# AWS brings SOCI lazy loading to Lambda Managed Instances > AWS adds SOCI lazy loading for OCI-packaged Event Functions on Lambda Managed Instances, fetching needed files instead of the full image at startup. Canonical URL: https://www.devobs.io/news/news-event-269ada58f0f3ba25f032e267/ By: Elias Brooks Published: 2026-10-28T22:26:43.219Z Updated: 2026-10-28T22:26:43.219Z Event date: 2026-10-28 Section: Cloud AWS announced Seekable OCI (SOCI) lazy loading on October 28, 2026, for Event Functions packaged as Open Container Initiative (OCI) images and running on Lambda Managed Instances. According to the [AWS announcement](https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/10/aws-lambda-seekable-oci-soci/), Lambda fetches only the files needed at each stage of execution-environment startup rather than downloading the complete image upfront. ## What changes at startup AWS says container images for compute-intensive workloads can reach several gigabytes, with downloading and preparing the full image taking several minutes when provisioning new execution environments. A SOCI index acts as a table of contents for files in the image layers, enabling Lambda to load them selectively. AWS reports **container startup-time reductions of up to 70%** in its [launch notice](https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/10/aws-lambda-seekable-oci-soci/). That is a vendor-reported maximum, not a guaranteed improvement for every function or a measurement of end-to-end request latency. ## Deployment and regional availability The [setup sequence described by AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/10/aws-lambda-seekable-oci-soci/) is: 1. Create a SOCI index for the container image and push the index to Amazon ECR. 2. When creating or updating the function, set its image URI to the SOCI-indexed tag in Amazon ECR. 3. Publish a function version. AWS says Lambda automatically detects the index and enables lazy loading without additional configuration. The feature is available in **all AWS commercial Regions where Lambda Managed Instances is available**, according to the same announcement. ## Evaluate the startup working set The engineering question is not just how large an image is, but which files initialization needs. Given the selective-loading mechanism AWS describes, evaluate that startup working set rather than assuming total image size predicts the benefit. Measure execution-environment startup and representative invocation latency separately. The first checks the metric AWS highlights; the second tests whether a startup improvement translates into a useful application-level benefit. Do not treat the reported 70% maximum as a forecast for an individual workload. ## Source references -