© 2016, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.

Adrian Hornsby

Solutions Architect with AWS

AWS Stockholm Summit, May 4, 2016

Getting Started with AWS Lambda

and the Serverless Cloud

Nils Undén,

CTO, eBuilder

What is serverless computing?

• VMs

• Machine as the unit of scale

• Abstracts the hardware

• Containers

• Application as the unit of scale

• Abstracts the OS

• Serverless

• Functions as the unit of scale

• Abstracts the language runtime

How do I choose?

• VMs

• “I want to configure machines,

storage, networking, and my OS”

• Containers

• “I want to run servers, configure

applications, and control scaling”

• Serverless

• “Run my code when it’s needed”

Microservices and AWS Lambda

AWS Lambda + Amazon API Gateway is the

easiest way to create microservices

• Event handlers one function per event type

• Serverless back ends one function per API / path

• Data processing one function per data type

Agenda

Overview

Use cases

Recent launches

Best practices

AWS Lambda: Serverless computing

Run code without servers. Pay only for the compute time you consume. Be happy.

Triggered by events or called from APIs:

• PUT to an Amazon S3 bucket

• Updates to Amazon DynamoDB table

• Call to an Amazon API Gateway endpoint

• Mobile app back-end call

• And many more…

Makes it easy to:

• Perform real-time data processing

• Build scalable back-end services

• Glue and choreograph systems

Continuous

scaling

No servers to

manage

Never pay for idle

– no cold servers

(only happy

accountants)

Benefits of AWS Lambda

Pay-per request

• Buy compute time in

100 ms increments

• Low request charge

• No hourly, daily, or

monthly minimums

• No per-device fees

Never pay for idle!

Free Tier

1 million requests and 400,000 GBs of compute

every month, every customer

Using AWS Lambda

Bring your own code

• Node.js, Java, Python

• Bring your own libraries

(even native ones)

Simple resource model

• Select power rating from

128 MB to 1.5 GB

• CPU and network allocated

proportionately

• Reports actual usage

Flexible authorization

• Securely grant access to

resources, including VPCs

• Fine-grained control over

who can call your functions

Flexible use

• Call or send events

• Integrated with other AWS

services

• Build whole serverless

ecosystems

Using AWS Lambda

Programming model

• AWS SDK built in (Python and Node.js)

• Lambda is the front end

• Use processes, threads, /tmp, sockets normally

Stateless

• Persist data using Amazon

DynamoDB, S3, or

ElastiCache

• No affinity to infrastructure

(can’t “log in to the box”)

Authoring functions

• Author directly using the

console WYSIWYG editor

• Package code as a .zip and

upload to Lambda or S3

• Plugins for Eclipse and

Visual Studio

• Command line tools

Monitoring and logging

• Built-in metrics for requests,

errors, latency, and throttles

• Built-in logs in Amazon

CloudWatch Logs

But what *is* AWS Lambda?

Linux containers as an implementation, not a programming

or deployment abstraction

• Process and network isolation, cgroups, seccomp, …

Predictive capacity management

• Purpose-built, massively scaled language runtime delivery

service

Swagger interpreter (API Gateway)

Amazon API Gateway: Serverless APIs

Internet

Mobile apps

Websites

Services

AWS Lambda

functions

AWS

API Gateway

cache

Endpoints on

Amazon EC2

Any other publicly

accessible endpointAmazon

CloudWatch

Amazon

CloudFrontAmazon

API Gateway

Benefits of Amazon API Gateway

Create a unified API

front end for

multiple

microservices

DDoS protection, monitoring and

throttling for back-end systems

Authenticate and

authorize requests

AWS Lambda, API Gateway regions

Available regions

Use cases

Lambda: Use cases

Serverless app

ecosystems

Data processing Back ends

Use case: Data processing

Example: Amazon S3 bucket triggers

Amazon S3 bucket events

Original objectCompressed object

1

2

3

AWS Lambda

Why functions are the right answer

Amazon

DynamoDB

Call Events

Feedback loop

Use case: Automatically scalable back ends

1. AWS Mobile SDK + Amazon Cognito for mobile app

Or AWS IoT for devices

2. Amazon API Gateway (if you want your own endpoint)

3. AWS Lambda runs the code

4. Amazon DynamoDB holds the data

AWS LambdaAmazon

DynamoDB

Use case: Serverless web app architecture

1. Amazon S3 for serving static content

2. AWS Lambda for dynamic content

3. Amazon API Gateway for https access

4. Amazon DynamoDB for NoSQL data storage

Dynamic content

in AWS Lambda

Data stored in

Amazon

DynamoDB

API GatewayStatic content in

Amazon S3

Use case: New app ecosystems:

Alexa apps + Slack = serverless bots!

Alexa, tell Slack to

send, “I’m giving the

demo now.”

Message retrieval through scheduled

polling

Kevin says,

“Break a leg!”

Message upload

(via Slack API)

Team

(channel users)

Slack

22Commercial in confidence

https://vimeo.com/137347367

23Commercial in confidence

eBuilder’s Effortless Device Care solution creates effortless device self-service for mobile operator customers!

