AWS Lambda is a compute service that runs your code in response to events and automatically manages the compute resources for you, making it easy to build applications that respond quickly to new information. Lambda opens up all kinds of new possibilities and can lower your costs at the same time. When running a job-processing server in EC2, you are charged for compute time as long as your instance is still running. Contrast that with Lambda where you are only charged while actually processing a job. This makes Lambda a great fit for spiky or infrequent workloads because it scales automatically and minimizes costs during slow periods. The event-based model Lambda provides makes it perfect for providing a backend for mobile clients, other smart devices, or adding no-stress asynchronous processing to an existing application.

In this introductory lab, you will learn how to use AWS Lambda to easily run code to react to events. Events can come from DynamoDB changes, SNS messages, S3 objects, Kinesis streams, or a variety of other sources. Owing to its versatility, Lambda has found use in a wide variety of applications including mobile apps, Internet of Things backends, and big data systems.

Learning objectives

Upon completion of this Lab, you will be able to:

• Understand what Lambda functions are and what makes them unique
• Create Lambda functions using the AWS Console
• Test Lambda functions

Intended audience

• Candidates for the AWS Developer Associate certification
• DevOps Engineers
• Software Engineers
• Anyone looking to learn about AWS Lambda functions

Prerequisites

You should be familiar with:

• Node.js development experience is beneficial, but not required

Updates

March 1st, 2023 - Updated screenshots and instructions to reflect the latest user interface changes

March 8th, 2021 - Updated screenshots and instructions to reflect the latest user interface changes

January 26th, 2021 - Updated AWS Lambda lab steps to reflect latest user interface updates

March 5th, 2019 - Simplified the Lambda execution role selection workflow and updated screenshots

March 3rd, 2019 - Added a customized validation Lab Step

March 1st, 2019 - Updated environment diagrams to the latest AWS icon library

January 10th, 2019 - Added a validation Lab Step to check the work you perform in the Lab

June 25, 2018 - Complete update (easier to follow instructions, updated screenshots)