Serverless Computing: The Next Step in Cloud Infrastructure!

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As a result of its constant upgrades, Cloud Computing has already taken the world by storm. The next step is serverless computing. Read this article and find out what is serverless computing and how does it work!

With the emergence of cloud platforms, it should go without saying that the generation of physical servers is no longer in existence. It has been no secret in the technology world that since the proliferation of containerization, serverless computing has become the hot topic in the world of technology. While there are servers in this cloud architecture, they are abstracted to the point that the developers are relieved of the responsibility of taking care of the operations of the servers, contrary to what the name suggests. There are several reasons for this technology to be misconstrued as it is somewhat of a fad.

• With the advent of IaaS and PaaS, a framework known as Serverless was invented
• Serverless computing was pioneered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the market
• A server-side application is dependent on a third-party application or custom code in order to run

It is estimated that the cloud storage market size will grow from USD 23.76 billion in 2016 to USD 74.94 billion by 2021, with a CAGR of 25.8% between 2016 and 2021. – MarketsandMarkets.

Essentially, the logic behind this is that the servers are hidden behind the applications on the front-end and are not visible from the back-end. As a result, the burden of maintaining the servers and their common issues such as scalability, high availability, and other issues that may arise will be reduced. As opposed than monolithic applications, Serverless Computing invokes small pieces of independent code that can be executed as and when necessary as opposed than monolithic applications. Basically, for the serverless computing services to run on the cloud platform, these snippets of code must be triggered by events that make them run, and in turn incur costs based on the time spent operating on the platform.

What is Serverless Computing?

Cloud computing’s serverless model allows developers to build and run applications without provisioning servers or managing backend infrastructure.

With serverless, developers can focus solely on writing the best front-end code and business logic possible. In order to deploy their application code to containers managed by a cloud service provider, developers simply need to write their application code. The cloud provider manages everything else, provisioning the cloud infrastructure needed to run the code and scaling it up and down as needed. Besides operating system updates and patches, cloud providers are also responsible for security management, capacity planning, and system monitoring.

‘Serverless’ does not imply ‘no servers’

Although serverless computing is referred to as serverless, there are definitely servers involved. A ‘serverless’ server is one that is invisible to the developer, who does not see, manage, or interact with it in any way.

Serverless platforms are now offered by all the leading cloud service providers. Microservices, containers, and serverless computing form a triumvirate that is typically considered to be the backbone of cloud-native applications.

How Serverless Computing works?

A Serverless architecture, in its simplest form, is a collection of applications that depend on the functionality of Backend-as-a-Services (BaaS) and Function-as-a-Services (FaaS), which merges the ability of these two models to empower the cloud infrastructure of the company. When clients access the database, FaaS provides an authentication layer through an API, enabling developers to concentrate on client operations without worrying about the backend infrastructure.

Additionally, these codes are ephemeral in nature, meaning that they are decommissioned once they have been executed, so you only pay for the time resources are used instead of spending money on gigantic infrastructures containing multiple physical servers.

Some Key Aspects of Serverless Cloud Computing

What are the potential benefits of Serverless Computing?

Among all the high-end technologies, cloud computing has become the new norm, transforming the technology paradigm completely. Based on statistics, Serverless Computing is renaissance is accelerating this transformation. Here are some ways Serverless Computing can help you –

Serverless Computing increases efficiency and throughput of your technology platform by running codes only when needed, rather than running cloud virtual machines ad nauseum 24X7.

Suitable for short-lived, event-driven applications – Serverless Computing is best suited for short-lived, event-driven applications where code runs on the server for a certain period. However, it is often suitable for next-generation corporate app portfolios filled with small, event-triggered snippets rather than monolithic apps.

With its ability to run on the cloud server for a short duration and free the resources afterwards, this next-generation technology saves time and money. In turn, this allows the company to optimize utilization of resources by paying for the time the code has run.

What are the challenges with Serverless Computing?

This technology is not without its flaws, which make companies rethink its use before deploying it despite these sound benefits. What are they?

A monolithic application can be broken down into multiple micro-services, which adds a considerable burden to infrastructure. The management of a single large application is easier than the management of ten smaller applications. Besides increasing workload, this also adds a great deal of complexity.

Serverless Computing becomes problematic when it comes to monitoring and debugging due to the lack of tools available in the market for overcoming these situations. The use of multiple servers instead of one may result in increased latency for the company.

Takeaway

Through the introduction of as-a-Service models, Cloud Computing has redefined technologies to bring agility, scalability, and efficiency at par. There is no doubt that more and more companies small and large will adopt this technology in the very near future as data loads continue to increase, resulting in an extremely digitized world.