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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Serverless
  4. Serverless Task Processing
  5. AWS Lambda vs Apache OpenWhisk vs Serverless

AWS Lambda vs Apache OpenWhisk vs Serverless

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

AWS Lambda
AWS Lambda
Stacks26.0K
Followers18.8K
Votes432
Serverless
Serverless
Stacks2.2K
Followers1.2K
Votes28
GitHub Stars46.9K
Forks5.7K
Apache OpenWhisk
Apache OpenWhisk
Stacks58
Followers149
Votes7

AWS Lambda vs Apache OpenWhisk vs Serverless: What are the differences?

  1. Execution Environment: AWS Lambda provides a managed environment where users can upload their code without worrying about infrastructure management, whereas Apache OpenWhisk allows users to bring their own execution environment, giving more control over dependencies and configurations. Serverless, on the other hand, is a framework that supports multiple cloud providers, including AWS Lambda and Apache OpenWhisk, allowing users to switch easily between different providers.
  2. Programming Language Support: AWS Lambda supports a limited number of programming languages such as Node.js, Python, Java, and C#, while Apache OpenWhisk has broader support for languages like Node.js, Python, Java, Swift, and PHP. Serverless, being a framework, can support multiple languages as it abstracts the underlying provider-specific details, making it easier for developers to work with different languages across different providers.
  3. Request Handling: AWS Lambda supports synchronous and asynchronous invocations where events trigger the execution of functions, while Apache OpenWhisk uses triggers and rules to manage event-driven executions. Serverless abstracts the underlying event handling mechanism, allowing developers to focus on writing functions without worrying about event configurations.
  4. Scalability: AWS Lambda automatically scales the invocation of functions based on demand without any configuration needed from the user, whereas Apache OpenWhisk provides more control over scalability through the configuration of limits and concurrency. Serverless abstracts the scalability requirements, making it easier for developers to deploy scalable applications without manual intervention.
  5. Pricing Model: AWS Lambda offers a pay-per-use pricing model where users only pay for the compute time consumed, while Apache OpenWhisk follows a similar pricing model but with more flexibility in resource allocation. Serverless integrates with the pricing models of different cloud providers, allowing users to take advantage of cost-efficient strategies across multiple providers.

In Summary, the key differences between AWS Lambda, Apache OpenWhisk, and Serverless lie in their execution environment, programming language support, request handling methods, scalability options, and pricing models.

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Advice on AWS Lambda, Serverless, Apache OpenWhisk

Tim
Tim

CTO at Checkly Inc.

Sep 18, 2019

Needs adviceonHerokuHerokuAWS LambdaAWS Lambda

When adding a new feature to Checkly rearchitecting some older piece, I tend to pick Heroku for rolling it out. But not always, because sometimes I pick AWS Lambda . The short story:

  • Developer Experience trumps everything.
  • AWS Lambda is cheap. Up to a limit though. This impact not only your wallet.
  • If you need geographic spread, AWS is lonely at the top.

The setup

Recently, I was doing a brainstorm at a startup here in Berlin on the future of their infrastructure. They were ready to move on from their initial, almost 100% Ec2 + Chef based setup. Everything was on the table. But we crossed out a lot quite quickly:

  • Pure, uncut, self hosted Kubernetes — way too much complexity
  • Managed Kubernetes in various flavors — still too much complexity
  • Zeit — Maybe, but no Docker support
  • Elastic Beanstalk — Maybe, bit old but does the job
  • Heroku
  • Lambda

It became clear a mix of PaaS and FaaS was the way to go. What a surprise! That is exactly what I use for Checkly! But when do you pick which model?

I chopped that question up into the following categories:

  • Developer Experience / DX 🤓
  • Ops Experience / OX 🐂 (?)
  • Cost 💵
  • Lock in 🔐

Read the full post linked below for all details

357k views357k
Comments
Mark
Mark

Nov 2, 2020

Needs adviceonMicrosoft AzureMicrosoft Azure

Need advice on what platform, systems and tools to use.

Evaluating whether to start a new digital business for which we will need to build a website that handles all traffic. Website only right now. May add smartphone apps later. No desktop app will ever be added. Website to serve various countries and languages. B2B and B2C type customers. Need to handle heavy traffic, be low cost, and scale well.

We are open to either build it on AWS or on Microsoft Azure.

Apologies if I'm leaving out some info. My first post. :) Thanks in advance!

