Serverless computing makes it easier for developers to write code without thinking about servers. It improves on older methods and automatically adjusts the servers based on need. This helps organizations save money and focus on building their apps and services.
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What Is Serverless Architecture?
Serverless architecture and serverless computing are the same thing and behave like Function as a Service (FaaS).
It is a software design pattern where developers can host their applications via third-party services, eliminating the organization’s need for a software server and self-hardware management.
The advantage of serverless architecture is that instead of posting a complete application, it breaks the application into individual or smaller functions that can be scaled individually.
Components of Serverless Computing
- API Gateway: It acts as a communication layer between the front end in the FaaS. With the help of REST API, it finds the respective functions which run with the business logic. Since this service does not include a server, there is no requirement for deploying a load balancer in this approach.
- Functions as a Service: This layer separates the specific business logic and executes it with the help of a Cloud provider.
- Back End as a Service: The Cloud-based distributed NoSQL database helps eliminate database administration expenses.
How Does Serverless Computing Work?
Developers rely on serverless architecture to execute specific functions. Because of this, cloud service providers offer Functions as a Service (FaaS). Below, you can see how functions are written and executed serverless.
The following steps take place to use serverless computing:
- A developer writes a function code with a specific purpose within the application code.
- The developer defines an event that triggers a Cloud service provider to execute the function (normally an HTTP request).
- If the event is triggered or if the event is defined as an HTTP request, the user triggers a similar event with a click.
- The function is then executed, and the Cloud service provider checks if the instance of the function is running. If it is found not running, then it starts a new function.
- The result is sent to the client, which can be seen by the user inside the application.
Example of Serverless Computing
Chatbots are popular for providing customer service and helping sales teams communicate with customers and prospects when team members are unavailable.
Moreover, they provide valuable output and cost relatively minimal, but they can be turned into a single-function application.
Now such chatbots can be hosted on Virtual Machines, but there are better choices than this as they increase the operational cost. That’s why serverless platforms are preferred by teams worldwide.
The advantage of a serverless platform is that the individual features can be hosted separately on the serverless architecture while the rest of the features or the entire application, excluding a single function, can be deployed on VMs.
Benefits of Serverless Computing
- Easy to Deploy: A serverless approach is a perfect solution if your team can build and deploy an app faster. Since there is no need to invest your valuable time in setting up and maintaining infrastructure, you can focus on the code and release it immediately. And the best part is that you don’t have to take care of the provisioning needs, as scalability is automatic.
- Low-Cost Solution: Choosing serverless over traditional computing is the best way to cut costs. Once you choose serverless computing, you outsource the services like managing servers, databases, and some logic. Plus, serverless computing takes less computing power and human resources.
- Provides More Time to Enhance User Experience: Customers don’t care about the infrastructure or code you’ve written for your back-end. The only thing that excites them is the front end. So instead of focusing on the back end, you can devote your time to building a better user interface and experience.
- Promise Scalability: To become a big organization and retain that position, your server should be able to handle ample traffic at any given time. You can achieve that with serverless architecture, as it automatically scales when your application succeeds or grows.
- Environment-Friendly Solution: If a company sets up its own servers, it must run servers constantly, which requires lots of energy. However, with serverless architecture, you can buy servers when needed. In this way, companies can restrict the usage of servers to a minimum and contribute to the environment.
- Delight Customer: Serverless architecture allows users to access new features rapidly, as the organization can bring up new features and ship them for the customers’ availability. No user wants to wait an entire year, even for small fixes, when you can quickly release new features to improve the user experience.
- Bring Efficiency: Serverless architecture lets you pay as per the request. At the same time, a traditional server must run constantly whether you’re using it or not. When you compare the two technologies, you will find that traditional server includes a waste of resources, and serverless computing minimizes wastage, and at the same time, the latter helps you scale and detaches you from DevOps concerns.
To view some more benefits. Explore this source.
Serverless Computing vs Cloud Computing
| Basis of Comparison | Serverless Computing | Cloud Computing |
|---|---|---|
| 1.Meaning | For users, the server is invisible as the Cloud provider takes care of the setup, capacity planning, and server management. | On-demand computing services like computer power, database storage, applications, and other IT resources are delivered over the internet. |
| 2.Role of Servers | The worries of configuration and management of resources disappear as the Cloud service provider does all this for you. | You need to buy a specific space over the Cloud, and at the same time, you need to manage and configure Cloud resources on your own. |
| 3.Utilization of Hosting Resources | The various functions of the application are split out into separate containers and hosting resources are allocated to the specific functions instead of hosting a complete application. | A complete web application is hosted on the Cloud that requires huge space. And to deal with sudden traffic surge, you need to buy more space in advance. |
| 4.Allocation of Resources | Serverless computing is more precise than Cloud computing as it allocates exact resources to execute a particular function. For example, if an application needs 3.45 GB or 3.75 GB of RAM to complete a task, serverless computing releases the exact resources. Neither more nor less. | With traditional Cloud computing, you need to buy additional space in advance so that the application does not fail. For example, you may add 2GB or 4GB of RAM additionally so the application has sufficient memory available for peak traffic or usage. |
| 5.Cost | Serverless computing offers flexible pricing. You pay only for what you use. For instance, if your application takes 2.45 GB of RAM then you pay only for the memory you have used. | As you buy a dedicated space on Cloud, you need to comply with rigid pricing even if you’re not using it fully. Suppose you buy 8GB of space and are using only 4GB or 6 GB in peak times, you still have to pay for 8GB. |
Famous Platforms for Serverless Computing
- AWS Lambda.
- Azure Functions.
- Google Cloud Functions.
If you want to know which platform should you use, look at the comparison below:
AWS Lambda Vs Azure Functions vs Google Cloud Functions
| Basis of Comparison | AWS Lambda | Azure Functions | Google Cloud Functions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.Language Support | JAVA, Go, PowerShell, Node.js, C#, Python, and Ruby. | C#, F#, JavaScript, JAVA, PowerShell, Python, and TypeScript. | JavaScript, Python, Go, JAVA. |
| 2.Free Offering | 1 million executions per month. | 1 million executions per month. | 2 million executions per month. |
| 3.Maximum/Minimum Execution Time | Maximum up to 15 minutes. | Up to 60 minutes, with a premium plan else 10 minutes. | Minimum 1 minute, maximum 9 minutes. |
Conclusion:
Serverless computing allows you to run your applications as a function in the Cloud. The best part of this technology is that it only charges for the compute time that your application uses.
Serverless computing is based on event-driven architecture, which makes it easy to scale and perform. And the benefits do not stop here because as a developer you can shift your attention towards more significant things other than scaling, configuration, and management.