Lambda is a very poor substitute for EC2.
But it still has a place.
Instead of thinking of Lambda as a host for your applications, think of it as an extension for other AWS services.
Examples: 👇
But it still has a place.
Instead of thinking of Lambda as a host for your applications, think of it as an extension for other AWS services.
Examples: 👇
S3 doesn't come with an API to resize an image after uploading it to a bucket, but Lambda allows you to extend S3's API and add that capability.
Application load balancers come with an API to respond with a fixed response for a given route. But ALBs can't respond with an image. Lambda allows you to extend ALB's API to add that capability.
CloudFront doesn't support the ability to rewrite the URL based on request cookies (useful for A/B testing). Lambda allows you to extend CloudFront's API to add that capability.
DynamoDB doesn't support the concept of a database trigger to derive calculated fields when certain fields are updated. Lambda allows you to extend DynamoDB's API to add that capability.
CloudWatch doesn't support regex-based alerting on application logs. Lambda allows you to extend the CloudWatch API to add that capability.
Kinesis doesn't come with an API to filter records and write them to DynamoDB. Lambda allows you to extend the Kinesis API to add that capability.
CloudFormation's native modeling language has tons of limitations. For example, it can't create and validate a new TLS cert from ACM. Lambda allows you to extend CloudFormation's language to add (almost) any capability you want.
If you use Lambda as a general purpose application host, you're self-inflicting yourself with pain and frustration. But if you consider Lambda as stored procedures for the cloud, you might be alright. 👍
But I still advise caution. ⚠️
But I still advise caution. ⚠️
