AWS Solution Architect
Associate Certification Training
– Module 23
23. Lambda
Introduction to Lambda
AWS Lambda is a compute service that lets you run code without provisioning or managing
servers. AWS Lambda executes your code only when needed and scales automatically, from a few
requests per day to thousands per second. You pay only for the compute time you consume - there
is no charge when your code is not running. With AWS Lambda, you can run code for virtually any
type of application or backend service - all with zero administration. AWS Lambda runs your code
on a high-availability compute infrastructure and performs all of the administration of the compute
resources, including server and operating system maintenance, capacity provisioning and
automatic scaling, code monitoring and logging. All you need to do is supply your code in one of
the languages that AWS Lambda supports.
You can use AWS Lambda to run your code in response to events, such as changes to data in an
Amazon S3 bucket or an Amazon DynamoDB table; to run your code in response to HTTP requests
using Amazon API Gateway; or invoke your code using API calls made using AWS SDKs. With these
capabilities, you can use Lambda to easily build data processing triggers for AWS services like
Amazon S3 and Amazon DynamoDB, process streaming data stored in Kinesis, or create your own
back end that operates at AWS scale, performance, and security.
When Should I Use AWS Lambda?
AWS Lambda is an ideal compute platform for many application scenarios, provided that you can
write your application code in languages supported by AWS Lambda, and run within the AWS
Lambda standard runtime environment and resources provided by Lambda.
When using AWS Lambda, you are responsible only for your code. AWS Lambda manages the
compute fleet that offers a balance of memory, CPU, network, and other resources. This is in
exchange for flexibility, which means you cannot log in to compute instances, or customize the
operating system or language runtime. These constraints enable AWS Lambda to perform
operational and administrative activities on your behalf, including provisioning capacity,
monitoring fleet health, applying security patches, deploying your code, and monitoring and
logging your Lambda functions.
If you need to manage your own compute resources, Amazon Web Services also offers other
compute services to meet your needs.
Benefits
NO SERVERS TO MANAGE
AWS Lambda automatically runs your code without requiring you to provision or manage servers.
Just write the code and upload it to Lambda.
CONTINUOUS SCALING
AWS Lambda automatically scales your application by running code in response to each trigger.
Your code runs in parallel and processes each trigger individually, scaling precisely with the size of
the workload.
SUBSECOND METERING
With AWS Lambda, you are charged for every 100ms your code executes and the number of times
your code is triggered. You don't pay anything when your code isn't running.