Cloud computing services are currently among the most sought-after technological solutions by companies worldwide. Moving from expensive, physical servers to the cloud is attractive enough for anyone, and this is precisely what Amazon Web Services, or AWS, offers its users.
One of the many services offered on AWS is Lambda, a computing service that allows its users to run code without having to resort to server management or pre-provisioning. It was created in 2014 and among its many benefits stands out the possibility of executing the code only when necessary and paying for the time it is running, nothing more, avoiding unnecessary expenses.
Main features of AWS Lambda
Among its main functions and features, is that AWS Lambda can maintain event integrations or manage execution times without problems. Also:
- Run code without provisioning or managing servers.
- Create workload-based cluster scaling logic.
- With Lambda, you can run code for almost any type of back-end application or service without having to do any administration.
- You can write Lambda functions in Node.js, Python, Go, Java, and more.
"By combining AWS Lambda with other AWS services, developers can build high-capacity web applications that automatically scale and run in a highly available configuration across multiple data centers, without the need for administrative tasks in terms of scaling, backups, etc. or redundancy with multiple data centers," they explained on the Amazon Lambda website.
AWS Lambda Components
AWS Lambda is characterized by being serverless, provisioningless, and function-based. Its main use is located in the computing layer of an application which does not have a server, in addition to its main purpose is to create applications based on events and that have the possibility of being activated by various AWS events.
If the situation of having multiple concurrent events arises, AWS Lambda will trigger multiple copies of the function, making Lambda a Function of Service (FaaS) type.
Its three main components are:
- Function: this is where the actual code that performs the task lives.
- Configuration: This component specifies how the function is to be executed.
- Event Source: This is the event that triggers the function and can be triggered by multiple AWS services or a third-party service. It is an optional component; it does not have to be added in all cases.
When do I need to use AWS Lambda?
AWS Lambda is a versatile technological tool, so it can be used in multiple cases and situations, such as the following:
- Log transfers where a lambda function is called every time there is a new log event in CloudWatch to transfer the logs to tools like Elasticsearch and Kibana.
- A website where you can invoke your Lambda function over HTTP using Amazon API Gateway as the HTTP endpoint.
- Mobile applications where you can create a Lambda function to process events published by your custom application.
One of the attractions of AWS Lambda is that it greatly reduces the cost of operations, but why? This is how an article from the Simform portal explains it: “The main benefit of AWS Lambda is that it eliminates the need for traditional IT services, which reduces operating costs and complexity. This translates into many benefits, such as faster development, easier operational management, scalability, and reduced operational costs."
Rootstack has a team of experts in all AWS services, who have contributed to multiple projects for our clients, solving different technological problems. Do not hesitate and contact us, let's start working together to take your company to the new digital plane.
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