Hosting a software application on the Internet often involves managing some kind of server infrastructure. Typically, this means a virtual or physical server that needs to be managed, as well as the operating system and other web server hosting processes required for your application to run.
Migrating to the cloud means eliminating physical hardware concerns, but it still requires some level of management of the operating system and web server software processes.
With a serverless architecture, you focus purely on the individual functions of the application code. Let’s clarify how this works and talk about the advantages of starting to use this technology.
What is serverless computing?
Serverless computing is a cloud execution model where a provider dynamically allocates —and then charges the user—only the compute and storage resources needed to execute a particular code. Of course, there are still servers involved, but their provisioning and maintenance are entirely managed by the provider.
Serverless roles are event-driven, which means that code is invoked only when triggered by a request. The provider charges only for the compute time used by this run, rather than a fixed monthly fee to maintain a physical or virtual server
These functions can be connected to each other to create a processing pipeline or can serve as components of a larger application by interacting with other code running on conventional containers or servers.
The serverless architecture typically incorporates two components. See below.
- FaaS: Is a compute service that allows you to run self-contained code snippets, called functions in the cloud. Functions remain dormant until events trigger them. They are independent, small, short-lived, single-purpose and closed after execution;
- BaaS: Is a cloud computing service that completely abstracts back-end logicthat occurs on remote servers. It allows developers to focus on front-end code and integrate with the back-end logic that someone else has implemented. BaaS can be authentication, storage services, geolocation services, user management, and so on.
How does serverless computing differ from other virtualization technologies?
VMs, containers and serverless roles have some fundamental differences. Each approach is defined by the architecture layer that virtualizes and how to compute components that are scaled in these respective environments.
Hypervisors virtualize hardware and scale through VMs, while containers virtualize the operating system. Serverless virtualizes the runtime and scales through roles, so serverless solutions are suitable for projects with specific characteristics:
- performs infrequently;
- is linked to external events;
- has highly variable or unknown scale requirements;
- has small and short-term discrete functions;
- can operate stateless ly in all invocations;
- connects other services together.
What is the importance of serverless computing?
Serverless allows developers to focus on what they do best: writing code. Companies are leveraging this new agility to create, test, and treat applications faster than their competitors and build applications that benefit their customers.
Adopting this strategy is a great way to reduce costs and optimize IT management, as companies outsource server and database management responsibilities. In addition, serverless technology consumes fewer human resources and computing power. The days of spending hundreds of thousands on servers are over.
Another major advantage of serverless computing is the scalability it allows, since updating and adding computing resources no longer depends on the DevOps team. Serverless applications can be scaled quickly, continuously, and automatically to accommodate traffic spikes; on the other hand, these applications also automatically decrease when there are fewer concurrent users.
How did the demand for serverless architecture come about?
From the outset, public, private, and hybrid clouds have offered on-demand scalability and rapid configuration of virtual servers that can be physically a continent away. However, maintaining the software stack on these virtual devices has become a complex, time-consuming, and expensive task that developers and system administrators must manage.
Although we’ve probably had servers for decades, serverless computing adds another layer of abstraction to the existing cloud infrastructure.
It allows developers to load snippets of code, maintained independently, that are triggered at runtime. This setting enables a true platform-as-a-service environment, allowing developers to focus on coding rather than back-end operations.
This relatively new terminology, which some call “back end as a service,” may seem like a subtle shift in the data center architecture that only geeks care about, but the benefits are real. By using serverless architectures, cloud platforms can finally achieve the original goal of becoming abstract and automated enough to fulfill the promise of reducing the data center operations team.
What are the advantages of serverless architecture?
Below, we’ve listed in detail some ways your business can benefit from serverless computing.
Easy to deploy
If you need to activate an application quickly, the serverless solution might be your solution. Instead of weeks and months to deploy an application, you can do this in hours and days.
The reason behind this is that you don’t have to worry about infrastructure. You can focus on the code and release it immediately. Scalability is automatic and you don’t have to worry about provisioning needs.
Low cost
Serverless is a great way to cut costs. That’s because you’re outsourcing the management responsibilities of servers, databases, and some logic. In addition to the actual cost, the serverless resource requires less compute capacity and human resources.
