Software Development Updates

Nowadays, as the acceptance and the use of technologies are increasing, more and more businesses are on their way to unleashing the power of web services. And when it comes to web services, the only one that every techie prefers to use is Amazon Web Services (AWS). It boasts more than 1,00,000 users across the globe. Since its introduction in 2004, businesses from all the fields have got a chance to pay less cost for the advanced services rather than paying high infrastructure-related costs. Besides this, Amazon Web Services has various other benefits which make organizations choose it over any other web services. To know more about AWS and its benefits, let’s go through this blog. 

We decided to create this blog to give a comprehensive insight on what AWS Lambda is, how it runs code, its architecture, the benefits of using AWS for business, and everything that would benefit. So, let us start to understand it from the basics.

1. What is Amazon Web Services(AWS)

AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that allows you to run code without having to provision or manage servers, write workload, be aware of cluster scaling logic, keep event integrations up to date, or manage runtimes. You can run code for nearly any form of application or backend service with Lambda, and you don’t have to worry about administration. Lambda has been famous for computing services that enable users to code effortlessly without the need to create individual servers. 

Lambda is a platform that can help you run your code whether it is for high computational infrastructure or it’s for low coding or any other type of management or monitoring of codes and servers. Lambda also supports the operations of servers, their maintenance, provisioning, and other backend services.

2. Benefits of AWS Lambda

Before the introduction of Lambda in the business, the conventional web apps were constantly operated over the web, EC2 or similar hosting platforms. But after AWS Lambda was introduced in functions, the process was automated and the provisioning and releasing of servers too. This process with AWS Lambda got way too simple and hence many medium, small and enterprise-grade businesses decided to go with this new-edge technology solution by AWS. Enlisted are some of the benefits of AWS that makes it a favorable choice among all other cloud service providers.

2.1 Most Major Languages are Supported by AWS Lambda

There are almost all the languages, frameworks, and environments supported by AWS lambda. Due to the advancement, you might see few versions of programming languages are not supported. That may be because they are outdated or not in the market. AWS Lambda supports Nodejs, Python, Ruby, Java8, C#, Power shell, and more. A couple of other runtimes are still in the development stage. C++ and Rust are part of AWS Labs and aren’t referenced in the official documentation. AWS cloud computing maintains all of these runtimes, which are available in an Amazon Linux or Amazon Linux 2 environment. AWS provides an SDK for each supported language that makes it easy to develop Lambda functions and integrate them with other AWS services. The C++ runtime also serves as a model for developing custom AWS Lambda runtimes.

If your language isn’t supported by default, see its documentation for instructions on how to develop a custom runtime. It supports a web application platform for simpler coding on different operating systems. AWS Lambda is supportive of the virtual environment. This allows easy loading of services and applications by providing quick and secure access on the cloud platform. This is how businesses can utilize the major language support.

2.2 You Only Pay for what You Use

The cost of the application is another factor that makes businesses think twice before taking an action. In AWS Lambda, you don’t have to think twice because it charges as per the needs. AWS pricing is based on memory usage, requests made, and execution times, which are billed in 100ms increments. In the case of a 500ms execution, billing will occur every 100ms. If you state that your AWS lambda code should be executed in 500 milliseconds but it takes only 200 milliseconds to execute, AWS will only charge you for the time it takes, which is 200 milliseconds instead of 500 milliseconds.

Amazon Web Services Lambda always charges for the amount of time it takes to complete a task. If the function is not used, you will not be charged. AWS has the largest network environment with millions of active clients taking advantage of it. This global infrastructure comes with an incredibly diverse array of services suitable for individual business needs. AWS Lambda also lets you know how many resources you are using at the moment. And the services offered by Lambda are affordable.

Again, among all the benefits of AWS, there is another tier that is free of cost for limited usage as a part of executions. It is not free for all-time usage but it offers limited features that can be used for a specific period of time. Like you can use amazon’s simple storage service in any type of operating system or online platform. Lambda’s economical pricing measurement is dependent on the functions you use which can be advanced as per the plans you choose for your business.

