Part 14 - Building Robust Enterprise Systems: An Introduction to Essential Technologies (Serverless Architecture
Written by : Vimal Panchal
Welcome back! Over the past few posts, we've taken a deep dive into various technologies crucial for building robust enterprise systems. We've covered everything from front-end technologies to CI/CD tools. Today, we're switching gears to talk about an exciting concept in the world of software development—Serverless Architecture.
What is Serverless Architecture?
At its core, serverless architecture refers to a model where the developer doesn't need to worry about the server even though the servers still exist. The term "serverless" means that the developers don't have to manage, provision, or maintain the servers to run applications, databases, and storage systems. Instead, these tasks are taken care of by the cloud service provider.
Serverless architecture simplifies the process of deploying and running an application. It eliminates the need for system administration, as the infrastructure is completely taken care of by the service provider. The serverless model is event-driven, with resources allocated as soon as they are needed (for example, when a user interacts with your app), which can lead to cost efficiency.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Serverless Architecture
Serverless architecture offers many benefits, including reduced operational costs, faster deployments, and automatic scaling. However, it also has some drawbacks, such as potential cold start delays (time taken to allocate resources for a function) and the potential for vendor lock-in.
Now, let's look at some technologies used in serverless architectures:
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AWS LambdaAmazon Web Services (AWS) Lambda is a compute service that lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers. It executes your code only when needed and scales automatically.
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Google Cloud Functions
Google Cloud Functions is a serverless execution environment for building and connecting cloud services. You can create single-purpose, stand-alone functions that respond to cloud events without the need to manage a server or runtime environment.
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Microsoft Azure Functions
Azure Functions is a serverless compute service that lets you run event-triggered code without having to explicitly provision or manage infrastructure.
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IBM Cloud Functions (based on Apache OpenWhisk)
IBM Cloud Functions is a serverless platform that enables developers to quickly create apps from bits of code, called actions.
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Cloudflare Workers
Cloudflare Workers provides a serverless execution environment that allows you to create entirely new applications or augment existing ones without configuring or maintaining infrastructure.
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Firebase Cloud Functions
Firebase Cloud Functions is a hosted, private, and scalable Node.js environment where you can run backend code for mobile app development.
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Twilio Functions
Twilio Functions, a serverless environment, enables developers to build and run Twilio applications without having to set up their infrastructure.
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Auth0 Webtask
Webtask from Auth0 is a Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) platform that allows developers to run code with no provisioned infrastructure.
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Iron Functions
Iron Functions is an open-source serverless platform or FaaS platform that you can run anywhere.
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Kubeless
Kubeless is a Kubernetes-native serverless framework that lets you deploy small bits of code without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure plumbing.
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Fission
Fission is a framework for serverless functions on Kubernetes. It allows you to write short-lived functions in any language, and map them to HTTP requests (or other event triggers).
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Nuclio
Nuclio is a high-performance, open-source and Kubernetes-native serverless framework. It's designed with an emphasis on speed, scale, and real-time processing.
While serverless architecture might not be suitable for every use case, it's definitely a powerful model that offers significant benefits for certain applications. As always, whether or not to use it will depend on your specific needs and constraints.
