github.com/iron-io/functions@v0.0.0-20180820112432-d59d7d1c40b2/docs/lambda/about.md (about)

     1  
     2  
     3  AWS Lambda introduced serverless computing to the masses. Wouldn't it be nice
     4  if you could run the same Lambda functions on any platform, in any cloud?
     5  Iron.io is proud to release a set of tools that allow just this. Package your
     6  Lambda function in a Docker container and run it anywhere with an environment
     7  similar to AWS Lambda.
     8  
     9  Using a job scheduler such as IronFunctions, you can connect these functions to
    10  webhooks and run them on-demand, at scale. You can also use a container
    11  management system paired with a task queue to run these functions in
    12  a self-contained, platform-independent manner.
    13  
    14  ## Use cases
    15  
    16  Lambda functions are great for writing "worker" processes that perform some
    17  simple, parallelizable task like image processing, ETL transformations,
    18  asynchronous operations driven by Web APIs, or large batch processing.
    19  
    20  All the benefits that containerization brings apply here. Our tools make it
    21  easy to write containerized applications that will run anywhere without having
    22  to fiddle with Docker and get the various runtimes set up. Instead you can just
    23  write a simple function and have an "executable" ready to go.
    24  
    25  ## How does it work?
    26  
    27  We provide base Docker images for the various runtimes that AWS Lambda
    28  supports. The `fn` tool helps package up your Lambda function into
    29  a Docker image layered on the base image. We provide a bootstrap script and
    30  utilities that provide a AWS Lambda environment to your code. You can then run
    31  the Docker image on any platform that supports Docker. This allows you to
    32  easily move Lambda functions to any cloud provider, or host it yourself.
    33  
    34  ## Next steps
    35  
    36  Write, package and run your Lambda functions with our [Getting started
    37  guide](./getting-started.md). [Here is the environment](./environment.md) that
    38  Lambda provides. `fn lambda` lists the commands to work with Lambda
    39  functions locally.
    40  
    41  You can [import](./import.md) existing Lambda functions hosted on Amazon!
    42  The Docker environment required to run Lambda functions is described
    43  [here](./docker.md).
    44  
    45  Non-AWS Lambda functions can continue to interact with AWS services. [Working
    46  with AWS](./aws.md) describes how to access AWS credentials, interact with
    47  services like S3 and how to launch a Lambda function due a notification from
    48  SNS.