AWS Lambda is an event-driven computing platform provided by Amazon, it is a compute service that runs code in response to events and automatically manages the compute resources required by that code. AWS Lambda service is by the AWS cloud offering, which is fully managed and with it there is no need to provision or manage servers. AWS Lambda is an event-driven computing cloud service that allows developers to provision resources for a programming function on a pay-per-use basis without having to be concerned about what Amazon storage or compute resources will support it.
In AWS Lambda basically we upload a function which can receive data through either events invoked by other AWS services or custom ones that we create or can even be invoked via a HTTP call with AWS API gateway sitting at front. The latter configuration basically means that we can deploy an entire application server-less, with paying only by the time that our function needs to run coupled with the resource that we configure that each function receives.
- AWS Lambda allows developers to code and run various functions in response to specific events on an as-needed basis
- When an AWS Lambda function is called, the storage and compute resources for that function are provisioned automatically as a metered service
- Users are billed based on the number of requests served and the compute time needed to run the code, metered in increments of 100 milliseconds. If a function is never called, it costs the developer nothing
- Developers can list, delete, update and monitor functions through the Lambda dashboard, command-line interface or software development kit (SDK)
- The service also performs infrastructure-focused activities such as server and operating system maintenance, patch deployment and logging through AWS CloudWatch.
- Third-party logging APIs is also supported
- AWS Lambda is available with a free tier of service that includes one million free requests and 400,000 gigabyte-seconds of compute time per month.