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AWS Lambda

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AWS Lambda vs OpenFaaS: What are the differences?

Key Differences between AWS Lambda and OpenFaaS

AWS Lambda and OpenFaaS are both serverless computing platforms, but they have some key differences that set them apart.

  1. Deployment and Hosting: AWS Lambda is a fully managed service provided by Amazon Web Services, which means that AWS takes care of the underlying infrastructure and hosting. On the other hand, OpenFaaS is an open-source framework that allows you to deploy and host functions on your own infrastructure or on third-party cloud providers.

  2. Programming Languages and Runtimes: AWS Lambda supports a wide range of programming languages, including Node.js, Java, Python, and more. It also allows you to use custom runtimes to run functions in any language. OpenFaaS also supports multiple languages, but it relies on Docker containers, which means you can use any programming language supported by Docker.

  3. Scaling: AWS Lambda automatically scales the number of function instances based on the incoming request volume, allowing you to handle large loads without manual intervention. OpenFaaS also supports scaling, but it requires manual configuration and setup. You need to specify the desired number of replicas to handle the load.

  4. Vendor Lock-in: AWS Lambda is a proprietary service offered by Amazon, which means it ties you to the AWS ecosystem. If you develop functions using Lambda, it may be challenging to migrate them to other cloud providers or hosting platforms. OpenFaaS, being open-source, provides more flexibility in terms of vendor lock-in, as you can deploy functions on different cloud providers or your own infrastructure.

  5. Community and Ecosystem: AWS Lambda has a large and well-established community, along with a comprehensive ecosystem of services and tools provided by AWS. OpenFaaS also has a growing community and ecosystem, but it may not be as extensive as AWS Lambda. Depending on your requirements and preferences, the size and maturity of the community and ecosystem can be an important factor to consider.

  6. Pricing Model: The pricing model for AWS Lambda is based on the number of requests and the compute time consumed by the functions. You only pay for the actual usage of the functions. OpenFaaS, being a self-hosted solution, allows you to choose your infrastructure and hosting providers, which may have different pricing models. It provides more flexibility in terms of cost optimization.

In summary, the key differences between AWS Lambda and OpenFaaS include deployment and hosting, programming languages and runtimes, scaling, vendor lock-in, community and ecosystem, and pricing model.

Decisions about AWS Lambda and OpenFaaS

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

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Pros of AWS Lambda
Pros of OpenFaaS
  • 129
    No infrastructure
  • 83
    Cheap
  • 70
    Quick
  • 59
    Stateless
  • 47
    No deploy, no server, great sleep
  • 12
    AWS Lambda went down taking many sites with it
  • 6
    Event Driven Governance
  • 6
    Extensive API
  • 6
    Auto scale and cost effective
  • 6
    Easy to deploy
  • 5
    VPC Support
  • 3
    Integrated with various AWS services
  • 5
    Open source
  • 4
    Ease
  • 3
    Autoscaling
  • 2
    Community
  • 2
    Documentation
  • 1
    Async

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Cons of AWS Lambda
Cons of OpenFaaS
  • 7
    Cant execute ruby or go
  • 3
    Compute time limited
  • 1
    Can't execute PHP w/o significant effort
    Be the first to leave a con

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    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is AWS Lambda?

    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.

    What is OpenFaaS?

    Serverless Functions Made Simple for Docker and Kubernetes

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    What companies use AWS Lambda?
    What companies use OpenFaaS?
    See which teams inside your own company are using AWS Lambda or OpenFaaS.
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    What tools integrate with AWS Lambda?
    What tools integrate with OpenFaaS?

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    Blog Posts

    GitHubPythonNode.js+47
    54
    72281
    GitHubDockerAmazon EC2+23
    12
    6560
    JavaScriptGitHubPython+42
    53
    21803
    What are some alternatives to AWS Lambda and OpenFaaS?
    Serverless
    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.
    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.
    AWS Elastic Beanstalk
    Once you upload your application, Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring.
    AWS Step Functions
    AWS Step Functions makes it easy to coordinate the components of distributed applications and microservices using visual workflows. Building applications from individual components that each perform a discrete function lets you scale and change applications quickly.
    Google App Engine
    Google has a reputation for highly reliable, high performance infrastructure. With App Engine you can take advantage of the 10 years of knowledge Google has in running massively scalable, performance driven systems. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow.
    See all alternatives