J-Fall 2022: Ten performance improvements for your Java based AWS Lambda functions

More and more enterprise organizations are moving toward the Cloud or want to adopt a more cloud-native operating model. Adopting serverless compute services like AWS Lambda is high on developers' wish lists.
Most of these organizations use Java for their existing applications, but Java is known for its high cold start times and high memory footprint in Serverless environments. Because of this, some developers switch to a different programming language when working with AWS Lambda, but you don't always have to do that. In this talk, I will share some of the lessons I learned that will help improve the performance of these Java-based Lambda functions.

After this talk, you should have some inspiration to squeeze even more performance out of your existing Java based serverless functions.

Transcript

1. 14 performance 
 improvements for your 
 Serverless Java functions Jeroen Reijn # jfall.
2. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) My name is Jeroen Reijn #Luminis #Java #AWS #Serverless | @jreijn
3. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) Serverless functions 🚀 Photo by Vladimir Anikeev on Unsplash
4. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) Java = Slow? 🤔 Photo by Razvan Cristea on Unsplash
5. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) Cold 🥶 Starts Photo by Hakan Aldrin on Unsplash
6. What are cold starts? Source: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/compute/operating-lambda-performance-optimization-part-1/
7. When do they happen? Source: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/compute/operating-lambda-performance-optimization-part-1/
8. How often do they happen? Source: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/compute/operating-lambda-performance-optimization-part-1/
9. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) So what can we do?
10. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 1. More memory 
 = 
 More vCPUs Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash
11. Memory vs vCPUs Source: https://www.sentiatechblog.com/aws-re-invent-2020-day-3-optimizing-lambda-cost-with-multi-threading
12. Memory vs vCPUs
13. Memory vs vCPUs Source: https://catalog.workshops.aws/java-on-aws-lambda/en-US/02-accelerate/power-tuning
14. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 2. Static initialization Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash
15. Static Initialization
16. Static Initialization
17. Static Initialization
18. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 3. Use lightweight dependencies Photo by Pedro Vit on Unsplash
19. Lightweight dependencies
20. Lightweight dependencies
21. Lightweight dependencies
22. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 4. Precon fi guration Photo by Rima Krucieneon Unsplash
23. Be explicit in configuration
24. Be explicit in configuration
25. Be explicit in configuration
26. Be explicit in configuration
27. Be explicit in configuration
28. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 5. Tiered Compilation Photo by Patti Black on Unsplash
29. Tiered compilation Interpreter C1: No pro fi ling C1: Limited Pro fi ling C1: Full Pro fi ling C2 0 1 2 3 4 Compilation level Slower Faster
30. Tiered compilation
31. Tiered compilation
32. Tiered compilation Settings Type # of invocations p90 (ms) p95 (ms) p99 (ms) Default settings Cold start 754 5,212 5,338 5,517 Default settings Warm start 35,247 58 93 255 Tiered compilation stopping at level 1 Cold start 383 2,071 2,086 2,221 Tiered compilation stopping at level 1 Warm start 35,618 23 32 86 Source: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/compute/increasing-performance-of-java-aws-lambda-functions-using-tiered-compilation/
33. Tiered compilation Settings Type # of invocations p90 (ms) p95 (ms) p99 (ms) Default settings Cold start 754 5,212 5,338 5,517 Default settings Warm start 35,247 58 93 255 Tiered compilation stopping at level 1 Cold start 383 2,071 2,086 2,221 Tiered compilation stopping at level 1 Warm start 35,618 23 32 86 Source: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/compute/increasing-performance-of-java-aws-lambda-functions-using-tiered-compilation/
34. Tiered compilation Settings Type # of invocations p90 (ms) p95 (ms) p99 (ms) Default settings Cold start 754 5,212 5,338 5,517 Default settings Warm start 35,247 58 93 255 Tiered compilation stopping at level 1 Cold start 383 2,071 2,086 2,221 Tiered compilation stopping at level 1 Warm start 35,618 23 32 86 Source: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/compute/increasing-performance-of-java-aws-lambda-functions-using-tiered-compilation/
35. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 6. Provisioned Concurrency Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash
36. Concurrency As demand increases, the Lambda service increases concurrent executions • One function instance handles one request • Concurrency is a measure of concurrent executions
37. Lambda initialisation
38. Provisioned Concurrency Source: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/compute/operating-lambda-performance-optimization-part-1/
39. Provisioned Concurrency
40. Autoscaling
41. Autoscaling
42. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 7. Frameworks Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash
43. Which Framework?
44. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 8. No Framework Photo by Gemma Evans on Unsplash
45. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 9. Package size Photo by Nam Anh on Unsplash
46. Package size Jar size Libraries + Classpath scanning
47. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 10. GraalVM 
 AOT Native Image Photo by Patti Black on Unsplash
48. GraalVM
49. GraalVM Source: https://www.graalvmonlambda.com/walkthrough/graalvm-performance/
50. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 11. CRaC Photo by Malcolm Lightbody on Unsplash
51. Coordinated Restore at Checkpoint- CRAC • Creates a checkpoint (make an image of, snapshot) a Java instance while it is executing and then restores the state of the JVM from this snapshot • Part of OpenJDK • Experimental • Micronaut recently added support
52. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 12. Parallelize Photo by the blowup on Unsplash
53. Parallelize Leverage those vCPUs!
54. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 13. Switch to ARM Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash
55. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) 14. Be careful with layers Photo by Clark Van Der Beken on Unsplash
56. Layers can add (a lot) of latency Removed OTEL layer
57. Foto: Annette Bernhardt (CC BY-SA 2.0) Overall impact Photo by César Couto on Unsplash
58. Migrating a Spring Boot application Source: https://catalog.workshops.aws/java-on-aws-lambda/en-US/01-migration/results
59. Thanks for your attention Please rate my session in the J-Fall app # jfall. Reach out at @jreijn