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Azure Cosmos DB VS AWS Lambda

Compare Azure Cosmos DB VS AWS Lambda and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Azure Cosmos DB logo Azure Cosmos DB

NoSQL JSON database for rapid, iterative app development.

AWS Lambda logo AWS Lambda

Automatic, event-driven compute service
  • Azure Cosmos DB Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-16
  • AWS Lambda Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-29

Azure Cosmos DB features and specs

  • Global Distribution
    Azure Cosmos DB allows for the distribution of data across multiple global regions, enhancing availability and delivering low-latency access to data for users around the world.
  • Multi-Model Support
    It supports multiple data models including document, graph, key-value, and column-family APIs, making it versatile for a variety of applications and use cases.
  • Automatic Scaling
    The database automatically scales up and down to meet the demands of application traffic, helping to manage workloads efficiently without manual intervention.
  • High Throughput and Low Latency
    Cosmos DB offers high performance with single-digit millisecond read and write latencies, ensuring fast access to data for applications.
  • Comprehensive SLAs
    Azure Cosmos DB provides industry-leading SLAs covering availability, throughput, consistency, and latency, offering strong guarantees for customers.
  • Integrated Security
    It includes robust security features such as SSL/TLS encryption, role-based access control, and integration with Azure Active Directory for secure data management.

Possible disadvantages of Azure Cosmos DB

  • Cost
    Azure Cosmos DB can be expensive, especially for high-throughput workloads and global distribution scenarios. Its pricing model based on provisioned throughput (RU/s) can add up quickly.
  • Complexity
    Managing and optimizing Cosmos DB can be complex, requiring a deep understanding of its configuration settings, partitioning strategies, and indexing to achieve optimal performance.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    As a proprietary service, using Cosmos DB tightly couples your application to Azure. This can make it difficult to migrate to other database solutions or cloud providers in the future.
  • Consistency Models
    Azure Cosmos DB supports multiple consistency levels which can introduce complexity in designing applications. Developers need to understand and choose the appropriate consistency level for their specific use case.
  • Limited Native Analytics
    Cosmos DB does not have built-in advanced analytics capabilities. Integrating with other services like Azure Synapse or Databricks may be necessary for sophisticated data analytics and reporting.

AWS Lambda features and specs

  • Scalability
    AWS Lambda automatically scales your application by running your code in response to each trigger. This means no manual intervention is required to handle varying levels of traffic.
  • Cost-effectiveness
    You only pay for the compute time you consume. Billing is metered in increments of 100 milliseconds and you are not charged when your code is not running.
  • Reduced Operations Overhead
    AWS Lambda abstracts the infrastructure management layer, so there is no need to manage or provision servers. This allows you to focus more on writing code for your applications.
  • Flexibility
    Supports multiple programming languages such as Python, Node.js, Ruby, Java, Go, and .NET, which allows you to use the language you are most comfortable with.
  • Integration with Other AWS Services
    Seamlessly integrates with many other AWS services such as S3, DynamoDB, RDS, SNS, and more, making it versatile and highly functional.
  • Automatic Scaling and Load Balancing
    Handles thousands of concurrent requests without managing the scaling yourself, making it suitable for applications requiring high availability and reliability.

Possible disadvantages of AWS Lambda

  • Cold Start Latency
    The first request to a Lambda function after it has been idle for a certain period can take longer to execute. This is referred to as a 'cold start' and can impact performance.
  • Resource Limits
    Lambda has defined limits, such as a maximum execution timeout of 15 minutes, memory allocation ranging from 128 MB to 10,240 MB, and temporary storage up to 512 MB.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Using AWS Lambda ties you into the AWS ecosystem, making it difficult to migrate to another cloud provider or an on-premises solution without significant modifications to your application.
  • Complexity of Debugging
    Debugging and monitoring distributed, serverless applications can be more complex compared to traditional applications due to the lack of direct access to the underlying infrastructure.
  • Cold Start Issues with VPC
    When Lambda functions are configured to access resources within a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), the cold start latency can be exacerbated due to additional VPC networking overhead.
  • Limited Execution Control
    AWS Lambda is designed for stateless, short-running tasks and may not be suitable for long-running processes or tasks requiring complex orchestration.

Azure Cosmos DB videos

Azure Cosmos DB: Comprehensive Overview

More videos:

  • Review - Azure Friday | Azure Cosmos DB with Scott Hanselman
  • Tutorial - Azure Cosmos DB Tutorial | Globally distributed NoSQL database

AWS Lambda videos

AWS Lambda Vs EC2 | Serverless Vs EC2 | EC2 Alternatives

More videos:

  • Tutorial - AWS Lambda Tutorial | AWS Tutorial for Beginners | Intro to AWS Lambda | AWS Training | Edureka
  • Tutorial - AWS Lambda | What is AWS Lambda | AWS Lambda Tutorial for Beginners | Intellipaat

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Azure Cosmos DB and AWS Lambda)
Databases
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Computing
0 0%
100% 100
NoSQL Databases
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Hosting
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Azure Cosmos DB and AWS Lambda

Azure Cosmos DB Reviews

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AWS Lambda Reviews

Top 7 Firebase Alternatives for App Development in 2024
AWS Lambda is suitable for applications with varying workloads and those already using the AWS ecosystem.
Source: signoz.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, AWS Lambda seems to be a lot more popular than Azure Cosmos DB. While we know about 275 links to AWS Lambda, we've tracked only 9 mentions of Azure Cosmos DB. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Azure Cosmos DB mentions (9)

  • Blazor server app, deployment options
    If you are writing the code maybe consider learning Cosmos DB it’s pretty easy to work with and there is a free tier. Also in my experience it’s much faster than a SQL database. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Infrastructure as code (IaC) for Java-based apps on Azure
    Sometimes you don’t need an entire Java-based microservice. You can build serverless APIs with the help of Azure Functions. For example, Azure functions have a bunch of built-in connectors like Azure Event Hubs to process event-driven Java code and send the data to Azure Cosmos DB in real-time. FedEx and UBS projects are great examples of real-time, event-driven Java. I also recommend you to go through 👉 Code,... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Deploying a Mostly Serverless Website on GCP
    When debating the database solution for our application we were really seeking for a scalable serverless database that wouldn’t bill us for idle time. Options like AWS Athena, AWS Aurora Serverless, and Azure Cosmos DB immediately came to mind. We believed that GCP would have a comparable service, yet we could not find one. Even after consulting the GCP cloud service comparison documentation we were still unable... - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Which DB to use for API published on Azure?
    If you are looking for one to start with; you can try Cosmos: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cosmos-db/. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Basic Setup for Azure Cosmos DB and Example Node App
    I have had an opportunity to work on a project that uses Azure Cosmos DB with the MongDB API as the backend database. I wanted to spend a little more time on my own understanding how to perform basic setup and a simple set of CRUD operations from a Node application, as well as construct an easy-to-follow procedure for other developers. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
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AWS Lambda mentions (275)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Azure Cosmos DB and AWS Lambda, you can also consider the following products

Redis - Redis is an open source in-memory data structure project implementing a distributed, in-memory key-value database with optional durability.

Amazon S3 - Amazon S3 is an object storage where users can store data from their business on a safe, cloud-based platform. Amazon S3 operates in 54 availability zones within 18 graphic regions and 1 local region.

ArangoDB - A distributed open-source database with a flexible data model for documents, graphs, and key-values.

Amazon API Gateway - Create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale

MongoDB - MongoDB (from "humongous") is a scalable, high-performance NoSQL database.

Google App Engine - A powerful platform to build web and mobile apps that scale automatically.