What are the benefits of serverless computing?

Serverless computing is an approach that facilitates backend services on an as-used basis. A provider enables users to execute code without managing the underlying environment. Serverless providers offer back-end services to various organizations and charge them based on their respective computations. A significant benefit of this approach is that no reservation of resources is required, and there is no fixed cost (as the service is auto-scaling).

Note: The serverless approach is based on physical servers, but the developers don’t need to worry about them.

The serverless architecture

Serverless is divided into two parts:

1. Developer: This role is related to writing the code for development on the platform. Focusing on the coding aspect gives the impression that the code is always running and there are no servers.

2. Provider: This role manages the serverless platform for deployment.

Note: The provider manages the backend servers. A self-hosted system can also be serverless; one user can function as the provider and another as the developer.

Serverless architecture and container architecture

Both approaches give developers the liberty to run code by abstracting away the underlying environment. However, there are some significant distinctions between them. A major difference is that container architecture requires the developer to maintain the container, system settings, and dependencies. On the contrary, server management in the serverless architecture is dealt with by the cloud provider. Serverless architecture can auto-scale applications, whereas container architecture requires an orchestration platform (e.g., Kubernetes).

Containers are more appropriate for use in applications that get high traffic. In contrast, serverless is better equipped to handle trigger-based requests (e.g., financial transactions).

Benefits of serverless computing

Serverless computing is superior to cloud-based and traditional architecture due to the following reasons:

Higher scalability

Serverless automates the creation and removal of function instances based on the traffic it receives.

Greater productivity

Serverless allows developers to execute their code without the hassle of server management. The use of cloud providers can speed up deadlines and increase the organization’s production capabilities.

Lower cost

Developers have the flexibility of paying based on their usage instead of spending resources on unused servers.