[hn_throwaway_99]

I wonder what effect this may have for AWS Lambdas connecting to a DB for synchronous calls (e.g. through API gateway). The biggest issue with Lambdas IMO is the cold start time. If your Lambda is in a VPC the cold start time is around 8-10 seconds, and if you have decent security practices your database will be in a VPC. I know AWS said they would be working on improving Lambda VPC cold start times, but would like to know if using Aurora Serverless with these kind of "connectionless connections" would also get rid of the need to be in a VPC. I've used Aurora (and really, really liked it) but I haven't used Aurora Serverless.

[ftcHn]

Would it "get rid of the need to be in a VPC"? I think yes.

It looks like by enabling Data API, you expose that endpoint to the entire internet - which is secured like all the other AWS services with HTTPS, IAM, etc.

[coderecipe]

Feel free to take a look at my code sample here with this new Data API on Aurora Serverless https://coderecipe.ai/architectures/77374273, demo and source code included. It removes the need of a vpc and it works like a charm

[davmar]

came here wondering the same thing. those cold start times aren't acceptable for user-facing apps and i had to switch a serverless project from RDS in a VPC to dynamodb. even worse is that these cold start times are for each lambda, so if you've got concurrent usage then each new lambda spin up causes a cold start.

having said that, i'm actually pretty happy with dynamodb...so far.