1. Overview
ISKCON needed a robust and scalable receipt generation system to handle transaction data from their payment gateway and generate receipts efficiently. To meet these requirements, we designed and implemented a serverless architecture using AWS services. This system seamlessly processes transaction data, stores it securely, and generates receipts, which are then sent to users via multiple communication channels.
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2. Why Serverless
Choosing a serverless architecture for this project provided several advantages:
- Scalability: Automatically scales to handle varying loads without manual intervention.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Pay-as-you-go model ensures that ISKCON India only pays for the resources they use.
- Maintenance: Reduced operational overhead as AWS manages the infrastructure, allowing the team to focus on business logic.
- Resilience: Built-in redundancy and high availability provided by AWS services ensure reliable performance.
3. Challenges
- Integration with Payment Gateway: Handling asynchronous webhook calls from the payment gateway and ensuring data integrity.
- Real-time Processing: Processing transaction data in real-time and generating receipts quickly.
- Scalability: Ensuring the system can handle spikes in transaction volume without performance degradation.
- Notification Delivery: Sending receipts via multiple channels (email, WhatsApp, SMS) reliably.
4. Solutions
- API Gateway and Lambda: API Gateway was used to handle webhook calls from the payment gateway. Lambda functions processed these calls, ensuring data is handled securely and efficiently.
- Amazon SQS: Implemented Amazon SQS to manage the queue for transaction processing, ensuring decoupling and reliable message handling.
- DynamoDB: Used DynamoDB to store transaction data securely and provide fast access for further processing.
- Amazon S3: Stored generated receipts in Amazon S3, providing a scalable and durable storage solution.
- SNS for Notifications: Utilized Amazon SNS to send notifications via email, WhatsApp, and SMS, ensuring users receive their receipts promptly.
5. Results
- Improved Efficiency: The serverless architecture streamlined the receipt generation process, reducing processing time and ensuring receipts are generated in real-time.
- Scalability and Reliability: The system seamlessly handled varying transaction volumes, ensuring consistent performance without manual intervention.
- Cost Savings: The pay-as-you-go model resulted in significant cost savings, as ISKCON India only paid for the resources used.
- Enhanced User Experience: Timely delivery of receipts via multiple communication channels improved user satisfaction and engagement.
This case study demonstrates how leveraging AWS serverless architecture can address the challenges of transaction processing and receipt generation, providing a scalable, cost-effective, and reliable solution for organizations like ISKCON India.