Long-running Lambda workloads: Challenges and alternatives

Jul 16, 2025 6 min read AWS Lambda excels at handling short-lived, event-driven tasks, though it quickly runs into limits when your workload needs more than 15 minutes, more memory, or specialized hardware like GPUs. For data practitioners working with large datasets or long-running processes, these constraints can turn a powerful tool into a frustrating bottleneck. In this article we’ll explore: Common AWS tools for running long-duration tasks such as Step Functions, AWS Batch, and running containerized workflows with Fargate.