Technology is constantly evolving.
New tools and architectures appear as DevOps services develop proficiency with older ones, and you’re left wondering whether starting again is the only option. You may find yourself in a problematic situation requiring extensive reorganization and reworking of your code.
In the future, what if you have to complete a current migration to start the process all over again? Have you ever been in a situation like that? It’s not a simple task, and it needs much investigation and thought.
In the end, it’s unlikely that making such a substantial shift would benefit your business if you can continue to provide excellent service to your clients. Conversely, if you reject innovation, you risk being stuck in the past, at a time when technological advancements promise a more promising future.
Moreover, this is what we think of when we see phrases like “serverless architecture” popping up all over the place.
For those afraid of change, we recommend that you look at this: web architecture is all about comfortability.
Do you have the same opinion? Assuming this is the case, serverless is the answer. If not, it’s alright; we’ll find out regardless.
In our opinion, this is correct. We see a clear path to Serverless Architecture when considering how our front-end apps are constructed and the success many businesses have had transitioning from a conventional Monolithic Architecture pattern to a decoupled Microservices Architecture pattern. We’re crossing our fingers that you’ll get a glimpse of it in the end. Let’s have a look at the pros and cons of serverless architecture.
What is Serverless Architecture?
Let’s establish a clear picture of what serverless architecture is not before starting.
Serverless architecture is neither a substitute for microservices or a mobile and web app development company nor does it imply that there is no server in the first place. Microservices architecture and serverless computing may be utilized together or independently even inside the same application since cloud service providers will care for the server infrastructure for you.
Defining what qualifies a serverless architecture might be challenging because of the many cloud services available.
Functions-as-a-Service, or FaaS, is the simplest way to describe serverless computing.
Serverless functions, of which FaaS is a subset, are also known as serverless. An event, such as a button click, may set off these functions. As long as you create some code and deploy it, cloud service providers will take care of everything else. An API request is all it takes to communicate between your front-end and serverless function.
Read Also : Benefits of Opting For Serverless App Development
Pros of Serverless Architecture
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- No Server Management: Serverless web development is indeed based on computers, but those computers are maintained by cloud computing service providers. Zero server management does not restrict you in any way. It has the opposite effect due to scalability possibilities, optimum availability, and the removal of idle capacity, to mention a few features.
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- Cost: Serverless may save money in a variety of ways. Because of the complexity of conventional server design, it’s impossible to accurately forecast and acquire the amount of capacity you’ll need, which is frequently more than you need. A cloud service provider will bill a customer just for the time their code is running, as the code is only executed when a backend service is required. The way we see it, that’s precisely what we need. In addition, since your provider takes care of the servers’ costs and upkeep, you won’t have to hire developers and other IT specialists to do any of it. Serverless computing, like cloud computing, saves a lot of money on hardware expenditures.
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- Scalability: Serverless web development enables applications to be scaled indefinitely and automatically. You won’t have to worry about your site going down or performing poorly if traffic spikes occur, as you could with a set server capacity. Costs will inevitably rise as your user base or consumption expands, but as a former employer of mine likes to remark, it’s a wonderful issue to have.
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- Security: It’s common to see security as a drawback in serverless architecture publications. However, it is vital to note that top cloud service providers are devoted to offering the most secure, performant, and available service possible. This article will discuss some of these issues in the next part. Their business model relies heavily on this, so it’s only natural that they’re hiring the greatest people to design and manage these services, as well as ensuring that they deliver the best practices possible. Developers still have to think about certain aspects of application security. Still, most of it is taken care of for you by industry specialists, which is a huge benefit in my view.
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- Quicker time to market: The ease of setting up development environments and the lack of server management leads to faster delivery and faster deployment. Having everything decoupled means that you may add or delete services at any time without the massive code changes that you would require in a monolithic application. This is particularly important for a Minimum Viable Product.
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- Reduced latency: Serverless tasks may now be executed on servers closer to end-users worldwide thanks to CDNs and Edge Networks.
Cons of Serverless Architecture
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- Vendor lock-in: A single cloud service provider, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), will be the most convenient option since each vendor will have a unique method of doing things. If you decide to switch providers in the future, you’ll be entirely relying on your current provider to deliver the best possible service. Waiting for infrastructural issues to be fixed is the only option.
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- Security: Cloud service providers will execute code from many clients simultaneously on the same server in many cases. Multitenancy is the method they use to accomplish this. In a nutshell, consumers are essentially renting out a portion of the server. This is an example of data exposure occurring due to server misconfiguration.
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- Impact on performance: Serverless computing does not have a running process. For the first time, a function must be “cold started,” meaning that a container must be spun up before the operation can be executed. A container will continue to operate for a while after the API request is complete so that we may have a “warm start” without the increased latency if the API call is required again shortly. There are fewer cold starts now than before the advent of edge computing.
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- Testing and troubleshooting: The cloud provider’s decreased visibility to backend activities makes debugging difficult. However, executing integration tests in a serverless environment is challenging since it is impossible to duplicate. However, everything’s not lost. Increasingly, new platforms and services are being developed to address concerns like these in the serverless environment. Datadog’s End-to-End Serverless Monitoring may be an option.
Read Also : When and Why Should You Go For Serverless Applications?
