Snapchat is a popular social media app that allows users to share photos, videos, and messages that disappear after being viewed. Since launching in 2011, Snapchat has grown to become one of the world’s most popular social media platforms, with over 265 million daily active users as of Q2 2021.
One key question about Snapchat’s technical infrastructure is whether or not the app is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS is the world’s largest cloud computing platform, offering services like server hosting, storage, databases, networking, analytics, and more. Many major apps and websites are hosted on AWS due to its scalability, reliability, and global presence.
In this article, we’ll examine the evidence to determine if Snapchat is hosted on AWS or not.
Snapchat’s Infrastructure Overview
Snapchat operates a massive technical infrastructure to support its hundreds of millions of users. Developing and operating Snapchat requires expertise in areas like application development, server management, storage, caching, databases, networking, search, scalability, reliability, and security.
While Snapchat started small, its infrastructure now spans multiple data centers and cloud platforms. Snapchat uses a hybrid cloud strategy, leveraging a mix of its own data centers and public cloud platforms.
Some key facts about Snapchat’s infrastructure include:
– Operates its own data centers but also uses public cloud platforms.
– Uses AWS for certain workloads but also uses Google Cloud.
– Has spent over $1 billion per year on Google Cloud since 2017.
– Built its own edge caching network called SnapEdge to store Snapchat content closer to users.
– Uses machine learning extensively for features like lenses and Discover content.
So while Snapchat operates some of its own data centers, it also leverages public clouds like AWS and Google Cloud for additional infrastructure capabilities.
Evidence That Snapchat Uses AWS
There are several sources of evidence indicating that Snapchat does use AWS as part of its infrastructure:
– **Job postings:** Snapchat has posted jobs looking for engineers with AWS experience. Some example job requirements include “Experience building complex systems on AWS” and “Experience with Amazon Web Services (AWS) including EC2, S3, EMR.”
– **Public case studies:** Amazon has published case studies detailing how Snapchat uses certain AWS services:
– Amazon ElastiCache for Redis: Snapchat uses this for caching to reduce latency.
– Amazon CloudFront: Snapchat uses this AWS content delivery network to cache and distribute content globally.
– **Conference sessions:** Snapchat engineers have given presentations at AWS conferences about how they leverage AWS services like Lambda, Glue, Athena, and QuickSight.
– **AWS infrastructure:** Parts of Snapchat’s infrastructure can be seen hosted on AWS, such as some of its DNS records pointing to AWS name servers.
– **Third-party analysis:** Industry analysts have examined Snapchat’s infrastructure and confirmed its use of AWS in addition to Google Cloud.
This evidence clearly shows that Snapchat does use AWS as part of its cloud infrastructure. AWS provides services like compute, storage, caching, analytics, databases, and more to complement Snapchat’s internally managed data centers.
AWS Services Used by Snapchat
Based on the available evidence, here are some of the key AWS services Snapchat utilizes as part of its infrastructure:
| AWS Service | Use Case |
|---|---|
| EC2 | Virtual machine hosting for Snapchat’s servers |
| S3 | Scalable object storage for Snapchat’s media content |
| CloudFront | Content delivery network to distribute Snapchat globally |
| ElastiCache | In-memory caching to reduce database load |
| Lambda | Serverless computing for video and image processing |
| Athena | Interactive queries against S3 data |
In addition to these services, Snapchat likely uses many other AWS managed services like Route 53, CloudWatch, AWS Direct Connect, and more. AWS provides the building blocks for Snapchat to scale while optimizing performance, security, reliability, and costs.
Evidence That Snapchat Also Uses Google Cloud
Although Snapchat does leverage AWS, industry analysis indicates it is not solely hosted on AWS and also relies on Google Cloud Platform (GCP):
– Snapchat spends over $1 billion per year on Google Cloud.
– Snapchat has discussed its use of Google Cloud products like Cloud Bigtable, Pub/Sub, Dataflow, and BigQuery.
– Google lists Snapchat as a major customer case study for its infrastructure.
– Job postings show Snapchat hires engineers with Google Cloud experience.
– Snapchat’s network traffic points to usage of Google Cloud servers.
Snapchat’s multi-cloud strategy provides flexibility and prevents vendor lock-in. Google Cloud offers competing services similar to AWS, giving Snapchat options. Using both AWS and GCP allows Snapchat to choose the best platform for each workload.
Google Cloud Services Used by Snapchat
Some of the key Google Cloud services Snapchat uses include:
– Compute Engine: Virtual machines for running applications
– Bigtable: Petabyte-scale NoSQL database
– Pub/Sub: Messaging service for real-time data ingestion
– Dataflow: Managed data processing service
– BigQuery: Data warehouse for analytics
– AI Platform: Machine learning model training and prediction
So while Snapchat runs significant workloads on AWS, it also makes extensive use of Google Cloud services for its infrastructure needs. The multi-cloud approach provides redundancy while allowing Snapchat to choose the best technologies.
Conclusion
In summary, the evidence clearly shows Snapchat operates a hybrid cloud infrastructure leveraging both AWS and Google Cloud.
Key takeaways:
– Snapchat uses AWS services like EC2, S3, ElastiCache, CloudFront, Lambda, and Athena.
– AWS provides Snapchat with scalable cloud infrastructure and services.
– Snapchat also relies extensively on Google Cloud, spending over $1 billion per year.
– Google Cloud provides additional infrastructure capabilities to complement AWS.
– Using both AWS and Google Cloud allows Snapchat to prevent vendor lock-in.
– Snapchat operates its own data centers in addition to using public cloud platforms.
So while Snapchat is not solely hosted on AWS, AWS does provide significant infrastructure and services as part of Snapchat’s hybrid cloud strategy across its own data centers and multiple public clouds. This multi-cloud approach provides Snapchat with flexibility, redundancy, and advanced capabilities to maintain its service globally.