How do we simulate "Real Time" interaction without WebSockets ?

[nelsonic]

WebSockets allow us to stream additional data from/to client/server beyond the limits of http request/response. This has opened a world of Real Time apps.
Given that keeping Lambda functions running for long time will cost a lot (because we are billed per 100ms) we need to consider an alternative approach for sending data to the client after the initial page/data is rendered...

_Polling_?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12555043/my-understanding-of-http-polling-long-polling-http-streaming-and-websockets

[nelsonic]

could we just use _Pusher_ https://pusher.com/features to do our WebSockets for us and still remain "_Serverless_" ...?

[nikhilaravi]

@nelsonic interesting!
Do you mean something like DynamoDB update -> triggers Lambda -> publishes message on Pusher channel -> Client receives message -> repeat
So Lambda function is only run for very short periods.

[nelsonic]

Yeah... what do you think? we could try it and see what people think.
The cost won't be that much. 10k Concurrent Connections is "Only" $499/month.
It sounds like a lot to us but to a company used to spending hundreds of thousands on Hardware & DevOps teams, its a bargain....