What is serverless computing?

The global market for serverless architecture is set to reach a whopping $21.1 Billion-dollar by 2025. It is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 22.7%. Serverless is a prevalent cloud computing model that is responsible for computing resources on-demand. It offloads the need for everyday infrastructures management tasks such as patching, scaling, scheduling, provisioning, and more. 

It transfers the load to cloud providers and tools, allowing engineers to devote their effort and time to business-specific processes that are more crucial for the organization. One of the most effective ways of understanding the serverless is to focus on the key attributes that define the functionality and benefits of a serverless computing model over an ordinary compute model. These are – 

• No management and operation of infrastructure.
• Code operation on-demand only.
• End-users pay only for resources being used.

Let us briefly define these features:

1. The serverless computing model does not need any operation of infrastructure or management. Due to this reason, developers get more time for code optimization that allows them to innovate new features or functionalities.
2. Under serverless computing, you can run codes on demand that means you can run them in a stateless container. It operates on a per-request basis model, which can scale quickly with the number of requests being supplied.
3. In serverless computing, end-users pay only for resources being used. It means that the users pay for the resources that are currently being utilized; the user doesn’t need to pay for idle capacity.

You might have come across Amazon Web Services, which introduced serverless with AWS Lambda in 2014. Nowadays, numerous cloud service providers provide serverless platforms. These include Azure Functions, IBM Cloud Code Engine, Google Cloud, etc., along with several microservices and containers.

Source: Unsplash

Why Are Evolving Businesses Embracing Serverless Technology?

There are two significant reasons why there has been a rapid hike in demand for serverless technology. Before discussing both the key factors, we must realize the fact that serverless is pretty cost-effective, thanks to its “Pay-As-You-Go model”. According to the IDC forecast, the global IT expenditure will reduce by 2.7%. Why? Because the serverless allows organizations to cut costs in two ways: it only charges them for the period within which the server executes the function. Secondly, it will enable the company to save costs on hiring the human resources needed to manage server capacity. Hence, for the reasons mentioned above, serverless is cost-effective. Other than that, we’ll discuss two key reasons that are – 

Evolving Customer Behavior

For a company, it is tough to anticipate or predict loads. They cannot plan their server capacities on these predictions; hence, it is pretty challenging to make long-term investments based on forecasts. They are aware of the fact that consumer behavior is rapidly evolving. We can call it a state of flux or a state of uncertainty where we do not know how the consumers will react. With serverless, companies can quickly scale to need. 

Businesses Want To Concentrate On Core Capabilities

By moving the burden of provisioning and handling the run-time environment to the cloud, serverless allows teams to concentrate on their specialized abilities. Due to this, they can focus on delivering exceptional consumer experiences. Serverless is a revolution that has begun in the past few years. It is uniquely suited to assist technology leaders during the time of change or disruption. Hence, we can say that serverless is the next-gen cloud offering.

Source: Twitter

In which scenarios does serverless work best?

The serverless computing model is suitable for event-driven and short-running applications. Why? Because one can predict the rise in demand for these types of applications. These kinds of applications can be idle for periods, and we know that the serverless computing architecture only charges for the currently used resources. Hence, the serverless computing model is ideal for these types of applications. With serverless, you don’t have to manage your servers to deal with peak capacities. The model works best in the following scenarios: 

• Microservices-based architecture
• Machine learning (ML) 
• Chatbots
• Mobile backends
• Inferencing
• Internet of Things 

What Are The Key Attributes Of Serverless?

Fast Deployment

Serverless Computing drastically lowers the time during production with the help of quick CI/CD cycles. Developers have to concentrate on a single function which reduces the build time. The entire build process is segregated down into smaller chunks of code that allow rapid deployment.

Zero Configuration

Almost every PaaS offering requires you to provide resource requirements, constraints, and dependencies; however, Serverless doesn’t even need any metadata to define the runtime requirements. The serverless configuration will ask you to determine the maximum memory threshold and the period of execution, but apart from that, it’ll ask nothing else. The entire architecture has the lowest number of buttons, knobs, etc.

Multiple Runtimes

One of the critical features of Serverless Computing is that it can support multiple runtimes, frameworks, and languages. Developers have the option to select suitable breed languages. They can utilize them to induce fine-grained functionality. Also, to implement the logic, a developer has no constraint over choosing one language or runtime.

BYOC or “Bring Your Own Code”

Serverless Computing concentrates on the source code rather than focusing on pre-packaged binaries. Due to this reason, it offers great flexibility during the deployment or development process. 

High Elasticity

Does serverless Computing have scalabilities like IaaS or PaaS? If we implement it correctly, then we can expect it to be highly elastic. For instance: AWS Lambda has certain constraints over the concurrency limit. The default limit is hundred concurrent executions per account per AWS region. However, you can increase the limit by filing a request to AWS support. With the right design, consumers can shift their business logic in a fleet of EC2 servers.

Zero Operations

A DevOps team handles various tasks that involve build management, provisioning, deployment, integration, etc. Serverless Computing affects most of these functions. Packaging, building management, and deployment are left to the runtime. You can seamlessly integrate many build management tools with serverless environments for code deployment.

Pay-Per-Use Pricing

Numerous startups and medium businesses have received great benefits by shifting from CAPEX to an OPEX model. Serverless Computing enables you to pay via a pay-per-execution model. So whenever you deploy an application, you will be only charged for the code that gets executed.

Event-Driven

The way a code is executed in PaaS and Serverless Computing are very different. Developers develop codes that are independent of other components. Each component comes into action when an event takes place. By joining the dots, developers can lay down the sequence in which the requests are made under the runtime. 

Lowest TCO

Serverless Computing drastically lowers the surface area of an application operating in production. The entire focus is on the code as there are no servers for provision and software to upgrade. Businesses can concentrate on aspects that are important for their customers. 

At Saffron Tech, we support the adoption of new technologies; we feel that the demand for serverless architecture will increase exponentially! We see serverless as one of the most desirable options for enterprises to achieve massive business transformation. The importance of such technologies grows significantly over the years. However, every new technology brings new challenges or obstacles for businesses. Our experts are here to improve and enhance your operations or enterprise performance via serverless. For premium Cloud Migration and Management services, contact us now!