Is AWS Lambda considered parallel processing?

Question

I couldn't fit this question in any of the stack exchange categories, so I'm just gonna go ahead and ask it here. I couldn't find solid definitions on whether AWS lambda is categorized as parallel processing or not.

I do know that there are different levels of parallelism:

• Hardware level parallelism
• Instruction level (software level) parallelism

Now, AWS lambda works by creating independent stateless instances of functions per request (correct me if I'm wrong). Does lambda exhibit parallelism in this behavior?

Answer 1

Each AWS Lambda function is executed in a container. Multiple Lambda functions can be triggered simultaneously and they will execute in different containers. (Sometimes a container is reused, so this is not always true.)

So, while a specific Lambda function might not use parallel processing, the fact that multiple Lambda functions can run simultaneously is a form of parallel processing.

Answer 2

By default, AWS Lambda limits the total concurrent executions across all functions within a given region to 1000.

I found this useful, http://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/concurrent-executions.html