How are people using AWS Lambda
Published: 2019-10-17 19:15:27

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title: How are people using AWS Lambda
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<p>A study conducted in 2017 estimated that there would be around <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/29/secret-successful-app-economy.html">2.93 million apps</a> in Apple's App Store by the end of that year. The study also estimated that this number would grow to over 5 million by 2020.</p>
<p>So why are we even mentioning this right now?</p>
<p>Because more applications today are relying on serverless architectures than you think. Even some big brands have started to go serverless.</p>
<p>Don't believe us?</p>
<p>Take a look at these real-world serverless examples. You might be surprised to find out which giants are relying on this technology.</p>
<h2>Marbot the Serverless Slack Bot</h2>
<p>Slack is a cloud-based platform that provides teams with tools they can use to collaborate. It has become a popular business solution for small companies.</p>
<p>The Slack Bots the app relies on are some of the platform's most defining features. And there's one bot, in particular, that is a serverless application:</p>
<p>Slack's marbot.</p>
<img src="https://cloudonaut.io/images/2016/09/marbot-overview.png">
<p>This bot sends notifications from AWS to development and operations teams by way of Slack. The bot integrates with cloud applications such as: </p>
<ul><li>CloudWatch Events</li>
<li>Auto Scaling Notifications</li>
<li>CloudWatch Alarms</li>
</ul><p>Lambda Expressions plays an essential part in this process. And if you want to know more about Lambda Expressions, you should <a href="https://dashbird.io/blog/what-is-a-lambda-expression/">check out this blog post</a>. It will help you understand why Lambda is so important when building serverless apps.</p>
<h2>Audiobooks With Amazon Polly</h2>
<img src="https://d2908q01vomqb2.cloudfront.net/f1f836cb4ea6efb2a0b1b99f41ad8b103eff4b59/2017/11/24/polly-social-1024x512.jpg">
<p>Amazon has become a giant, and in more than one way. From sporting goods to scented candles, it sells everything buyers could ever want.</p>
<p>And let's not forget about its hold on the audiobook market. As of 2018, its Audible service was the largest seller of narrated books. The service had sold <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2018/01/23/listen-up-amazon-google-play-coming-after-audible-own-audio-books-offering/1054975001/">more than 400,000 titles</a>.</p>
<p>Now Amazon is looking to expand its hold on the audiobook with Amazon Polly.</p>
<p>Amazon Polly is one of Amazon's first AI services. This service turns text into realistic speech. And it relies on Amazon Web Services' CloudFormation to do so.</p>
<p>The process of how Amazon Polly accomplishes this task is somewhat complex. That said, you can take a look at <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/create-audiobooks-with-amazon-polly-and-aws-batch/">how it works</a> on Amazon's official blog. </p>
<h2>Message-Driven Apps</h2>
<p>Technically speaking, this real-world example is pretty general. There are, after all, several message-driven apps. And there's nothing that says that every single message-driven app uses serverless technology. </p>
<p>But many message-driven apps rely on serverless tech, and for a good reason. Message-driven applications typically have to collect several pieces of information at once.</p>
<p>Advertisement platforms are a great example in this case. When you click on an advertisement, the platform must redirect you to a new web page. But the platform must also simultaneously record the fact that you clicked on that advertisement.</p>
<p>Why? </p>
<p>Because the platform has to charge the advertiser for each click in a PPC campaign. </p>
<p>This simultaneous collection of information is what serverless technology excels at. The technology processes multiple messages in parallel. </p>
<h2>Want More Real-World Serverless Examples?</h2>
<p>There are several more real-world serverless examples we could provide. But there are way too many for us to list them all here.</p>
<p>That's how popular serverless technology has become.</p>
<p>In any case, feel free to browse our site for other examples. We've discussed other companies' use of serverless technologies in the past (<a href="https://dashbird.io/blog/serverless-case-study-netflix/">Netflix</a>, Coca-Cola, etc.). </p>
<p>And if you've used serverless technology before, let us know what your experience was in the comments section below. We'd love to get another perspective on the tech.  </p>