Mostly it is not a big problem for us. Our functions that need to be fast have very high traffic. Our other functions don't need to be that fast. We also have a CDN in front of most things.
That said, we use node. I have heard cold starts are worse for Python (I have no data). I have heard they are near unbearable for Java (JVM startup and all that). We try and minimize external calls outside the main handler. Previous to this update we were packing configs with webpack at deploy time. Some people read them from S3 or dynamo. I don't consider that a good solution. I'll be working this week on Shep 3.0 which will use the new ENV var features.
I have talked to other people who do various hacks to force their functions to be warm. I've looked at doing this and haven't found it necessary yet for our use case.
That said, we use node. I have heard cold starts are worse for Python (I have no data). I have heard they are near unbearable for Java (JVM startup and all that). We try and minimize external calls outside the main handler. Previous to this update we were packing configs with webpack at deploy time. Some people read them from S3 or dynamo. I don't consider that a good solution. I'll be working this week on Shep 3.0 which will use the new ENV var features.
I have talked to other people who do various hacks to force their functions to be warm. I've looked at doing this and haven't found it necessary yet for our use case.