AWS Lambda
Run code without thinking about servers. Pay only for the compute time you consume.
AWS Lambda lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers. You pay only for the compute time you consume - there is no charge when your code is not running.
With Lambda, you can run code for virtually any type of application or backend service - all with zero administration. Just upload your code and Lambda takes care of everything required to run and scale your code with high availability. You can set up your code to automatically trigger from other AWS services or call it directly from any web or mobile app.
What is AWS Lambda?
Benefits
NO SERVERS TO MANAGE
AWS Lambda automatically runs your code without requiring you to provision or manage servers. Just write the code and upload it to Lambda.
CONTINUOUS SCALING
AWS Lambda automatically scales your application by running code in response to each trigger. Your code runs in parallel and processes each trigger individually, scaling precisely with the size of the workload.
SUBSECOND METERING
With AWS Lambda, you are charged for every 100ms your code executes and the number of times your code is triggered. You don't pay anything when your code isn't running.
How it works
Use cases
What can you build with AWS Lambda? Learn more about the use cases below:
Data processing
You can use AWS Lambda to execute code in response to triggers such as changes in data, shifts in system state, or actions by users. Lambda can be directly triggered by AWS services such as S3, DynamoDB, Kinesis, SNS, and CloudWatch, or it can be orchestrated into workflows by AWS Step Functions. This allows you to build a variety of real-time serverless data processing systems.
Real-time file processing
You can use Amazon S3 to trigger AWS Lambda to process data immediately after an upload. For example, you can use Lambda to thumbnail images, transcode videos, index files, process logs, validate content, and aggregate and filter data in real-time.
Reference Architecture: Diagram | Sample Code
The Seattle Times uses AWS Lambda to resize images for viewing on different devices such as desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones. Read the case study »
Real-time stream processing
You can use AWS Lambda and Amazon Kinesis to process real-time streaming data for application activity tracking, transaction order processing, click stream analysis, data cleansing, metrics generation, log filtering, indexing, social media analysis, and IoT device data telemetry and metering.
Reference Architecture: Diagram | Sample code
Localytics processes billions of data points in real-time, and uses Lambda to process historical and live data stored in S3 or streamed from Kinesis. Read the case study »
Extract, transform, load
You can use AWS Lambda to perform data validation, filtering, sorting, or other transformations for every data change in a DynamoDB table and load the transformed data to another data store.
Reference Architecture: Diagram
Zillow uses Lambda and Kinesis to track a subset of mobile metrics in realtime. With Kinesis and Lambda, we were able to develop and deploy a cost effective solution in two weeks.
Backends
You can build serverless backends using AWS Lambda to handle web, mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), and 3rd party API requests.
IoT backends
You can build serverless backends using AWS Lambda to handle web, mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), and 3rd party API requests.
Reference Architecture: Diagram | Sample code
Mobile backends
You can build backends using AWS Lambda and Amazon API Gateway to authenticate and process API requests. Lambda makes it easy to create rich, personalized app experiences.
Reference Architecture: Diagram | Sample code
Bustle runs a serverless backend for its Bustle iOS app and websites using AWS Lambda and Amazon API Gateway. Serverless architectures allow Bustle to never have to deal with infrastructure management, so every engineer can focus on building out new features and innovating. Read the case study »
Web applications
By combining AWS Lambda with other AWS services, developers can build powerful web applications that automatically scale up and down and run in a highly available configuration across multiple data centers – with zero administrative effort required for scalability, back-ups or multi-data center redundancy.
Reference Architecture: Diagram | Sample code
Case studies
The Coca-Cola Company, an American multinational beverage corporation, used AWS Lambda and AWS Step Functions to build a cost-effective serverless solution.
Nordstrom, an leading American fashion specialty retailer, built a new recommendations engine leveraging AWS Lambda to process customer requests.
Benchling, a life science software company, created a technique that researchers use to modify parts of a genome with extreme precision using serverless architecture.
Thomson Reuters uses AWS Lambda to process up to 4,000 events per second for its usage analytics service, and it took five months to deploy into production.
Get started with AWS Lambda
Learn more about AWS Lambda