2.3 The Connection of API Gateway with Other Connection Points are Smooth

Since the API Gateway is the doorway to the AWS micro mechanism, Lambda is the way to go when you require flexibility. It’s where you write custom code to handle requests that come in through the API Gateway. When you need to access any services or perform custom processing, use Lambda. You can connect to many other cloud services as well, directly or indirectly.

You can use the benefits of AWS Lambda function for new-edge devices and technologies such as IoT, ML, AI, and similar ones in the league. Lambda runs custom code on data streams as it moves through services. This comes quite handy in a Kinesis Pipeline that receives data from IoT devices and applies specific action. Lambda can also be linked to a wide range of other AWS services. It essentially acts as a link/function between those services. It’s handy for sending text messages using Amazon SMS in response to a trigger. You can also construct tables in DynamoDB using Lambda. The developers can link to Code Commit or even process your Alexa Skills and use Alexa Smart Home to control your home automation system. After you’ve completed establishing the AWS credentials, you may use your preferred framework to create, run locally, test, and publish your Lambda function. Serverless CLI helps in testing Lambda Functions locally. It will bring definite flexibility and scalability to the developed application. If you as a developer are unable to do this locally, take the help of specialists who are pro in Amazon Web Services and its API connections.

2.4 Modernize Your Applications

Modernizing applications is important for businesses to upkeep their conventional apps while making the best use of them. For web service-based apps, the advancement goes with serverless applications. This enhances the load time compared to conventional apps. 

The fundamental goal of this modernization plan is to have all of the apps running in cloud computing environments as well. With this, you can scale your apps to operate on the cloud. Modernizing apps will provide you with scalability and productivity. To achieve this effectively, you must first convert your old systems and applications to AWS Lambda Serverless. This must be done by considering which sections of the code need to be transformed into microservices. In tandem, you must carry out all of these procedures in reference to DevOps principles. This will result in a supreme level of optimization from the start, as well as through the serverless technology provided by the platform, allowing the code to be accessible from anywhere.

How does modernization work for other types of clouds?

In public cloud technology, a serverless application gets events and executes the code. When compared to a traditional server-based application design, this model has various advantages.

There’s no need to install, upgrade, monitor, or manage servers, it’s all done for you by Amazon Web Services. AWS cloud solution is a global leader and it caters to the needs of businesses requiring cloud platforms across the globe, it has clients in more than 245 countries. 

 Amazon Web Services as a cloud provider is in charge of all hardware and software. When the application’s use is triggered by the end-user, it can scale automatically. This is a massive difference when compared to traditional applications, which may necessitate the use of a receiver or a unique method to scale during peak load periods.

Amazon Web Services has a set of rich features. It includes scaling that allows incorporating all aspects of availability and fault tolerance in the architecture. The next segment will briefly describe how rich and contained the ecosystem of AWS is.

2.5 Rich Ecosystem and Ease of Usage

For controlling and calling functions, Lambda provides a management console and API. AWS Cloud is a global leader in offering cloud infrastructure and cloud security services with reliable encryption.

It provides runtimes that support a common set of functionalities, allowing you to quickly transition between languages and frameworks based on your requirements. You can also build versions, layers, and custom runtimes in addition to functions. There are many unexplored features of Lambda apart from the ones that we have already discussed. Some of the undiscussed ones include concurrency control, asynchronous invocation, event source mapping, and other app scaling programs.

All of these rich ecosystems make the platform reliable, secure, and robust to work with. Like when you use asynchronous invocation you can choose whether to call a function synchronously or asynchronously. You wait for the function to process the event and respond with the synchronous invocation. Lambda puts into a series of events for processing and responds promptly with an asynchronous invocation.

Among all the other benefits of AWS, this rich ecosystem also allows you to control concurrency. This ensures that your apps are extremely responsive, using concurrency settings. You can use reserved concurrency to prevent a function from utilizing too much concurrency and to reserve a portion of your account’s available concurrency for a function. 

