Getting Started with AWS Lambda

John
8 min read
AWSDevOps

AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers. In this tutorial, we'll walk through creating your first Lambda function.

What is AWS Lambda?

AWS Lambda automatically runs your code in response to events, such as:

  • HTTP requests via API Gateway
  • File uploads to S3
  • Database changes in DynamoDB
  • Scheduled events using EventBridge

Creating Your First Function

Here's a simple Node.js Lambda function:

exports.handler = async (event) => {
  console.log('Event received:', event);

  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify({
      message: 'Hello from Lambda!',
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString()
    })
  };
};

Key Benefits

  1. No server management - Focus on code, not infrastructure
  2. Automatic scaling - Handles 1 to 10,000+ requests per second
  3. Pay per use - Only pay for compute time used
  4. Built-in fault tolerance - Automatically maintains compute capacity

Next Steps

Now that you've created your first Lambda function, consider exploring:

  • API Gateway integration
  • Event-driven architectures
  • Infrastructure as Code with AWS CDK
  • Monitoring with CloudWatch

Happy coding!

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