There’s no reason why you need to build a server from scratch on your own. Because the serverless server takes care of the infrastructure, you can focus on the code on the side of what really matters. There are situations where the cost is not much cheaper but will depend on your use case.
More time for UX
If your app serves customers, remember this: they don’t care about infrastructure. They can’t see all the code you wrote for your backend. The only thing they’ll notice is the front-end code. The user interface and experience are more important to them. So why not focus on allocating resources to elements that keep customers satisfied?
Better scalability
Adopting a serverless architecture allows you to control problems. If your app is successful and grows, it’s easy to organize changes that make growth easier. If not, then no damage was caused! There is no need to provide infrastructure without knowing if it is needed for sure. It’s a great benefit.
Improved latency
Serverless architectures typically have access points on a global scale. This means it will be easier to deal with users from all corners of the world. This way, you can scale without affecting the performance of your application.
More efficient
A serverless architecture means that you pay per request. If you had a traditional model, you’d keep it running all the time. With an architecture of this nature, you are only charged when the server is used.
This means there is less waste generated as well. It’s also more efficient because you don’t have to worry about scaling anymore. Infrastructure, configuration, capacity planning, and DevOps are no longer your concern.
For whom is serverless displayed?
Serverless is incredibly flexible and can be used to solve a wide variety of application issues. It is also extensible, making it easier to build on use cases that are not currently supported. Here, we describe some basic use cases for this type of architecture.
Websites and APIs with automatic escalation
Serverless sites and applications can be written and deployed without the front work of configuring the infrastructure. As such, it is possible to launch a fully functional website in a few days. The best part is that serverless backends are automatically scaled according to demand. No need to be afraid to hit when you have sudden spikes in traffic.
Event streaming
Serverless computing can be triggered from pub/sub topics or event logs, providing elastic and scalable event pipelines without maintaining complicated clusters. These event streaming pipelines can power your analytical systems, update secondary data storage and caches, or feed monitoring systems.
Event processing and SaaS
Modern applications are incredibly modular because they use software from third-party SaaS providers to provide functionality. These SaaS providers do not allow you to perform functions on your systems, but they issue events. Serverless allows you to subscribe to roles for these events, regardless of where they are hosted.
Hybrid cloud applications
Individual cloud providers often do not meet all business requirements on their own. Teams choose to use the strongest features from each vendor, requiring them to deploy services to multiple providers within a single application. However, the cloud providers themselves do not make this easy.
Serverless architectures abstract any adjustment required to obtain functions that fit the unique formats of cloud vendors. This allows you to easily deploy to any cloud provider of your choice, maximizing the effectiveness of your application and utilizing the best that each cloud provider has to offer.
Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI / CD)
The ability to item software quickly is more important than ever. CI/CD pipelines allow you to submit code in small increments, so bug fixes and other updates can be sent daily.
Serverless can automate many of these processes. Code checks can trigger automatic site constructs and redeployments, or PRs can trigger automated testing to ensure that the code has been well tested before human review.
When you think about the possibilities of automation with serverless applications, it becomes easy to eliminate manual tasks from your workflow.
What are the main use cases?
Serverless computing architectures are designed to improve cost controls and simplify the way developers work with coding and their applications. From there, the use cases around serverless computing can be pretty cool. Consider the following possibilities.
Web applications and backends
You can create serverless web applications and powerful backends designed to support things like the web and even mobile requests. You can even design around chatbot requests for a variety of use cases.
IoT backend
You can target your IoT architecture by leveraging artificial intelligence to send messages to your serverless architecture, which then integrates with analytical systems to call a function process.
Data processing
Leveraging the flexibility of serverless computing and storage, you can design data processing systems capable of operating in real-time.
How to start using serverless?
Serverless architectures are an emerging trend in cloud computing. There are great developers all over the world creating serverless systems. However, is a serverless architecture right for you? What are the factors to consider before choosing to develop such a structure?
Knowledge
To build a serverless system, developers must choose and use many different cloud services. Knowledge of the services available and how each service works is critical.
If you need a messaging system on AWS, for example, you can choose between SNS, SQS, Kinesis, or even DynamoDB streams. Each of these services integrates with Lambda differently and treats failures differently. Understanding these differences is critical when making decisions about which services to use.
