on('proxyReq', (proxyReq, req, res) => {
    const url = req.url;
    if (url === '/')
        proxyReq.path += 'index.html'
})

CDN Integration and Global Distribution

AWS CloudFront integration provides:

• Global network of edge locations
• Automatic content distribution
• Reduced latency through nearest-edge serving
• Integrated S3 bucket origins

Scaling Strategies

The platform implements multiple scaling approaches:

1. Auto-scaling ECS Clusters

   • Dynamic container scaling
   • Load-based resource allocation

2. S3 and CloudFront Scaling

   • Automatic traffic handling
   • Built-in distributed architecture

3. Database Sharding

   • Load distribution
   • Improved query performance

4. Queue-based Build Management

   • AWS SQS implementation
   • Fair resource distribution
   • System overload prevention

Advanced Features

Real-time Build Logs

• Redis implementation
• Live build process monitoring
• Developer feedback system

Security Implementation

• AWS IAM role configuration
• Security group management
• VPC isolation

Future Considerations

Serverless Functions

• AWS Lambda integration
• API Gateway implementation
• Function deployment strategy

Multi-region Deployment

• Infrastructure replication
• Geographic distribution
• Intelligent routing systems

Conclusion

Building a Vercel-like cloud hosting platform requires deep understanding of:

• Cloud architecture principles
• AWS service integration
• Containerization strategies
• Distributed systems design

Success depends on creating a flexible, scalable architecture that maintains performance, reliability, and security while adapting to changing requirements and increasing loads.

The platform demonstrates how modern cloud services can be orchestrated to create a powerful, developer-friendly hosting solution that rivals established platforms in functionality and efficiency.