Data Analytics in the AWS Cloud

CHAPTER 4Serverless Computing and Data Engineering

Since the advent of AWS Lambda in late 2014, serverless computing has gained a tremendous amount of momentum and revolutionized the way we do cloud computing.

Let's first see what serverless computing is and what use cases it fits, and then explore how it is applied to the world of data engineering and analytics.

SERVERLESS, ONLY BY NAME

Clearly, any piece of software needs a computer to run on, and when this computer is not a personal workstation but rather serves or processes data within a wider system, it is a server. Serverless does not mean “without servers” as much as it means “no need to manage servers.” I question how misleading this nomenclature is, but that's what we have, and ...