Manage

warranty

repair

Manage

non-warranty

repair

Book and

pay for

Express

Services

Upgrade or

trade-in my

device

Sell my

device

Recycle my

device

Manage

insurance

repair

USE AND

RESOLVE

REPAIR

AND RENEW

Proactive

diagnostics

Trouble-

shooting

Warm

handover to

Assisted

Care

Manage

protection

Remote

assist

Startup and

usage Tips

Backup

Restore

Backup

Restore

eBuilder Efficient Device Care and an end-user with a smartphone issue

Our AWS PaaS Usage Journey (14m)

WHY?

Scalable B2C + Global deployment + Startup = All-in on AWS PaaS

#1 Microservice Architecture: EC2, DynamoDB, S3, Route53, CloudFront, ELB

#2 Cognito-security, API Gateway, SNS, SQS

#3 Mobile Analytics, AWS Lambdas, Redshift

Event-driven architecture: Lambdas + Kinesis Streams

HOW?

NEXT?

What is appealing to us in Lambdas?

#1 Delegate more to AWS - Simplify deployment and management

#2 Cost efficiency - pay for actual usage not for statically allocated resources

#3 Functional approach - Helps promote well-structured system design

What are our use cases for Lambdas?

mobile client

mobile

analytics

api gw lambdasdynamodb

sns topic

sqs queue

s3

MicroService

implementation

Event de-duplifier

and broadcaster

Event processor

dynamodb

What are our experiences so far?

#4 Using JavaScript both on Device (React) and on Backend (Lambda) helps

create full-stack developers

#2 Some activation latency to consider (we have seen 2s at worst) -

operationally very effective:

(latency of 394ms @ 95% for API-gw + 3 Lambdas + Dynamo)

#3 Lots of activity around automation - we started with Apex, now using

Serverless framework

#5 Nice fit with Domain Driven Design (DDD): Lambdas + Kinesis streams

#1 Insufficient data as of now to compare operational costs with static EC2:s

Recent launches and

best practices

re:Invent 2015

• Python

• Scheduled functions

• Longer running times (5 min.)

• Versioning

Recent launches

2016

• Higher code storage limits

(from 5 GB to 75 GB)

• VPC

• New region: Frankfurt

• Node.js 4.3.2

• Swagger API import

• 1-minute schedules

• AWS CloudFormation support

for API Gateway.

Function schedules: The how-to guide

How can I keep a function warm (no cold starts)?

Schedule it!

How can I poll a queue (like SQS)?

Schedule a function to read the queue.

How can I get more timers?

Have one scheduled function async invoke other functions.

How can I get granularity finer than 1 minute?

Run a background timer in your scheduled function.

Function versioning: The how-to guide

How can I get mutable configuration info?

Read it (e.g. from DynamoDB) during function initialization.

Wrap your config in a function and call it from your published code.

How do I “roll back” in AWS Lambda?

Using aliases, just switch what the alias points to.

(As a collection, add API Gateway stages or CloudFormation.)

How do I do blue/green deployments?

AWS Lambda handles fleet deployments, but if you want to shape

traffic, put a second “traffic cop” function in front.

How can I lock a client/device onto an old version?

Point them directly to that version’s ARN.

AWS Lambda VPC basics

• All Lambda functions run in a VPC, all the time

• You never need to “turn on” security – it’s always on

• You can also grant Lambda functions access to resources in your own VPC

• How: Add VPC subnet IDs and security group IDs to the function config

• Typical uses: RDB, ElastiCache, private EC2 endpoints

• Allows access to peered VPCs, VPN endpoints, and private S3 endpoints

• Functions configured for VPC access lose internet access…

• unless you have managed NAT or a NAT instance in the VPC

• …Even if you have “Auto-assign Public IP” enabled

• …Even if you have an internet gateway set up in your VPC

• …Even if your security group allows all outbound traffic

AWS Lambda VPC feature: Best practices

VPC is optional – don’t turn in on unless you need it.

The ENIs used by Lambda’s VPC feature count against

your quota.

Ensure you have enough to match your peak concurrency levels

(we’ll consolidate where we can).

DO NOT delete or rename these ENIs!

Ensure your subnets have enough IPs for those ENIs.

Specify at least one subnet in each Availability Zone

Otherwise, Lambda will obey, but can’t be as fault-tolerant.

The serverless compute manifesto

Functions are the unit of deployment and scaling.

No machines, VMs, or containers visible in the programming model.

Permanent storage lives elsewhere.

Scales per request. Users cannot over- or under-provision capacity.

Never pay for idle (no cold servers/containers or their costs).

Implicitly fault-tolerant because functions can run anywhere.

BYOC – Bring your own code.

Metrics and logging are a universal right.

Join the serverless revolution!

Product manager or business

analyst? Check out

aws.amazon.com/lambda for

scenarios and customer stories.

Developer? Go to the AWS

Lambda console, create a

function, and run it.(The first million invokes are on us!)

Add an event source or an HTTP

endpoint.

Build a mobile, voice, or IoT

back end with a few lines of

code.