An organization’s conventional approach to creating an IT environment/infrastructure by getting hardware and software resources individually has become outdated. There are many ways to virtualize IT systems, and access the required applications via the Internet using web-based applications.
Cloud computing is all the rage right now, and there are many cloud service providers on the market. This makes it difficult to decide which one to choose. Before you dive into Serverless Compute, refresh the memory with some cloud concepts.
Introduction to Serverless Computing
Serverless computing is a cloud computing code execution model in which the cloud provider handles the functioning/operations of virtual machines as needed to fulfil requests, which are billed by an abstract calculation of the resources required to satisfy the request rather than per virtual machine, per hour. It does not allow code to be executed without servers, despite the name. The term “serverless computing” is derived from the fact that the system’s owner does not need to rent, buy, or provision virtual machines or servers on which the back-end software runs.
Why serverless computing?
Serverless computing is more cost-effective than renting or purchasing a fixed number servers. However, this can also result in long periods of underuse and idle time.
A serverless architecture also means that developers and operators don’t have to spend time setting up or tuning autoscaling systems or policies. The cloud provider will scale the capacity to meet the demand.
These systems are often referred to as elastic rather than scalable because the cloud-native architecture is able to scale down and up in its entirety.
The units of code revealed to the outside world with function-as-a-service are basic event-driven functions. This eliminates the need to think about multithreading and explicitly handling HTTP requests within their code. It simplifies the task of backend software development.
Top Serverless Computing Tools
1. AWS Lambda
AWS Lambda was the first serverless computing tool introduced in 2014 popularly known as Function-as-a-Service or FaaS.
AWS Lambda allows you to run code on a serverless computing platform that doesn’t require you to manage servers, provision or manage servers, create workload-aware cluster scaling logic and manage event integrations.
Benefits:
AWS Lambda runs your code with no need to maintain servers. Simply write the code, and then upload it as a ZIP or container image to Lambda.
Continuous scaling: AWS Lambda automatically scales your application by running code in response each occurrence. Your code runs in parallel, processing each trigger individually, scaling to the workload’s size, from a few requests per hour to hundreds of thousands every second.
AWS Lambda’s millisecond metering reduces costs. You only pay for what you use of the computing time. This means you don’t have to overpay for infrastructure. You will be paid for every second your code runs, as well as the number times it is triggered.
Consistent output at all scales: AWS Lambda allows you to reduce the time it takes your code to run by choosing the right memory size for your function.
How it works
Image Source: www.docs.amazon.com
2. Azure Functions:
Azure Functions is a serverless computing platform which allows you to write less code and manage fewer resources. It also saves money. Instead of worrying about managing servers, the cloud infrastructure provides all the tools needed to maintain the application’s functionality.
Azure Functions will take care the rest. Focus on the code that is most important to you.
Systems are often designed to respond to a series of critical events. Any program, regardless of whether it’s creating web APIs or reacting to data, will need to be able to do this.