Functions

Lambda is the name of the function-as-a-service or serverless product on AWS. The primary unit of deployment is the function. Lambda supports a large number of programming languages and ingress methods. It leverages containers behind the scenes to very quickly start up on-demand processes. Because these processes are not allowed to run for very long, Amazon can run a lot of them on their infrastructure. This allows them to charge by the millisecond. Coordinating thousands of different functions can be very challenging and we'll stick with simple examples in upcoming chapters.