how long does it take to deploy a serverless function?

Question

using any method - cli, serverless.com, terraform, roughly:

how much time can i expect to pass between these two steps:

1. submitting a new function to AWS (or azure or GCF), and
2. having that function hosted live in the cloud?

note that i'm not asking about cold start times.

i'm wondering how long it takes new function code to be entered into and hosted in the AWS lambda system (or azure, ibm, google etc) for a given region. that is, after taking steps to deploy some new lambda/serverless function code, approximately how soon will i be able to use it?

Answer 1

My general experience of Serverless across the three major clouds is that:

• GCP takes up to two minutes.
• AWS takes about a minute.
• Azure is a bit random and has bad days when it can take five minutes, but mostly around two minutes.

Some of it rather depends on how you measure it, and what you use to deploy it. Something like Serverless Framework will do some additional work to creating a CloudFormation template which adds to the overall time.

A former colleague of mine, James Randall, has published quite a few articles on various aspects of Serverless performance - I haven't seen anything specific around how long it takes for a cloud provider to distribute code to the point of execution, but you may be able to glean some additional answers from his work.

Answer 2

This will vary based on your cloud provider and what services you are using. AWS Lambda functions are designed to be highly available for the region. Per the AWS Lambda FAQ:

When you update a Lambda function, there will be a brief window of time, typically less than a minute, when requests could be served by either the old or the new version of your function.

So the new function will not be instantaneously available, and there is a possibility that the old function may be called.