133k views133k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

AWS Lambda
AWS Lambda
Serverless
Serverless
Apache OpenWhisk
Apache OpenWhisk

AWS Lambda is a compute service that runs your code in response to events and automatically manages the underlying compute resources for you. You can use AWS Lambda to extend other AWS services with custom logic, or create your own back-end services that operate at AWS scale, performance, and security.

Build applications comprised of microservices that run in response to events, auto-scale for you, and only charge you when they run. This lowers the total cost of maintaining your apps, enabling you to build more logic, faster. The Framework uses new event-driven compute services, like AWS Lambda, Google CloudFunctions, and more.

OpenWhisk is an open source serverless platform. It is enterprise grade and accessible to all developers thanks to its superior programming model and tooling. It powers IBM Cloud Functions, Adobe I/O Runtime, Naver, Nimbella among others.

Extend other AWS services with custom logic;Build custom back-end services;Completely Automated Administration;Built-in Fault Tolerance;Automatic Scaling;Integrated Security Model;Bring Your Own Code;Pay Per Use;Flexible Resource Model
-
Serverless functions;FaaS;Fine-grained resource consumption;Use any language;Containers as functions; service;Functions-as-a-Service;Function composition;Step Functions;Docker;Kubernetes;Open source community;Apache
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
46.9K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
5.7K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
26.0K
Stacks
2.2K
Stacks
58
Followers
18.8K
Followers
1.2K
Followers
149
Votes
432
Votes
28
Votes
7
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 129
    No infrastructure
  • 83
    Cheap
  • 70
    Quick
  • 59
    Stateless
  • 47
    No deploy, no server, great sleep
Cons
  • 7
    Cant execute ruby or go
  • 3
    Compute time limited
  • 1
    Can't execute PHP w/o significant effort
Pros
  • 14
    API integration
  • 7
    Supports cloud functions for Google, Azure, and IBM
  • 3
    Lower cost
  • 1
    3. Simplified Management for developers to focus on cod
  • 1
    Openwhisk
Pros
  • 4
    You are not tied to a provider. IBM available however
  • 3
    Still exploring... its just intresting
Integrations
No integrations available
Azure Functions
Azure Functions
Amazon API Gateway
Amazon API Gateway
Node.js
Node.js
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code
JavaScript
JavaScript
Python
Python
npm
npm
Kubernetes
Kubernetes
Docker
Docker
Swift
Swift
Java
Java
Slack
Slack

What are some alternatives to AWS Lambda, Serverless, Apache OpenWhisk?

Azure Functions

Azure Functions

Azure Functions is an event driven, compute-on-demand experience that extends the existing Azure application platform with capabilities to implement code triggered by events occurring in virtually any Azure or 3rd party service as well as on-premises systems.

Google Cloud Run

Google Cloud Run

A managed compute platform that enables you to run stateless containers that are invocable via HTTP requests. It's serverless by abstracting away all infrastructure management.

Google Cloud Functions

Google Cloud Functions

Construct applications from bite-sized business logic billed to the nearest 100 milliseconds, only while your code is running

Knative

Knative

Knative provides a set of middleware components that are essential to build modern, source-centric, and container-based applications that can run anywhere: on premises, in the cloud, or even in a third-party data center

OpenFaaS

OpenFaaS

Serverless Functions Made Simple for Docker and Kubernetes

Nuclio

Nuclio

nuclio is portable across IoT devices, laptops, on-premises datacenters and cloud deployments, eliminating cloud lock-ins and enabling hybrid solutions.

Cloud Functions for Firebase

Cloud Functions for Firebase

Cloud Functions for Firebase lets you create functions that are triggered by Firebase products, such as changes to data in the Realtime Database, uploads to Cloud Storage, new user sign ups via Authentication, and conversion events in Analytics.

AWS Batch

AWS Batch

It enables developers, scientists, and engineers to easily and efficiently run hundreds of thousands of batch computing jobs on AWS. It dynamically provisions the optimal quantity and type of compute resources (e.g., CPU or memory optimized instances) based on the volume and specific resource requirements of the batch jobs submitted.

Fission

Fission

Write short-lived functions in any language, and map them to HTTP requests (or other event triggers). Deploy functions instantly with one command. There are no containers to build, and no Docker registries to manage.

Lambada Framework

Lambada Framework

Lambada framework is a REST framework that implements JAX-RS API and lets you deploy your applications to AWS Lambda and API Gateway in a serverless fashion. With Lambada you can migrate the existing JAX-RS applications with a very little effort and build scalable applications without having to deal with servers.

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