Vercel & AWS
We default to a hybrid Vercel + AWS architecture for most projects. Vercel handles Next.js applications, edge functions for AI features, and the deployment-iteration loop that makes shipping fast. AWS handles everything that needs deeper infrastructure control — managed databases, GPU compute, long-running services, S3-resident data, anything where the cloud-native primitives matter more than the developer experience. The split keeps shipping fast for the front-end while the back-end runs on enterprise-grade infrastructure with the compliance posture clients actually need. We've migrated all-AWS clients to add Vercel for the front-end, and all-Vercel clients to push back-end workloads onto AWS — both directions work fine.
What you get
Real examples
Hybrid Vercel + AWS for an AI-powered SaaS
Illustrative scenario: an Australian fintech ships an AI underwriting product. Next.js front-end + AI orchestration on Vercel; managed Postgres + S3 + Bedrock on AWS Sydney; cross-account VPC peering for security. Front-end ships daily; back-end gets the slower compliance-reviewed cadence. Each cloud does what it's best at.
All-AWS for sovereign-data compliance
Illustrative scenario: a federal-government-adjacent client requires all infrastructure within their AWS account in Sydney. Next.js deployed via AWS Amplify or self-hosted on ECS, no Vercel involved. We give up the iteration speed for the compliance posture; the trade-off is explicit and managed.
All-Vercel for a fast-moving startup
Illustrative scenario: a Series A startup is shipping weekly to test product-market fit. All workloads on Vercel + Supabase for the first 12-18 months — fastest iteration loop available. As they hit scale or compliance milestones, we plan the back-end migration to AWS deliberately, not panic-mode.
Common questions
Why hybrid rather than all-AWS?
AWS Amplify / ECS / Elastic Beanstalk are perfectly capable of hosting Next.js, but the deployment iteration loop is meaningfully slower than Vercel — preview environments, instant rollbacks, edge function deploy speed. For front-end / AI orchestration work where shipping speed matters, Vercel beats AWS on the developer-experience axis. AWS wins on the back-end where the cloud-native primitives matter more than DX.
Data sovereignty — can we go all-Vercel?
Vercel runs on AWS underneath, and offers regional deployment to Australia for the right tier. For most commercial workloads this clears the residency bar. For strict government / regulated work, we'd typically want the back-end on AWS Sydney directly (full audit trail, your-account-your-IAM) and use Vercel only for the front-end edge rendering.
Vercel's costs at scale — when do they get out of hand?
Above $5-10K/month, Vercel's per-function-invocation pricing can outpace self-hosted equivalents. Common solutions: reduce serverless function invocations by caching aggressively, route heavy compute to AWS instead, or negotiate enterprise pricing. The hybrid model often lands here organically — keep the cheap stuff on Vercel, push the expensive workloads to AWS.
Can you migrate us off Vercel if we outgrow it?
Yes — Next.js runs anywhere Node runs. We've migrated to AWS ECS, AWS Amplify, GCP Cloud Run, and self-hosted Kubernetes. The migration is typically 2-4 weeks for a mid-sized app. The Vercel-specific features (edge functions, preview deployments) need replacing with equivalents but the application code rarely needs to change.
How do you handle AWS account structure for clients?
AWS Organizations with separate accounts per environment (dev, staging, prod) and strict IAM federation through the management account. For multi-product clients, separate AWS accounts per product. Vercel sits in its own Vercel team / project per environment. Cross-account access via assumed roles, not shared credentials.
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