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AWS Lambda vs stdlib: What are the differences?

What is AWS Lambda? Automatically run code in response to modifications to objects in Amazon S3 buckets, messages in Kinesis streams, or updates in DynamoDB. 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 stdlib? The Standard Library for Functions as a Service. It is the fastest, easiest way to build infinitely scalable, self-healing APIs. Standard Library is based on Function as a Service ("serverless") architecture, initially popularized by AWS Lambda. You can use Standard Library to build modular, scalable APIs for yourself and other developers in minutes without having to manage servers, gateways, domains, write documentation, or build SDKs. Your development workflow has never been easier - focus on writing code you love, let Standard Library handle everything else.

AWS Lambda and stdlib can be categorized as "Serverless / Task Processing" tools.

Some of the features offered by AWS Lambda are:

  • Extend other AWS services with custom logic
  • Build custom back-end services
  • Completely Automated Administration

On the other hand, stdlib provides the following key features:

  • Code online — Browser-based editor
  • Version-controlled API releases
  • Easy API sharing and access control

stdlib is an open source tool with 3.64K GitHub stars and 181 GitHub forks. Here's a link to stdlib's open source repository on GitHub.

Decisions about AWS Lambda and stdlib

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 stdlib
  • 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
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    Cons of AWS Lambda
    Cons of stdlib
    • 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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      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 stdlib?

      It is the fastest, easiest way to build infinitely scalable, self-healing APIs. Standard Library is based on Function as a Service ("serverless") architecture, initially popularized by AWS Lambda. You can use Standard Library to build modular, scalable APIs for yourself and other developers in minutes without having to manage servers, gateways, domains, write documentation, or build SDKs. Your development workflow has never been easier - focus on writing code you love, let Standard Library handle everything else.

      Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

      What companies use AWS Lambda?
      What companies use stdlib?
      Manage your open source components, licenses, and vulnerabilities
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      What tools integrate with AWS Lambda?
      What tools integrate with stdlib?

      Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

      Blog Posts

      GitHubPythonNode.js+47
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      GitHubDockerAmazon EC2+23
      12
      6647
      JavaScriptGitHubPython+42
      53
      22251
      What are some alternatives to AWS Lambda and stdlib?
      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