What do you think?
Rate this book
AWS Lambda in Action
AWS Lambda lets you quickly and easily build and run applications on the AWS cloud that automatically run code in response to events. AWS Lambda makes back-end tasks like producing a thumbnail from a new image or processing requests from a mobile app simple to implement, ready for web-scale traffic, and free of the overhead of managing scalability and availability. With AWS Lambda, every interaction between resources is the potential source of an event that can be processed in near real-time by a function hosted by Lambda. This event-driven approach in the back end of your application lets you focus on developing unique features, freeing you from management of infrastructure. With AWS Lambda, the scope of your application is naturally divided in small functions, giving you a reactive architecture and the right approach to adopt microservices.
AWS Lambda in Action is an example-driven tutorial that teaches you how to build applications that use an event-driven approach on the back end. You'll begin with an overview of how AWS Lambda works and move on to expose those functions as web API using Amazon API Gateway. After an introduction to how to approach security, you move on to common examples and patterns that you can easily reuse to call Lambda functions from a web page or a mobile app. The second part of the book puts all those smaller examples together to build larger applications. Learn also how AWS Lambda can be used to manage resources on AWS, react to notifications and alarms from other AWS services, and even use Lambda functions to deploy other Lambda functions, building a new kind of Continuous Integration. By the end of this book, you'll be ready to use AWS Lambda to create applications that take advantage of the high availability, security, performance, and scalability of AWS.
AWS Lambda in Action is an example-driven tutorial that teaches you how to build applications that use an event-driven approach on the back end. You'll begin with an overview of how AWS Lambda works and move on to expose those functions as web API using Amazon API Gateway. After an introduction to how to approach security, you move on to common examples and patterns that you can easily reuse to call Lambda functions from a web page or a mobile app. The second part of the book puts all those smaller examples together to build larger applications. Learn also how AWS Lambda can be used to manage resources on AWS, react to notifications and alarms from other AWS services, and even use Lambda functions to deploy other Lambda functions, building a new kind of Continuous Integration. By the end of this book, you'll be ready to use AWS Lambda to create applications that take advantage of the high availability, security, performance, and scalability of AWS.
- GenresProgrammingTechnology
475 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2016
16 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 12, 2017
Very good book on a topic that ... doesn't require a book that much.
I've bought this one as a MEAP some time ago when I had barely any knowledge on what AWS Lambda is (& will be, as it was in this service'es infancy period), but the version I've read (& reviewed) is the final one.
To keep the long story short:
* code samples are very clear, written in JS (Node.js) & Python
* there's a brief (but sufficient) description of other AWS services you'd need to know to work with Lambda (e.g. IAM, API Gateway), so you shouldn't get stuck even if you're fresh'n'green
* there's also an event-driven architecture primer (incl. actor model, reactive paradigm & the other usual suspects), but I've skimmed through very quickly as it's (not a surprise) very generic
* there's a nice (& rather practical) introduction to AWS Cognito - I found it very useful (especially because the service itself is interesting but not that popular)
* (fortunately) author didn't commit the typical sin of neglecting deployment/operations aspect - there are 2 & half chapters on the topic :)
In general - it's really a very good book if you want to get familiar with AWS Lambda. It's technical depth ain't astonishing (as Lambda itself isn't ...), but it's not the point as clear book fulfills its mission.
I've bought this one as a MEAP some time ago when I had barely any knowledge on what AWS Lambda is (& will be, as it was in this service'es infancy period), but the version I've read (& reviewed) is the final one.
To keep the long story short:
* code samples are very clear, written in JS (Node.js) & Python
* there's a brief (but sufficient) description of other AWS services you'd need to know to work with Lambda (e.g. IAM, API Gateway), so you shouldn't get stuck even if you're fresh'n'green
* there's also an event-driven architecture primer (incl. actor model, reactive paradigm & the other usual suspects), but I've skimmed through very quickly as it's (not a surprise) very generic
* there's a nice (& rather practical) introduction to AWS Cognito - I found it very useful (especially because the service itself is interesting but not that popular)
* (fortunately) author didn't commit the typical sin of neglecting deployment/operations aspect - there are 2 & half chapters on the topic :)
In general - it's really a very good book if you want to get familiar with AWS Lambda. It's technical depth ain't astonishing (as Lambda itself isn't ...), but it's not the point as clear book fulfills its mission.
June 27, 2019
This is good but too much time on basic AWS. The lambda info is in the back.
November 16, 2023
Is a really good book but the examples are outdated. A wide range of topics and useful theory and use cases
June 15, 2017
A very good starter reading for AWS Lambda.
Pros:
- all the samples are mostly in JS (sometimes also Python) but they are kept on such a level (e.g. don't use many external libs) that you would easily be able convert them (mentally) to C# or Java.
- it covers most of services that you may need to start developing with Lambda
- apart from development practices it shows you how to start working with security, deployment and versioning (things I could imagine could easily be neglected by many authors)
- covers (well mostly list them with brief description) most commonly used frameworks that you can use (again - assuming you are using JS or Python).
