AWS Lambda is a new compute service that runs your code in response to events and automatically manages compute resources for you. In this session, you learn what you need to get started quickly, including a review of key features, a live demonstration, how to use AWS Lambda with Amazon S3 event notifications and Amazon DynamoDB streams, and tips on getting the most out of Lambda functions.

1. ©2015, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved
Mobile Compute with AWS Lambda
Dr. Tim Wagner, General Manager AWS Lambda
April 9, 2015 | San Francisco, CA

2. Event-Driven Compute in the Cloud
• Launched last November at re:Invent
– Lambda functions: Stateless, request-driven code execution
– Triggered by events in other services:
• PUT to an Amazon S3 bucket
• Write to an Amazon DynamoDB table
• Record in an Amazon Kinesis stream
– Makes it easy to…
• Transform data as it reaches the cloud
• Perform data-driven auditing, analysis, and notification
• Kick off workflows

3. Data Triggers: Amazon S3
Amazon S3 Bucket Events AWS Lambda
Original image Thumbnailed image
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4. Data Triggers: Amazon DynamoDB
AWS LambdaAmazon DynamoDB
Table and Stream
Send Amazon SNS
notifications
Update another table

5. Dynamic content generation
based on incoming news text
and images
Real time log
processing for
prediction analytics
Thumbnailing
installation site photos
for mobile use
Real time processing and
recording of inbound traffic from
a range of social media
platforms
Large scale distributed
search across blog
content
Operational
analytics and real
time troubleshooting

6. AWS Lambda now Generally Available

7. Production Release of AWS Lambda
• Larger default limits
– 100 concurrent executions
– 1,000 invokes per second
– Increases available via AWS customer service
• Preview label removed
– Updated API based on feedback during preview
– Multiple Lambda functions per stream
– Easier to use programming model

8. Mobile Compute: Building Backends with Lambda
Launching Mobile Compute
• Request/response
• AWS Mobile SDK
• Easy Personalization
…for devices
…for end users
AWS LambdaMobile App

9. Event-Driven Compute in the Cloud and for Devices
• Request / response
– Create instantly scalable backends for mobile apps
– Run stateless computations for web apps without servers
– Build cloud-based IoT ecosystems using C/C++ libraries
– Complements the existing asynchronous functionality

10. AWS Mobile SDK
• Build high quality mobile apps quickly and easily.
• AWS Lambda now available in:
– AWS mobile SDK for Android
– AWS iOS mobile SDK

11. Easy Personalization
Which device is she using?
?
Which end user is this?
?

12. Demo: Building a Mobile Backend with
AWS Lambda

13. No Infrastructure to Manage
• Focus on business logic,
not infrastructure
• Upload your code; AWS
Lambda handles:
• Capacity
• Scaling
• Deployment
• Monitoring
• Logging
• Web service front end
• Security patching

14. Automatic Scaling
• Lambda scales to match
the event rate
• Don’t worry about over
or under provisioning
• Pay only for what you
use
• New app or successful
app, Lambda matches
your scale

15. Bring your own code
• Create threads and
processes, run batch
scripts or other
executables, and
read/write files in /tmp.
• Include any library with
your Lambda function
code, even native
libraries.

16. Fine-grained pricing
• Buy compute time in
100ms increments
• Low request charge
• No hourly, daily, or
monthly minimums
• No per-device fees
Never pay for idle.
Free Tier
1M requests and 400,000 GB-s of compute.
Every month, every customer.

17. Using AWS Lambda

18. Calling Lambda Functions
• Call from mobile or web apps
– Wait for a response or send an event and continue
– AWS SDK, AWS Mobile SDK, REST API, CLI
• Send events from Amazon S3 or SNS:
– One event per Lambda invocation, 3 attempts
• Process DynamoDB changes or Amazon Kinesis
records as events:
– Ordered model with multiple records per event
– Unlimited retries (until data expires)

19. Writing Lambda Functions
• The Basics
– Stock node.js
– AWS SDK comes built in and ready to use
– Lambda handles inbound traffic
• Stateless
– Use S3, DynamoDB, or other Internet storage for persistent data
– Don’t expect affinity to the infrastructure (you can’t “log in to the box”)
• Familiar
– Use processes, threads, /tmp, sockets, …
– Bring your own libraries, even native ones

20. AWS Lambda or Amazon EC2 / Amazon ECS?
AWS Lambda
• Request-driven
• Prioritizes ease of use –
one OS, default hardware
choice
• AWS owns and manages
the infrastructure
• Implicit scaling; just make
requests
Amazon EC2 and Amazon ECS
• Infrastructure rental
• Flexible – choose
instance type, OS,
language, …
• You own and configure
the infrastructure
• Scale by provisioning
instances or containers

21. New Features

22. New AWS Event Sources for Lambda
• Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)
– Easily target, route, transform, filter, or audit messages
– Trigger an AWS Lambda function by sending it notifications
– Turn Amazon CloudWatch alarms into actions
Lambda FunctionSNS

23. New AWS Event Sources for Lambda
• Amazon Cognito
– Before: Easily synchronize user data across their devices
– Now: Take action when that data changes
– Examples: Verify and respond to game state updates
Lambda FunctionAmazon Cognito

24. How can you use these features?
“I want to send
customized
messages to
different users”
SNS + Lambda
“I want to send an
offer when a user
runs out of lives in
my game”
Amazon Cognito +
Lambda + SNS
“I want to transform
the records in a
click stream or an
IoT data stream”
Amazon Kinesis +
Lambda

25. New Authorization and Auditing Features
• Easier setup and configuration
– No need for invocation roles
– Use resource policies to enable senders to call your function
• Cross-account access support
– Securely grant execution access to third parties
– Send events from S3 buckets in a different AWS account
• AWS CloudTrail integration
– Track AWS Lambda API calls in AWS CloudTrail logs
– Audit access logs easily with a Lambda function

26. Improved Metrics and Diagnostics
• Discover and take action when you reach your
concurrent execution limits
– New Amazon CloudWatch throttling metric
• Find relevant log entries faster
– Sort CloudWatch Logs by time of last entry
– See creation time in log stream names and easily filter on it
– View the target log stream in your Lambda function

27. Java
• You can already call Java programs from
Lambda functions today…
– Java and other languages are automatically included in your
filesystem view…don’t wait to start using them!
– Freezing ensures you don’t pay repeatedly for JVM boot
• We’ll make this even easier with built-in support
for AWS Lambda functions written in Java.

28. Three Next Steps
1. Go to the AWS Management Console to create and test your
first Lambda function. The first 1M requests each month are on us!
2. Use the AWS Mobile SDK and Lambda to quickly create an
instantly scalable mobile app.
3. Use AWS Lambda to add custom logic to S3, DynamoDB, SNS,
Amazon Kinesis, or Amazon Cognito events…no servers required!

29. SAN FRANCISCO