104. Explaining Lambda Runtimes
In this episode, we celebrate AWS Lambda's 9th birthday by taking a deep dive into Lambda runtimes. We discuss how Lambda works, compare official runtimes vs. custom runtimes, and explain when and why building a custom runtime might be worth the effort. We talk through how custom runtimes work, options for deploying them, and potential use cases where they could be beneficial over standard runtimes.
💰 SPONSORS 💰
AWS Bites is brought to you by fourTheorem, an Advanced AWS Partner. If you are moving to AWS or need a partner to help you go faster, check us out at fourtheorem.com !
🔖 Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and overview of serverless and AWS Lambda.
01:04 Recapping serverless and AWS Lambda.
01:43 The magic of Lambda is managing compute infrastructure.
02:32 What is a Runtime in the context of AWS Lambda?
04:09 Comparing built-in runtimes vs. custom runtimes.
06:23 How does a custom runtime work?
09:16 The Lambda Runtime API.
11:19 Deploying custom Lambda Runtimes to production.
14:49 Using container image deployments for custom runtimes.
18:38 Recommendations: when are custom runtimes beneficial?
24:12 Closing notes
In this episode, we mentioned the following resources:
The original announcement launching AWS Lambda in 2014: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/what...
List of official Lambda runtimes: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/la...
Library implementing the Rust runtime: https://github.com/awslabs/aws-lambda...
Library implementing the Go runtime: https://github.com/aws/aws-lambda-go/
Library implementing the C++ runtime: https://github.com/awslabs/aws-lambda...
Third-party PHP runtime (Bref): https://bref.sh/
Third-party Swift runtime: https://github.com/swift-server/swift...
Official documentation on how to build a custom runtime: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/la...
An official tutorial on how to build a custom runtime: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/la...
List of all the environment variables available to a runtime: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/la...
Lambda Response Streaming official docs: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/la...
Our previous episode on Lambda Response Streaming: https://awsbites.com/77-how-do-you-us...
On-demand Container Loading in AWS Lambda (paper): https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.13162
Deep dive on container support for AWS Lambda (Eoin's article): https://dev.to/eoinsha/container-imag...
When is the Lambda Init Phase Free, and when is it Billed? (article by Luc van Donkersgoed): https://lucvandonkersgoed.com/2022/04...
You can listen to AWS Bites wherever you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Lh7Pzq...
Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0...
Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/aws-bites
RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/6a3312a0/podcast/rss
Do you have any AWS questions you would like us to address?
Leave a comment here or connect with us on X, formerly Twitter:
/ eoins
/ loige
#aws #lambda #runtime