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AWS Lambda

aws.amazon.com

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Re: AWS Lambda

#41

Post by jameshart »

gbrits wrote: post #26
jameshart wrote: post #24

Claiming that your code is a 'lambda function' makes it sound sexy, but.. isn't it really just a procedure? Unless I'm missing something and there is some higher-ordered capability for composing AWS lambda functions together in a way that permits the platform to perform lambda reductions or optimize resource allocation...

I guess the term 'Lambda' here is taken to mean 'a function without side effects'. So no higher-order chainability, etc. afaik.

Except that it can have side effects, can't it - it can trigger services, cause stuff to be changed in a datastore. It doesn't have any local stateful storage, but it can make use of remote state. In that respect, how is it different from basically any web request processor?

Re: AWS Lambda

#42

Post by saynay »

dominotw wrote: post #25

Would this be useful for build services like setting up a jenkins instance using lambda compute resources as slaves?

It looks like Lambda functions are limited in complexity and runtime duration.

The way I see it is pairing it with the container service (ECS) and spawning containers in response to events, possibly spawning EC2 instances if you need more computer.

It looks like Lambdas can also be set to execute at a scheduled time, so you could make a delayed Lambda that would shut down any EC2 instances you spawned as well.

Re: AWS Lambda

#43

Post by erichmond »

marknadal wrote: post #40

Holy mind blowing awesomeness, this changes everything, yet I feel like this was such an obvious thing to do. So obvious that I can't believe it is real. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why AWS defines the cloud, they are so far beyond everyone else and still innovating, even and the most basic level.

This idea has existed for years (see storm, samza), but it's great AWS is wrapping the infrastructure piece for those who can't roll their own!

Re: AWS Lambda

#44

Post by vmarsy »

makmanalp wrote: post #38

I'm so torn - on one side this is a very neat thing that'll save a lot of boilerplate, and on the other it screams of vendor lock-in.

as MBlume mentionned[1], they seem to support NodeJS.

From the FAQ :

"At launch AWS Lambda supports code written in Node.js (JavaScript). Your code can include existing Node.js libraries, even native ones."

so it seems that you can avoid lock-in if most of your javascript code is not too coupled to Amazon's API

And they claim on the detail page:

"With AWS Lambda, there are no new languages, tools, or frameworks to learn. You can use any third party library, even native ones. At launch, AWS Lambda will support Node.js code, with support for other languages coming in the future."

[1] : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8603059

Re: AWS Lambda

#45

Post by krallin »

joshuahutt wrote: post #13
jedberg wrote: post #3

I’ve had a chance to use the service for a couple of weeks. My quick summary review is that it’s a little tricky setting up the IAM roles and security groups, but once you have that going, it works great! I see a ton of potential here in transforming the way people use AWS. I also put together the Netflix use cases in the keynote so if you have any questions I’ll try to answer them!

One thing I am struggling to understand is how much of my applications can be replaced with Lambda. I think it would be really awesome to make applications that do not have any dedicated instances associated with them, but are entirely based on the various AWS platforms. For some things, it seems like Lambda could be a drop-in replacement, whereas others, it would not quite fit the bill. Do you think it will be possi…

It seems like you're limited to 25 concurrent lambda functions executing (at least at this time).

This looks like it's more geared towards enabling you to automate / orchestrate your AWS resources, that run customer-facing code.

Re: AWS Lambda

#46

Post by abakker »

makmanalp wrote: post #38

I'm so torn - on one side this is a very neat thing that'll save a lot of boilerplate, and on the other it screams of vendor lock-in.

As someone who is non-technical, how much code/infrastructure would this save? I'm trying to understand how locked in this would really make you, and how difficult it would be to replace this on some other IaaS provider?

Re: AWS Lambda

#47

Post by erichmond »

spitfire wrote: post #34

I wish they hadn't named the units of computation "Lambda functions". Cause, you know there's already something known as a "Lambda function" in computer science. But kudos for Amazon for furthering the datacenter-is-the-computer approach. It is simply the right thing to do.

I'm guessing they borrowed it from this : http://lambda-architecture.net/

Re: AWS Lambda

#48

Post by rodgerd »

dkarapetyan wrote: post #8

All these announcement are making me feel sorry for all the other players in the cloud game. The other guys don't even come close.

I feel sorry for all the people in 5 - 10 years who discover Amazonis now in a position to charge monopoly rents.

Re: AWS Lambda

#49

Post by jedberg »

jvandyke wrote: post #28
jedberg wrote: post #3

I’ve had a chance to use the service for a couple of weeks. My quick summary review is that it’s a little tricky setting up the IAM roles and security groups, but once you have that going, it works great! I see a ton of potential here in transforming the way people use AWS. I also put together the Netflix use cases in the keynote so if you have any questions I’ll try to answer them!

Do you know if you can respond to events from SWS or SQS?

As of today, no. Probably coming in the future though. I got the impression that eventually all Aws services will emit events.

Re: AWS Lambda

#50

Post by wernerb »

abakker wrote: post #46
makmanalp wrote: post #38

I'm so torn - on one side this is a very neat thing that'll save a lot of boilerplate, and on the other it screams of vendor lock-in.

As someone who is non-technical, how much code/infrastructure would this save? I'm trying to understand how locked in this would really make you, and how difficult it would be to replace this on some other IaaS provider?

Any use of non-standardized service will only help you lock in further. Though a lot of companies/start-ups do not care if it saves time/cost and perhaps they are already deeply invested in the ecosystem.

It seems that this system puts together all events generated by Amazon services to trigger new events. This is usually not that complicated to code, but the catch is to make these (usually) scripts/programs highly available, which Amazon provides.

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