How to run Amazon Echo inside a private network without AWS

Question

I'm trying to use Amazon Echo for a utility project within my company. I have a bunch of intranet sites that I intend to gather information from and develop custom skills to let user query for data. But the client jar (I'm using java) needs to be uploaded to AWS to create a Lambda function and only then that custom skill can be used. This will not work as my jar needs to consume webservices from these intranet systems.

Is there a way to run Echo within the private network without using AWS? I tried to find any relevant information on the internet/stackoverflow, but could not.

Answer 1

You can create a custom skill with an endpoint either in Lambda or on a publicly reachable network. So you have a few choices here.

1) You can develop your skill on Lambda, and open up a (suitably secure) gateway in your corporate firewall to allows access to the intranet resources you need.

2) Develop your skill as a web service (using Java, Python, node.js or other language) and host it within your corporate intranet. Then open up a (suitably secure) gateway in your corporate firewall to make that endpoint publicly accessible. Point your skill at that.

2a) There are a lot of complications creating a web endpoint that have to do with SSL certifications. A route many people (including myself) take is to create a proxy service in Lambda. Your point your skill at Lambda, and then point Lambda at your web service.

Your success with this will mostly depend on how closely you can work with your corporate IT to open holes in your firewall. If you are in a big company, that can be hard. But there really isn't any way around it if you need real-time live access to internal web services.