Learn how to instrument AWS Lambda functions with OpenTelemetry to gain valuable insights and improve the performance of your serverless apps.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers over 200 services. But, AWS Lambda continues to stand out for several reasons. This AWS Lambda tutorial will help explain Lambda in simple terms so you can decide if the service suits your computing needs. We’ll cover AWS Lambda, how it works, how it compares to EC2, use cases, benefits, limitations, and more. Additionally, we’ll cover how you can monitor and manage your Lambda costs without the burden of cost management.

In 2021, we announced the release of the Datadog Lambda extension, a simplified, cost-effective way for customers to collect monitoring data from their AWS Lambda functions. This extension was a specialized build of our main Datadog Agent designed to monitor Lambda executions.

AWS Step Functions coordinate serverless workflows, integrating AWS services with visual state machines for scalable, resilient applications.

Serverless architectures are the rental tux of computing. If you’re using AWS to manage and scale your underlying infrastructure, you’re renting compute time or storage space. Your Lambda functions are the tie or cummerbund you purchase to customize your rental. Using the AWS event-driven architecture improves business agility, allowing you to move quickly. Lambda is the on-demand compute services that runs custom code driving an event’s response.

AWS Lambda is an event-driven compute service, which means it executes tasks automatically when triggered by a compute event. This automation also means that your Lambda costs can quickly exceed your budget. That is especially true when you’re not familiar with AWS Lambda pricing. In this guide, we’ll discuss the AWS Lambda pricing model, including how billing works and how to optimize Lambda costs.

Serverless or event-driven applications can comprise many different distributed components, including serverless compute services such as AWS Lambda and AWS Fargate for Amazon ECS, as well as managed data streams, data stores, workflow orchestration tools, queues, and more. Having full end-to-end visibility into requests as they propagate across all of these parts of your application is crucial to monitoring performance, locating affected up- or downstream services, and troubleshooting issues.

AWS Lambda supports nearly any programming language by enabling developers to run serverless functions with either supported or custom runtimes. Once a runtime is deprecated, however, AWS will set dates for when you can no longer create or update functions using that runtime. You will then need to decide what course of action to take to ensure your Lambda functions continue running as expected.

Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform, has become an essential part of modern businesses, offering a vast array of services and resources. However, effective cost management in Azure is crucial to avoid unexpected expenses and optimize spending. While Azure provides its native tools for cost management, several third-party solutions offer advanced features and capabilities to help you make the most of your Azure resources. This blog will explore the top 24 Azure cost management tools.

As of 2024, the global serverless computing market is projected to reach a value of USD 21.9 billion, with expectations to grow to USD 44.7 billion by 2029. Around 70% of organizations using AWS have adopted at least one serverless solution. The adoption rates for Google Cloud and Azure are 60% and 49%, respectively. These numbers affirm that serverless is here to stay, and the demand for platforms to create and run applications is higher than ever. AWS Lambda is the most popular serverless platform.