Cons:
- it falls short in the area of useful patterns to be adopted on AWS Lamba - this could easily be a separate chapter (or even part of the book) about this
- I could use a part about commonly met problems with Lambda and how to overcome them (e.g. how to overcome the problem with undetermined number of instances of Lambda running at the same time at general lack of orchestration).
Imagine for instance a solution with DDD and Akka Cluster where actors back operations for certain aggregates. This model is relatively wide-spread and easy to mentally understand (particular aggregate is handled by one specific actor on one single node within a cluster). Yet this approach is completely unfeasible for AWS Lambda (or is it?). It would be interesting to go for instance into such scenarios and see how we could think about adapting them to Lambda landscape.
Overall good introductory reading.
Pros:
- all the samples are mostly in JS (sometimes also Python) but they are kept on such a level (e.g. don't use many external libs) that you would easily be able convert them (mentally) to C# or Java.
- it covers most of services that you may need to start developing with Lambda
- apart from development practices it shows you how to start working with security, deployment and versioning (things I could imagine could easily be neglected by many authors)
- covers (well mostly list them with brief description) most commonly used frameworks that you can use (again - assuming you are using JS or Python).
Cons:
- it falls short in the area of useful patterns to be adopted on AWS Lamba - this could easily be a separate chapter (or even part of the book) about this
- I could use a part about commonly met problems with Lambda and how to overcome them (e.g. how to overcome the problem with undetermined number of instances of Lambda running at the same time at general lack of orchestration).
Imagine for instance a solution with DDD and Akka Cluster where actors back operations for certain aggregates. This model is relatively wide-spread and easy to mentally understand (particular aggregate is handled by one specific actor on one single node within a cluster). Yet this approach is completely unfeasible for AWS Lambda (or is it?). It would be interesting to go for instance into such scenarios and see how we could think about adapting them to Lambda landscape.
Overall good introductory reading.
June 28, 2018
Good review of AWS Lambda, but some of the examples seemed a little less than production ready. Also convinced me that adoption a framework like Serverless.com makes a lot of sense.
April 9, 2017
AWS Lambda is a way to develop in terms of functions and be able to deploy the functions directly to the cloud (without creating VM, deploying OS and application servers our usual web based frameworks)
If you know nothing about Lambda, it is a good way to get some idea about it.
But the book in general seems to lack a general theme and has several review/editing issues. It starts with a project, then without continuity it forgets about the project and delves on authentication (which granted is an interesting topic), then moves back to the project, then shows a philosophical one (chapter 12) that looks it was initially in a different place (since it mentions the project that will be built in future chapters), then it ends up with a strange mix of recipes that includes some good practices and some (at least to me) things that don't look right.
Similarly, the book starts mentioning that it is going to focus in Javascript and Python, since other runtimes are more complicated. The first few chapters show the code for both JS and Python, and then only Python. It would have been better, to show only a glimpse of Python (and maybe Java and C#) afterwards, but focus in one language.
I guess the main issue is that being interested in the topic, I was expected a more consolidated body of knowledge and recommended way to do things, but I found the field is lacking that state.
Still interested in the topic, and probably I will be playing more in the future.
If you know nothing about Lambda, it is a good way to get some idea about it.
But the book in general seems to lack a general theme and has several review/editing issues. It starts with a project, then without continuity it forgets about the project and delves on authentication (which granted is an interesting topic), then moves back to the project, then shows a philosophical one (chapter 12) that looks it was initially in a different place (since it mentions the project that will be built in future chapters), then it ends up with a strange mix of recipes that includes some good practices and some (at least to me) things that don't look right.
Similarly, the book starts mentioning that it is going to focus in Javascript and Python, since other runtimes are more complicated. The first few chapters show the code for both JS and Python, and then only Python. It would have been better, to show only a glimpse of Python (and maybe Java and C#) afterwards, but focus in one language.
I guess the main issue is that being interested in the topic, I was expected a more consolidated body of knowledge and recommended way to do things, but I found the field is lacking that state.
Still interested in the topic, and probably I will be playing more in the future.
April 15, 2017
This is a good book on AWS Lambda and the author handholds you from "hello world", to building face detection using OpenCV, and more.
PROS:
* Easy-to-follow
* Shows you how to use AWS Lambda for a greenfield project and gives you a glimpse of how you can use it for a brownfield project.
* Shows you how to build dev / test / prod environments
CONS:
* At times the book loses track. It goes from building a media application to a very detailed section on security for your Lambda functions and finally comes back to it in chapter 11.
If you're willing to let go of the lack of coherence, this book gives you everything you need to know about using AWS Lambda.
PROS:
* Easy-to-follow
* Shows you how to use AWS Lambda for a greenfield project and gives you a glimpse of how you can use it for a brownfield project.
* Shows you how to build dev / test / prod environments
CONS:
* At times the book loses track. It goes from building a media application to a very detailed section on security for your Lambda functions and finally comes back to it in chapter 11.
If you're willing to let go of the lack of coherence, this book gives you everything you need to know about using AWS Lambda.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews