Serverless Backend Cloud Architecture

[psypher246]

In November of 2014, AWS announced a new service at their yearly tech conference, Re:Invent, which introduced a brand new way for developers to build applications in the cloud, it's called AWS Lambda.

This post is to highlight the potential of Lambda but to also understand what your use cases are where Lambda could fit in and how can it solve uniquely local problems. Personally I think Lambda has the potential to completely change the IT landscape through improved agility and massively reduced costs but I would like to hear your opinions.

Quick introduction video here: https://youtu.be/eOBq__h4OJ4

"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. AWS Lambda starts running your code within milliseconds of an event such as an image upload, in-app activity, website click, or output from a connected device. You can also use AWS Lambda to create new back-end services where compute resources are automatically triggered based on custom requests. With AWS Lambda you pay only for the requests served and the compute time required to run your code. Billing is metered in increments of 100 milliseconds, making it cost-effective and easy to scale automatically from a few requests per day to thousands per second."

https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/

Lambda quickly evolved from only supporting Node.JS but now also supports Java

AWS Lambda Will Help Create a New Normal


Since announcement, a myriad of possibilities have arisen when combining Lambda with other AWS Services, like:

S3
DynamoDB
CloudFormation
Kinesis
Amazon API Gateway
and notably, AWS' own voice activation service, Alexa, which is the driver behind Amazon's Echo Voice Controlled Information and Media device

Below is some of the content I have been able to find which will give you an idea of what can be achieved:

Making static websites less static: S3 cloud, AWS Lambda, and a rough one-day hack

Building Dynamic Dashboards Using AWS Lambda and DynamoDB Streams: Part 1

Building Dynamic Dashboards Using AWS Lambda and DynamoDB Streams: Part II

Use AWS Lambda-backed custom resources for your AWS CloudFormation stacks

If you need to run something other than Node or Java, break out to the underlying host and use bash/python

Schedule Recurring AWS Lambda Invocations With The Unreliable Town Clock (UTC)

Use AWS Lambda to create a serverless back end for an Android app

Create voice-driven capabilities for Alexa with AWS Lambda
*this one's my favourite!

SquirrelBin: A Serverless Microservice Using AWS Lambda

Building Scalable and Responsive Big Data Interfaces with AWS Lambda

Streaming Data Processing with Amazon Kinesis and AWS Lambda

Thoughts, ideas, comments?