AWS Lambda has separate tools for deployment and testing that store the codes in containers and then you can set up the docker and build apps on your own using specialized tools. 

Also, AWS offers its users a very user-friendly interface which is called AWS Management Console. It is presented to users after they sign up for using the amazon web services. 

2.6 Fully-Automated Administration

AWS Serverless Application Repository for discovering, deploying, and publishing serverless apps, AWS Serverless Application Model for designing serverless applications, and integrations with multiple integrated development environments are just some of the ways Lambda helps developers. Serverless functionality can be quickly accessed and adjusted to meet specific requirements.

When the nature and scope of your business evolve, scaling applications becomes quite easy and simple due to the auto-scaling feature. If you need to add or remove particular operational procedures from your business model to react to changing market conditions, you can easily build and set up new modules to automate the corresponding IT operations. AWS enables you to focus on the bigger picture by taking care of smaller things.

2.7 Built-in Fault Tolerance in AWS Cloud

Fault tolerance is critical for every cloud service, and AWS Lambda is no exception. This is one of the most important benefits of AWS. The developer is responsible for the access to the services that will trigger execution and the services that are accessed by the functions. AWS is responsible for protecting the infrastructure that runs Lambda, but the developer is responsible for the access to the services that will trigger execution and the services that are accessed by the functions.

You can use fine-grained access policies for IAM security the same way you do for any other AWS service. IAM (Identity and Access Management) is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) solution that allows administrators to securely manage access to AWS Lambda.

Fault tolerance refers to the ability of a system to withstand one or more defects while still accomplishing its goal. A broad collapse of AWS Lambda infrastructure is quite unlikely. However, the software you install becomes a part of the system, and it can malfunction. When a software failure occurs, the AWS Lambda platform may retry the function with the same event payload. This is known as retry behavior.

The retry behavior function offered by Lambda is actually a useful feature. For some distributed systems, multiple things occur concurrently. Hence to make sure everything goes right, you must use this function of AWS lambda. It ensures that these errors are immediately resolved and there are more chances of success in the development.

2.8 Features of AWS Lambda

Lambda is simple when you use it for backend application services. Like you just have to write the code that is supported by the platform. Lambda will automatically run code and deliver desired outcomes. It’s time to see what features can Lambda offer:

• AWS Lambda allows developers to add custom logic to AWS resources.
• Lambda will execute your function and can easily manage and initiate other computing resources as needed to handle requests.
• AWS Lambda builds new backend services for your applications.
• It can be any programming language, tool, or framework, AWS supports all. You can utilize all the third-party libraries and functions to create new and innovative applications. One of its promising features includes coding from any package of frameworks, SDKs, or any programming function. AWS Lambda supports almost all types of languages and environments such as Java, NodeJS, C#, ROR and provides an option to master the customized functions. There are many AWS Lambda use cases available in the market showcasing its vivid features and functionalities.
• Take use of relational database connection pools that are fully managed.
• RDS Proxy effectively maintains thousands of concurrent database connections to relational databases, making it simple to develop Lambda-based serverless applications that are highly scalable and secure.
• To safeguard your code from individual machine or data center facility failures, AWS Lambda maintains compute capacity over multiple availability zones and various geographic districts in each region.
• AWS Lambda runs your code just when it’s needed, and it scales automatically to handle the volume of incoming requests without requiring any configuration.

3. Conclusion

Whatever language you choose to run your developed application, Lambda will always be supportive and compatible with all types of languages and applications, their versions, and their aliases too. 

All these features and richness of AWS Lambda will enable your application to deliver top-notch outcomes with the option of Pay as you use. You have full control over developing applications and you can do everything from coding, deploying, configuring, and taking all necessary measures to make the app valuable for the business. 

Compared with other cloud providers, AWS offers a broad range of best benefits like fewer resource usage, easier migration process, cost-effectiveness, training support, and much more.

Read a similar blog  on AWS Lambda vs Azure functions