In the digital era, companies need to reach a new level of efficiency and agility. The migration to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud is becoming the starter stage. And solutions from its ecosystem, such as AWS Lambda, are key allies to truly drive digital transformation within the organization.
AWS Lambda redefines the cloud computing paradigm. It is a serverless computing service that allows code to run in response to events without the need to provision or manage servers.
In essence, organizations can run functions without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. This facilitates the creation of more agile and efficient applications.
Benefits of migrating to the cloud using AWS Lambda
- Serverless elasticity: by following the serverless model, it is simpler to scale based on demand. This allows for more efficient resource management and makes it easier to provision the required capacity.
- Pay-as-you-go: you only pay for the actual execution time of the functions. No charges are made when code is not running. The resulting cost efficiency is therefore significant.
- Fast response to events: easily integrates with a variety of AWS services and responds to database changes, file uploads, or custom events. Thus, it enables immediate execution of specific functions. Native integrations with other AWS services trigger execution events quickly and easily.
- Inherent automatic scalability: as workloads increase, it scales automatically, ensuring optimal performance without manual intervention.
- Wide variety of programming languages: including Python, Node.js, Java, and more. This gives developers flexibility to use the language that best suits their needs. It is even possible to employ Docker images to build containers using Lambda as the runtime environment.
Differences between AWS Lambda and AWS EC2
Lambda and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are both AWS cloud computing services, but they differ in their approach.
While EC2 requires the management of virtual instances, Lambda operates without servers, therefore, it allows developers to focus on application code and logic without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
Limitations of the AWS Lambda service
AWS Lambda is a very versatile service, but it is not intended for runs that require long or complex workloads.
There are limits to the resources we can attribute to a Lambda execution:
- The maximum amount of RAM that can be provisioned in a Lambda function is 15GB.
- Lambda functions require the configuration of an execution time out. The maximum possible time is 15 minutes. This means that Lambda does not allow processes that take longer than that to run.
Case Study: AWS Lambda in Banking
A major banking company was running processes on demand on an on-premise server.
It was Python code. It queried an API of a third-party service and after very light processing inserted the results into a database. The processes were short-lived but required many parallel executions of the same code. This posed a scalability problem on the server.
Before the migration, challenges in the on-premise environment were faced. These included lack of automatic scalability, slow response times and complicated resource management. In addition, it was needed to overcome the costs of a dedicated server that did not adapt to the variable demand and high peak concurrency of the executions.
We proposed migrating the code to AWS Lambda, taking advantage of the serverless execution capability and automatic resource management. Decomposing the monolith into independent functions allowed for improved modularity and facilitated faster and safer deployment of updates.
It was then proposed to implement an API Gateway to make endpoints available for on-demand execution.
Significant reduction in response time
We created three Lambda functions, one for each microservice identified in the initial assessment. In cases that required execution at specific times and days, the Amazon Evento Bridge service was configured to establish execution periods and conditions.
The results? A notable reduction in response times, improving the user experience and facilitating scalability. The main benefit was the ease of administration. The service requires no infrastructure maintenance and updating the code is very simple.
By adopting a pay-per-use model, operating costs associated with the infrastructure were reduced by more than 20%.
Conclusions
The adoption of AWS Lambda redefines how enterprises leverage the cloud for their operations. Serverless elasticity, pay-as-you-go, and rapid event response offer a unique set of benefits that drive agility and efficiency.
It frees enterprises from infrastructure concerns and enables a focused approach to application development. It enables cost optimization and embraces a paradigm that accelerates innovation and deployment of new functionality.
AWS Lambda is, in conclusion, a strategic ally for companies looking to stand out in a competitive and constantly evolving business environment.
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