What is AWS Lambda
Tags: beginners, devops, aws, community
Published: 2022-10-28 08:02:18

AWS Lambda is an event-driven, serverless computing platform provided by Amazon as a part of Amazon Web Services. It is a computing service that runs code in response to events and automatically manages the computing resources required by that code.

Developers can start using AWS Lambda services, either by uploading the code or coding directly in the Lambda’s code editor and mention the conditions triggers the code. The code executed on the lambda run time environment is called a lambda function. With this any event can prompt your function, without developers worrying about handling the server or  getting the right type of application or resource. Meaning that businesses don’t have to pay when your code is not running, thereby saving on server costs.

Once an event triggers, Lambda runs associated code by picking resources to execute an event, by making use of  the best resources available in the infrastructure ecosystem. Thereby enabling businesses to have intelligent management of IT infrastructure. The AWS Lambda run-time environment's control plane entity consists of APIs that facilitate AWS resources for the application execution. Another key aspect of run time environment is data pane, this provides APIs to run the functions. Whenever a function is called to run a function, data pane facilitates either a dedicated execution environment or uses the allotted one. This execution environment is never shared with other functions.

**AWS Lambda Benefit**

1.Users can run the applications either from the web or in a mobile platform.

2.Lambda makes use of AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) module to ensure that only the right users or groups get access to the application or function.

3.Lambda speeds up the execution process and scales your application or code, by executing the events triggering a particular code.
Developers don't have to focus on infrastructure to run an application, allowing them to focus on business logic.

4.Strong APIs enable user applications to easily integrate with innovative AWS services like AI and machine learning to develop intelligent business applications or add intelligence into your applications.

**AWS Lambda Limitations**

There’s no piece of technology without some limitations, and AWS Lambda is certainly no exception to the rule. Let’s quickly cover some of its important limitations.

For starters, the Lambda function deployment package size is limited at 50MB, already zipped. Additionally, the maximum value allowed for function timeout is 900 seconds (15 minutes), being that the default is 3 seconds.

Another important limitation of AWS Lambda is the overhead of calling the function for the first time, which is often called “cold start.” You can read more about these limits on the AWS Lambda limits page by Amazon.

In general, the other limitations are more about the serverless architecture itself, which lends itself well to more short-lived applications. That’s why Lambda functions are short-lived, so you have to resort to other services for persistence, such as the already-mentioned DynamoDB.

A final potential limitation of AWS Lambda has to do with monitoring. As mentioned, it only logs to CloudWatch, which might create generate some friction for your monitoring needs. Fortunately, that’s not a problem if you use Scalyr’s log management solution. Among many valuable features, Scalyr has the ability to import CloudWatch logs, allowing you to have a centralized view of your serverless infrastructure.

For more information on Lambda refer here https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/