Reducing Cold Starts with AWS Lambda and Graal VM

The presentation discusses the following key points:

Kotlin for AWS Lambda: Kotlin is presented as a modern, concise language that is well-suited for scalable serverless applications, offering strong type safety and seamless Java integration. It is noted for its benefits over Java, including concise syntax, null safety, functional programming, and Java interoperability, making it ideal for AWS Lambda development.

Understanding Cold Starts: The presentation explains cold starts in AWS Lambda, which are delays caused by initializing the runtime environment and dependencies during the first invocation after a period of inactivity. These cold starts can increase response times and reduce throughput, particularly impacting real-time applications. Factors contributing to cold starts include infrequent invocations, large function sizes, complex dependencies, and heavy libraries.

GraalVM: The presentation introduces GraalVM as a high-performance, polyglot virtual machine that supports multiple languages and offers advanced optimizations such as Ahead-of-Time (AOT) compilation. GraalVM is highlighted for its benefits in serverless environments, particularly in reducing cold start times and improving performance by generating native images.

GraalVM's Advantages: Specific advantages of GraalVM for serverless applications include faster startup times, lower memory usage, reduced vulnerabilities, and the ability to create lightweight, scalable applications.

Kotlin's Multiplatform Capabilities: Kotlin's ability to run on multiple platforms, including JavaScript, Objective-C, and Swift, is emphasized, making it a versatile choice for serverless and other types of applications.

Transcript

1. Super Charging AWS Lambda Kashif Mehmood
2. Why should you care about Kotlin?
3. Understanding Cold Starts Cold Starts in AWS Lambda: Delays caused by initializing the runtime environment and dependencies during the first invocation after inactivity. Cold Starts in AWS Lambda: Delays caused by initializing the runtime environment and dependencies during the first invocation after inactivity. Impact on Performance: Cold starts increase response times and reduce throughput, affecting real-time applications. Contributing Factors: Infrequent invocations, large function sizes, complex dependencies, and heavy libraries increase cold start occurrences
4. Kotlin: A Modern Language for AWS Lambda Kotlin for AWS Lambda: A modern, concise language ideal for scalable serverless applications with strong type safety and seamless Java integration. Cold Starts in AWS Lambda: Delays caused by initializing the runtime environment and dependencies during the first invocation after inactivity. Benefits over Java: Kotlin's concise syntax, null safety, functional programming, and Java interoperability make it superior for Lambda development. Enhancing Lambda Development: Kotlin's coroutines, data classes, and lambda expressions boost efficiency, maintainability, and reduce errors in Lambda functions.
5. The Holy Graal GraalVM Overview: A high-performance, polyglot virtual machine supporting multiple languages, ideal for efficient, scalable applications. Truffle Framework: Truffle allows for the implementation and efficient execution of multiple languages within GraalVM. Polyglot Nature: GraalVM enables seamless integration of different languages within a single application for complex, interoperable systems. Difference from Traditional JVM: GraalVM employs advanced optimizations like AOT compilation, offering faster startup times and better runtime performance. Benefits for Serverless: GraalVM's native image generation reduces cold start times and boosts performance in serverless environments like AWS Lambda.
6. The Holy Graal - Polyglot
7. The Holy Graal Start Fast Low Resource Usage Minimize Vulnerability Compact Packaging
8. Start Fast JIT Load JAR files from disk Uncompress class files Verify class definitions Execute in interpreter (~20x slower) Gather profiling feedback Compile to machine code Execute at peak performance AOT Load executable from Disk Execute at Peak Performance
9. Low Memory Usage
10. Memory Scalability
11. Reduce Vulnerability • No new unknown code can be loaded at run time • Only paths proven reachable by the application are included in the image • Reflection is disabled by default and needs an explicit include list • Deserialization only enabled for specified list of classes • Just-in-time compiler crashes, wrong compilations, or “JIT spraying” to create machine code gadgets are impossible
12. Lightweight Applications
13. Use Cases
14. Use Cases
15. Kotlin is Multiplatform Kotlin can run everywhere, can be transpiled to Js, ObjC, Swift and more.
16. Kotlin is Multiplatform
17. Thank You for Listening