More and more digital solutions are becoming cloud-based. Chances are you’ll be working on a cloud-based digital solution in the future if you’re not already. With the usage of the cloud, the concept of serverless comes into play. In this post, I want to go over what is serverless and some of the advantages and disadvantages from a developer’s perspective.
What Is Serverless
Serverless is a cloud-based model that allows users to create and run applications or processes without direct contact with the underlying servers. The servers in the cloud environment are provisioned, scaled, and managed automatically for you by the provider. This essentially means you don’t have to worry about the infrastructure and can focus solely on developing the software that will run on top of the infrastructure.
Advantages
Moving to a serverless solution brings some advantages to it. They are:
- Fast and easy deployment
- More time to focus on development
- Scalability
- Availability
Fast and Easy Deployment
The responsibility of maintaining and managing servers is shifted to the service provider. This frees up time for developers and their organizations to focus on the development of the software. Once the software is ready, it can be uploaded to the cloud and that’s it.
More Time to Focus on Development
More resources can be allotted to developing software since there is no need to manage and maintain servers. This makes things simpler for developers as they don’t need to worry about the environments as much.
Scalability
One of the biggest benefits of serverless is how flexible it can be. When your application is getting way more traffic than usual, a new instance of your application would be created for you. Or, the existing server(s) would expand its capacity automatically depending on the need. This allows your service to not suffer from performance degradation since the service provider will scale out to handle the demand for you.
Availability
Service interruptions are another concern that is taken care of by the cloud service provider. The servers are in different locations around the world so even when one area goes down another one will likely be up. As long as one location is still functional then your application will still be live.
Disadvantages
While serverless brings plenty of good things it doesn’t mean there are no disadvantages. Some of them are:
- Difficult to troubleshoot
- Third-party dependency
- Vendor locked
Difficult to Troubleshoot
Things are designed to work out of the box with minimum configuration changes. This is great when everything works, but when it doesn’t that is when it becomes a real headache. It is really difficult to troubleshoot something that you don’t have the ability to access. Usually, it ends up reaching out to the service provider to get your issue resolve.
Third-Party Dependency
Your application is tied to the service provider. So, if the provider is experiencing interruptions then your application will likely be affected. When that happens there is not much you can do besides contacting the service provider and hope for a quick resolution.
Vendor Locked
When a company made the decision to host their application with a cloud service provider it becomes a lock-in deal most of the time. This is because to do anything you’ll be leveraging the variety of services the vendor provides. Since everything is built on top of the vendor’s ecosystem it is not easy to move to another vendor. This makes migrating to be a considerable undertaking where most companies are unlikely to do.
I hope this post was helpful to you. If you found this post helpful, share it with others so they can benefit too.
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages you have noticed when going serverless?
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