What is Serverless Computing; Why we need it?

Wait, what! Server without computing process. The name may look misleading but it can be possible, the only difference is computing process is not your headache anymore. It uses a consumption-based model and helps developers to run code whenever they need it. Companies don’t need to reserve all the space and release it when not needed. All the underlying infrastructure for computing is provided by cloud providers.

In the old days, organizations mostly purchase physical servers and run virtual machines to provide any kind of service (such as a website). Mostly they over-purchased because they need to think of future proof. Also, most of the computing resources are wasted in the beginning and when most people start visiting their website, they need to upgrade which is also a daunting task.

Cloud providers provide auto-scaling features to automatically upgrade your environment according to need. So, developers only need to focus on the code.

Some of the examples of serverless computing are AWS Lambda, Microsoft Azure Functions, and Google Cloud Function.

Pros

Organizations mostly focus on business and innovation without worrying about VMs. The backend infrastructure is managed by cloud providers gives them time to optimize front-end application functionality.

Companies only pay for execution because when a server is not in use it goes into an idle position.

Cons

Whenever the code runs on the machine, it starts from an idle position which is a cold start. it may take some time to run code and be slower than a machine that is already running. This startup latency cannot be noticeable for some applications but may affect some other applications like financial trading.

Price may not be predictable as running constant VMs. Sudden spikes may increase your cost and efficiency for long-term processes.