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Cloud Computing · Intermediate

Cold Start

Extra latency when a serverless platform must initialize a new execution environment before handling a request.

Definition

A cold start occurs when no warm instance is available, so the platform provisions an environment, downloads code and runs initialization. Mitigations include provisioned concurrency (Lambda), Lambda SnapStart, Premium plan pre-warmed instances (Azure Functions), minimum instances (Cloud Run) and reducing package size and init work.

Example

An API's first request after idle takes two seconds, while later requests take 50 milliseconds.

Exam tip

Provisioned concurrency or minimum instances are the answers for eliminating cold starts on latency-sensitive functions.

Related terms