If your team has no experience with cloud services, there are several ways to get it. Meetup groups and online forums are great places to connect with other developers.
Access to the Services
Serverless systems are usually composed of services provided by many different providers. Imagine a system with 5 different cloud providers built by a team of 4 developers. Do you have one account per developer for each service? Can developers share accounts for some services? Do you also need separate accounts for production and preparation? The number of accounts you need to manage can multiply rapidly with serverless systems.
Managing access to these services is important. Organizations need to be able to grant and deny access to services as employees enter and depart the organization. A password manager can go a long way to solving this problem. For larger organizations, SSO systems can help. But you may need to create accounts for service providers that do not support SSO.
Development process
There is a strong relationship between the development process and the quality of the code. If developers are struggling with tools to produce code, they will not write quality code.
There are many tools available for serverless system developers. When choosing a tool, you should consider the following.
- How do I set my resources?
- Is it easy to deploy my environment to the cloud?
- Can I develop offline?
- How is the support and community?
Deployments
If you are familiar with microservices deployments, it will be no stranger to deploying serverless systems. As with any microservice, each serverless system must be deployed independently. This requires you to architect your systems with this in mind. You will need to ensure that your services have their own data and are discoverable by other services.
Having such a system depends on the infrastructure to provide functionality, based primarily on code. Deploying a serverless system involves provisioning resources and deploying code that is intended to sustain the operation. Therefore, tools such as the Serverless Framework can help with this because the serverless framework will upload your code to AWS and provision resources using CloudFormation.
Testing
Like any software, serverless systems need to be tested. Developers should create unit tests and integration tests for each microservice—and there’s nothing new about it. Serverless systems integrate many services to provide functionality. What may be different is the number of external services your microservice depends on.
Unit testing services that rely on external services require simulation of these services. You may find that you need to simulate a large number of services when writing unit tests.
Testing for serverless service integration is vital. The goal is to ensure that each service integrates with the services on which it depends. You need to be able to deploy the service under test and any dependent services in a test environment. You may also need test accounts for external services. Testing serverless services can be difficult, but it’s important to get it right.
What are the serverless architecture trends for years to come?
Serverless computing has made computing’s computing landscape more dynamic, robust, intuitive, and powerful. However, the advance in technology is still in their early stages. It is expected that the coming years will bring various developments and transformations. First, let’s take a look at some serverless trends that you should note.
Kubernetes will become the system without go-to server
Kubernetes has become synonymous with open source containerization. But in the coming years, we’ll see the open-source container orchestration system become the foundation of serverless infrastructure.
Features such as networking, service discovery, agile scaling, and support for multi-cloud environments make Kubernetes the perfect choice for serverless systems. In addition, with Knative already released, the process of standardization and interoperability of serverless platforms may soon become a reality.
State-based applications will also see serverless usage
Restricting the stateless server to stateless applications is a thing of the past. In the coming years, state-run applications will benefit from the immense power of the serverless server. Developers will be able to use database connections, BaaS, and event payloads to run their applications.
The size of the FaaS industry will grow
The FaaS market is expected to grow to $7.72 billion by 2021. Large-scale serverless adoption will be seen worldwide, and there will be a CGAR of 32.7%.
GitOps will be the next big hit
The version-controlled DevOps system, GitOps, will see more buyers in the future, especially in FaaS. GitOps is expected to improve operational workflows, especially in fast-moving projects, and enable the implementation of technologies such as Kubernetes and other cloud solutions. In addition, this will allow cloud vendors to provide greater ecosystem support and tooling capabilities to users.
How can Kazap help in this regard?
Kazap specializes in solutions designed to facilitate digital transformation in companies, meeting the specific needs of each business, in addition to offering IT consulting.
The development of tailor-made software is allied to the best suppliers in the serverless computing market already cities in this article, such as AWS and Google Cloud. This enables the applications developed by the company to have high availability, scalability, and the best cost/benefit.
Finally, it is important to add that before switching to serverless computing, you should first evaluate your use cases. It is critical to understand what your business requirements are and whether the serverless architecture will make sense for your project and some of the limitations you may encounter in the future. Once you have this information, you can prepare better.
Now that you understand how serverless architecture works, contact us and learn how we can help you take the next step!
Source: Dashbird
