Accelerated AWS Lambda Scaling for Amazon SQS Event Sources

AWS has introduced a significant scaling enhancement for AWS Lambda when interfacing with Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), catering to event-driven applications that experience rapid increases in message volume.

Faster Response to Message Spikes

With this update, Lambda can now scale up to five times quicker in reaction to surges in SQS messages. This means applications can process messages swiftly without the need to replicate Lambda functions or queues.

Improved Scaling Capabilities

Previously, Lambda scaling was limited to 60 concurrent executions per minute, capping at 1,250 in about 20 minutes. The new feature can reach up to 300 concurrent executions per minute, allowing the system to hit the maximum rate much faster, with no additional action required from the user and at no extra cost.

User Control and Concurrency Management

Even with automatic scaling, users maintain control over Lambda invocations:

• Reserved Concurrency: Ensures a dedicated concurrency allocation to a function, preventing other functions from using it.
• Maximum Concurrency: Limits the number of concurrent invocations an event source can send to a Lambda function, offering granular control for each SQS event source.

These mechanisms ensure that the scaling does not overload the system and that sufficient concurrency is available for efficient function execution.

Learn more in Introducing faster polling scale-up for AWS Lambda functions configured with Amazon SQS .