Title

AWS re:Invent 2023 - 1.5 million requests per second—a story from the Brazilian elections (WPS305)

Summary

The session covered the Brazilian elections of 2022 and how AWS supported the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) in managing the election process.
The TSE is responsible for organizing elections and has implemented electronic voting since 1996, achieving 100% electronic voting in 2020.
AWS was involved in the preparation and distribution phases of the election process but not in the voting or vote counting.
Two projects were highlighted: the e-titulo mobile app and the result distribution system.
The e-titulo app provided digital voter IDs and allowed voters to justify their absence from voting. It faced challenges such as handling 100 million simultaneous users and 14,000 requests per second.
The result distribution system was designed to handle up to 1.5 million requests per second and distribute election results efficiently.
AWS used a serverless architecture, Amazon S3, Lambda, CloudFront, and other services to build scalable, secure, and resilient systems.
Security was a major focus, with AWS Shield Advanced and other measures ensuring the integrity of the election process.
The system successfully handled the election with zero incidents, marking a significant achievement for TSE and AWS.

The Brazilian election system is a massive-scale operation, with 156 million voters and electronic voting machines across more than 5,000 cities.
AWS's involvement in the election process demonstrates the cloud's capability to handle large-scale, mission-critical applications with high availability and security requirements.
The e-titulo mobile app's success in providing digital voter IDs and handling absence justifications shows the potential for mobile technology to streamline governmental processes.
The result distribution system's ability to handle 1.5 million requests per second without any incidents is a testament to AWS's robust infrastructure and the effectiveness of serverless architecture for high-demand scenarios.
The use of AWS Shield Advanced and other security measures underscores the importance of cybersecurity in protecting the integrity of democratic processes.
The AWS team's approach to testing, planning, and coordination, as well as their ability to adapt to changing requirements, were key factors in the successful implementation of the election systems.
The case study of the Brazilian elections provides valuable insights into how cloud services can be leveraged for large-scale events and critical operations, offering lessons for other organizations facing similar challenges.