A trend has emerged in recent years: serverless computing. But what is it all about? In this article, we will try to tell you about this new computing model? What is it and how could it be useful for your next project?
Some definitions
Before we start, let's try to briefly describe what the serverless computing model is? It's a development model that allows developers to create applications without having to worry about configuring their servers.
How it works
There are several ways to achieve serverless computing. Most proposals typically rely on the use of Docker containers provided by a third-party service provider. You provide them with your code, and the service provider takes care of everything: deploying to these containers, bringing them online, scaling, replicating, rebooting, monitoring, ...
What are the use cases of serverless services
The serverless services offering is generally quite broad and differs depending on how your code is hosted and deployed, as well as the use case. There are serverless services for just about any use case.
Some providers, such as Amazon or Microsoft offer general-purpose services, capable of hosting any type of code, with access to a fairly large number of parameters. Other providers, like us for example offer dedicated solutions adapted to certain types of applications (scripts in our case).
What are the advantages of serverless
Seeing the numerous use cases of serverless, it is interesting to wonder about its usefulness in your project.
The main goal of serverless is indeed to reduce strongly, if not totally, the workload related to the administration of your servers. This will save you time, increase your ability to scale and increase your security capabilities because you won't have to worry about infrastructure anymore.
What are the disadvantages of serverless
Of course, these advantages also come with disadvantages. Indeed, the gain in simplicity can sometimes lead to configuration difficulties in particular use cases. If you have advanced needs and need to control your infrastructure, the serverless model could cause you some problems.
Other compute models
In addition to the serverless model, there are also many other ways to host your code that will allow you to accomplish your goals.
This article mainly covers the differences between the possibilities offered by serverless (or function as a service, also called FAAS), compared to more traditional execution modes, such as on-premise, or the use of virtual machines in the cloud (also called infrastructure as a service or IAAS).
There are other models, such as platform as a service, or PAAS, which offers a hybrid solution, providing you with a semi-managed infrastructure, to provide you with a ready-to-use platform, or the popular no-code model, which can be useful for more limited needs.
Conclusion
Through this article, we have tried to offer you a simple description of the serverless model, what it is and what it could bring to your next project while comparing it with other code execution models.
As a serverless service provider, we at Jotcode believe that the serverless model has its place in many projects, and is particularly useful for scripting, where ultimately, the execution environment matters little. If you want to know more about our products and services, learn more at https://jotcode.io.
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