Unveiling The Mystery Of Serverless

In this blog, we will explore about Serverless and why it is trending so much?

Serverless, is itself a self-explanatory word, means there are no servers.

But, is it really true?

No, it is not. Serverless does not mean the absence of servers. There are servers actually, it’s just that we don’t have to manage them. All the infrastructure is provided by companies like AWS, Google, Azure etc.

Before going to Serverless Architecture, we need to know about serverless computing.

What is Serverless Computing?

Serverless Computing is all about building and running applications without bothering about servers.  Serverless applications don’t require you to provision, scale and manage any servers.  You can build any type of applications i.e data processing, big data pipelines, microservices etc

Why developer should use Serverless Computing?

Building serverless applications means that developer can focus only on the core functionality of application instead of worrying about managing and operating servers either in the cloud or on-premises. Because of serverless computing, developers now can fully concentrate on developing quality products which are scalable and reliable.

What is Serverless Architecture?

A Serverless architecture is a way to build and run applications and services without having to manage infrastructure. Your application still runs on servers, but all the server management is done by the service providers like AWS or Google, etc. You no longer have to provision, scale, and maintain servers to run your applications, databases, and storage systems.

Basically, it describes two types of application architecture.

1. Backend as a Service(BaaS), an architecture where most of the application backend is on the cloud, maintained by a third party.
2. Function as a Service(FaaS), where applications run parts of their server-side code in event-triggered ephemeral containers. i.e, AWS lambda

Advantages Of Serverless: 

1. No server management
2. Flexible scaling
3. Automated high availability
4. Reduced operational costs

Drawbacks of Serverless:

1. Less control due to vendor lock-in.
2. Loss of server optimizations.
3. Integration testing is more challenging.
4. Architectural complexity.
5. Debugging serverless application is comparatively hard.

Please free to give suggestions and comment!

References:

1. Serverless Architectures
2. Serverless Computing