Lambda with the API Gateway (the Request/Response control flow, as opposed to the Event triggered control flow that Lambda uses with other services) is basicall

Lambda with the API Gateway (the Request/Response control flow, as opposed to the Event triggered control flow that Lambda uses with other services) is basically like a distributed, virtualized implementation of CGI. However, being distributed and virtualized is a pretty big deal. In practice this means Lambda apps perform differently than traditional CGI, and also require different app architecture to support them.