diff --git a/services/blob/src/config.rs b/services/blob/src/config.rs
--- a/services/blob/src/config.rs
+++ b/services/blob/src/config.rs
@@ -1,18 +1,23 @@
+use anyhow::{ensure, Result};
 use aws_sdk_dynamodb::Region;
 use clap::{builder::FalseyValueParser, Parser};
 use once_cell::sync::Lazy;
 use tracing::info;
 
 use crate::constants::{
-  AWS_REGION, GRPC_SERVER_DEFAULT_PORT, LOCALSTACK_URL, SANDBOX_ENV_VAR,
+  AWS_REGION, DEFAULT_GRPC_PORT, DEFAULT_HTTP_PORT, LOCALSTACK_URL,
+  SANDBOX_ENV_VAR,
 };
 
 #[derive(Parser)]
 #[command(version, about, long_about = None)]
 pub struct AppConfig {
   /// gRPC server listening port
-  #[arg(long = "port", default_value_t = GRPC_SERVER_DEFAULT_PORT)]
-  pub grpc_port: u64,
+  #[arg(long, default_value_t = DEFAULT_GRPC_PORT)]
+  pub grpc_port: u16,
+  /// HTTP server listening port
+  #[arg(long, default_value_t = DEFAULT_HTTP_PORT)]
+  pub http_port: u16,
   /// Run the service in sandbox
   #[arg(long = "sandbox", default_value_t = false)]
   // support the env var for compatibility reasons
@@ -30,9 +35,17 @@
 
 /// Processes the command-line arguments and environment variables.
 /// Should be called at the beginning of the `main()` function.
-pub(super) fn parse_cmdline_args() {
+pub(super) fn parse_cmdline_args() -> Result<()> {
   // force evaluation of the lazy initialized config
-  Lazy::force(&CONFIG);
+  let cfg = Lazy::force(&CONFIG);
+
+  // Perform some additional validation for CLI args
+  ensure!(
+    cfg.grpc_port != cfg.http_port,
+    "gRPC and HTTP ports cannot be the same: {}",
+    cfg.grpc_port
+  );
+  Ok(())
 }
 
 /// Provides region/credentials configuration for AWS SDKs
diff --git a/services/blob/src/constants.rs b/services/blob/src/constants.rs
--- a/services/blob/src/constants.rs
+++ b/services/blob/src/constants.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 // Assorted constants
 
-pub const GRPC_SERVER_DEFAULT_PORT: u64 = 50051;
+pub const DEFAULT_GRPC_PORT: u16 = 50051;
+pub const DEFAULT_HTTP_PORT: u16 = 51001;
 pub const AWS_REGION: &str = "us-east-2";
 pub const LOCALSTACK_URL: &str = "http://localstack:4566";
 pub const MPSC_CHANNEL_BUFFER_CAPACITY: usize = 1;
diff --git a/services/blob/src/main.rs b/services/blob/src/main.rs
--- a/services/blob/src/main.rs
+++ b/services/blob/src/main.rs
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 #[tokio::main]
 async fn main() -> Result<()> {
   configure_logging()?;
-  config::parse_cmdline_args();
+  config::parse_cmdline_args()?;
 
   let aws_config = config::load_aws_config().await;
   let db = database::DatabaseClient::new(&aws_config);