Scalability and Performance Considerations

Lambda scales horizontally by increasing concurrent executions.

Key Performance Factors

  • Memory allocation (affects CPU power)
  • Cold starts
  • Downstream bottlenecks
  • Timeout configuration

Increasing memory also increases CPU, often reducing execution time.

Timeout Design

Never set maximum timeout blindly.

Design:

  • Short-running functions.
  • Offload heavy tasks to queues.
  • Use asynchronous processing for long workloads.

Protecting Downstream Systems

If Lambda scales rapidly:

  • Database connections may be exhausted.
  • APIs may fail under load.

Use:

  • SQS buffering
  • Rate limiting
  • Reserved concurrency

Scalability must include system-wide impact, not just Lambda.

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