Serverless computing – what is it?
Serverless computing has become quite a trend recently. However, what is it all about? And how to be a part of it?
The first thing that needs clearing up is the fact that it is not that serverless after all. It does use servers, however, they work on a different basis – cloud computing.
What does serverless computing mean?
It is basically a pay-as-you-go service, which allows your company to rent computing services and outsource their maintenance to their provider (e.g. Amazon Web Services Lambda).
Why is it a good idea?
Serverless computing lets you optimise your business much better.
Why? Not only, can it help you save a lot of money since you are only billed for the computing power or space used at a given time (whenever the servers are not doing work for you, you pay absolutely nothing), it can also make your entire enterprise more effective.
It all stems from the fact that you don’t risk a chance of your servers overloading since they work in the Cloud and can be quickly and easily scaled. This way, you won’t have to worry about performing too many operations at the same time, or an unexpected rush of new clients. The performance of your applications will automatically increase to meet your needs.
Sometimes you know what server infrastructure you need and other times you need some time to figure this out. This is where serverless computing comes in handy. Hence start-ups may appreciate this option the most.
It is no secret we’ve been using serverless services in the Cloud for a while now (eg. Dropbox), however, it was mostly for personal use. Here we are in front of a much bigger opportunity. Due to its seemingly endless possibilities, it may click quite well.