Software development has seen big changes in recent years, with serverless architecture standing out. More and more developers and companies are choosing serverless computing to make app development and deployment easier and more productive. At its core, serverless architecture doesn’t need infrastructure management, costs less to run, and can grow, making it a key part of where software development is headed.
But what’s serverless about, and how does it change the way developers build and run apps? Since it’s a pretty new tech, this article aims to break down what serverless computing is all about, what’s good and not so good about it, and how it might shape software development in the future.
What is Serverless Architecture?
Despite what its name suggests, serverless architecture doesn’t mean servers aren’t involved. Instead, it refers to a cloud computing model where the cloud provider takes care of server allocation and provisioning as needed. This setup allows developers to focus on writing code and launching apps, without worrying about the underlying tech. In other words, the cloud provider handles jobs like keeping servers running, growing capacity, and fixing security holes.
In typical server setups, coders have to look after and set up servers, virtual machines, or containers to run their programs. But serverless computing gets rid of this need. It charges you based on how long your apps run and what resources they use. Right now, AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, and Google Cloud Functions are some of the top serverless platforms out there.
Key Components of Serverless Architecture
At the heart of serverless architecture are several key components that drive its functionality:
Function as a Service (FaaS)
That is the essence of serverless computing. With FaaS, developers can run single functions or parts of code triggered by certain events. Let’s take AWS Lambda as an example: it allows developers to write small chunks of code – called lambda functions – that react to events whenever such events occur (i.e. HTTP requests, database changes, file uploads).
Backend as a Service (BaaS)
BaaS offers pre-built backend services (databases, Authentication, File storage, etc.) that can be integrated into the application without the need to take care of the underlying infrastructure.
Event-Driven Architecture
Often happening on a serverless architecture, events are used to fire off functions or workflows. A use case example is through events, which can be anything from a user’s action on a website to a file upload. These are used to trigger certain functions in real time.
Auto-Scaling
Automatic scaling is one of the biggest benefits of serverless. With the increasing traffic to an application, the serverless platform automatically allocates resources to handle the load and makes the application responsive even on spikes.
How Serverless is Changing the Development Process
The introduction of serverless architecture has changed how people even think about building and scaling applications. Below are some key ways in which serverless computing is reshaping the development process:
Infrastructure is not always the most important part of your stack.
The biggest shift serverless architecture is responsible for, however, is allowing developers to spend more time writing code instead of managing servers and infrastructure. In a traditional server-based architecture, a lot of developers’ time is spent configuring, scaling, and maintaining the server. Serverless computing abstracts away these concerns so that developers can focus on building the core logic for their applications.
Now, developers don’t have to worry about running the application anymore – rather, they can focus on developing the application faster. Removing infrastructure gives developers the ability to quickly go from development to deployment so teams can get new features and products out the door faster.
Scalability Without Complexity
It can be complex and resource intensive to scale applications in traditional server-based environments. Often, developers will have to imagine traffic spikes, add more servers to meet the traffic demand, and set up load balancing mechanisms to keep their applications up and running in the face of such traffic.
On the other hand, serverless architecture provides automatic scaling. Cloud providers manage serverless scaling on the actual demand. In other words, developers no longer have to rely on predicting traffic patterns or manually scaling infrastructure, as the platform automatically allocates resources to the demands of the incoming requests.
This auto scaling capability enables applications to handle huge traffic without any involvement of the development team. If an application receives a sudden surge in traffic or sees steady growth, serverless computing ensures that the application remains responsive and available at all times.
Cost-Efficiency
Serverless cost efficiency is one of the many reasons organizations have begun adopting serverless architecture. Almost all traditional server-based models typically require that resources be provisioned by developers in advance, causing them to over provision or underutilize servers. On the other hand, serverless computing is in a pay-as-you-go model, where you only pay for compute time and resources used in running functions.
The approach mitigates the risk of overprovisioning, where organizations tend to pay for resources that go unused. All-in serverless computing means that functions are only triggered and executed when events are received and resources are provisioned dynamically. This can result in substantial cost savings, particularly for applications with unpredictable traffic patterns or sporadic workloads.
Event-Driven Workflows
Serverless architecture is an event-driven model that is best suited for applications based on real time processing of data. Serverless functions can be triggered on a wide range of events like HTTP requests, database updates, file uploads, or IoT device signals.
The event-driven architecture makes real time applications and services like chat applications, analytics platforms, etc., simple tasks. Developers can provide instant responses on events, as the processing of data can be done in real time for the different components of an application.
Agility for Developers
With serverless architecture, developers can split large monolithic applications into smaller, more manageable functions. Such modularity is helpful in using microservices where each function or service can be built, tested, and deployed in isolation, just like these microservices.
Microservices provide faster iteration cycles and greater flexibility in updating and scaling individual app components. They also allow teams to work on separate parts of an application at the same time, making the work much more efficient and the release times faster.
The Future of Serverless Architecture
The time is coming when serverless architecture will be considered a bonafide part of the modern software development world. The adoption of serverless computing is expected to be driven by the recognition of the benefits from more and more organizations. Gartner predicts that, by 2025, more than 50% of major enterprises will have adopted serverless computing.
Serverless computing is likely to improve with cold start improvements, cross-cloud portability, and improved tooling for debugging and monitoring. With these advancements, developers relying on serverless architecture will only continue to benefit.
Conclusion
Developers increasingly turn to serverless architecture to build and scale applications in a whole new way. Serverless computing abstracts concerns over infrastructure, allows code to run automatically at scale, and cuts costs, ensuring that developers can concentrate on writing code and delivering value to users. There are a lot of aspects that need to be addressed, but the pros of this architecture massively outweigh those cons, and it’s a great tool in a modern developers’ toolkit.
Serverless Computing is becoming part of the future: A fundamental building block with which developers will be able to write more agile, scalable, and cheaper applications.
