Lambda Lambda Lambda Lambda Lambda
The introduction of AWS Lambda back in November 2014 was a game changer for many.
Not only does Serverless computing eradicate the need for servers, it eradicates the need to even think about servers.
It frees you to focus on product and it empowers developers.
Entire applications now run on Serverless Architecture - you can have a complex GraphQL API using a single Lambda and an API Gateway request as the entry point.
See this fancy drawing I made for proof.
Another enormous benefit of Lambda is it challenges you to think about event-driven architecture. That's at the heart of what we do here. In its simplest form, it's all about "when this happens, do this".
Here are some examples of how we use Lambda on a daily basis:
- When a user is created in AWS Cognito, send a welcome email
- When a user places an order, generate the content and send it to the approval workflow
- When a piece of content is approved, despatch it to an ad server
The beauty of this approach is it allows you to create small isolated snippets of easily testable code.
Combined with Serverless Framework, it's a breeze to configure and deploy.
Did I mention the cost benefits?
That's not a typo. That's $0.00 a month, which converts to £0.00 a month. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. That's because AWS give you 1 million requests a month free with free tier.
Magic.