AWS Lambda vs Fission: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will explore and compare the key differences between AWS Lambda and Fission. Both AWS Lambda and Fission are serverless computing platforms that allow developers to run code without the need for provisioning or managing servers. However, there are some significant differences between the two platforms that are important to consider when choosing which one to use for your projects.

1. Execution Environment: AWS Lambda provides a fully-managed execution environment, meaning that AWS takes care of managing the underlying infrastructure and automatically scales it based on demand. On the other hand, Fission allows you to choose the execution environment, giving you more control and flexibility. You can run your functions on Kubernetes or any other available backend.

2. Language Support: AWS Lambda supports a wide range of programming languages, including Python, Node.js, Java, C#, and Go. Fission, on the other hand, primarily focuses on supporting the Go programming language. Although Fission can support other languages through its generic container support, it is not as extensive as the language support provided by AWS Lambda.

3. Cold Start Performance: Cold start refers to the time it takes for a function to start up and respond to a request when there is no pre-existing execution environment available. AWS Lambda has optimized its infrastructure to reduce cold starts and provides decent cold start performance. Fission, however, has a higher cold start latency compared to AWS Lambda, as it requires spinning up a new container for each function invocation.

4. Integration with Other Services: AWS Lambda integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, allowing you to easily create serverless applications that leverage services like DynamoDB, S3, and API Gateway. Fission, on the other hand, does not have the same level of integration with other services. While you can still use Fission with other services, you may need to handle the integration manually.

5. Scaling Features: AWS Lambda provides automatic scaling based on the demand, allowing your functions to handle large spikes in traffic without any manual intervention. Fission, on the other hand, relies on Kubernetes for scaling and requires you to configure and manage the scaling behavior yourself. This gives you more control over the scaling process but also requires more manual intervention.

6. Pricing Model: AWS Lambda pricing is based on the number of function invocations and the total compute time used, while Fission pricing is based on the resources consumed by the underlying Kubernetes cluster. This means that the pricing model for AWS Lambda is more granular, allowing you to pay only for the resources you actually use, while Fission pricing may be less flexible in terms of optimization and cost control.

In summary, AWS Lambda offers a fully-managed execution environment, supports multiple programming languages, provides lower cold start latency, has extensive integration with other AWS services, offers automatic scaling, and has a more granular pricing model compared to Fission. On the other hand, Fission provides more control over the execution environment, primarily focuses on supporting the Go programming language, has higher cold start latency, requires manual integration with other services, requires manual scaling configuration, and has a pricing model based on Kubernetes cluster resources.