An explanation of serverless computing

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In this video, TechTarget editor Craig Stedman talks about serverless computing.

Less is more, with serverless computing.

Serverless computing is a cloud computing execution model that lets developers build and run applications without having to manage servers. With serverless, the user is charged for just the resources and storage they use, while the cloud vendor takes care of all the infrastructure management and maintenance.

The main goal of serverless computing is to make it simpler for developers to write code designed to run on cloud platforms. They can write a function in their favorite programming language and post it to a serverless platform and the cloud provider maps the function to an API endpoint.

The advantages of serverless computing include:

  • Cost-effectiveness, as users are only charged for the time code runs.
  • Easy deployment of apps, doing so in hours or days instead of weeks or months.
  • Auto scaling, as providers spin resources up or down when code isn't running.
  • And increased productivity, as developers can spend their time developing apps instead of dealing with servers.

The disadvantages, on the other hand, include:

  • Vender lock-in, as the way serverless services are delivered varies between vendors.
  • Inefficiency for long-running apps, as it can end up costing more than a VM or dedicated server.
  • Latency, as there's a delay to handle a function for the first time.
  • And, debugging is more difficult, because a serverless instance creates a new version of itself each time it spins up.

Serverless computing is suitable for a large variety of use cases, including but not limited to:

  • Event-triggered computing.
  • IoT data processing.
  • Back-end tasks for apps or websites.
  • Building RESTful APIs.
  • Video and image manipulation.
  • Writing multilanguage apps.

Serverless computing plays an important role in digital transformation, both by enabling developers to focus on code with business value and by eliminating management overhead.

There's a wide variety of serverless vendors, tools and languages -- what do you look for in a serverless platform? Share your thoughts [at Eye on Tech] and remember to like and subscribe.

Sabrina Polin is a managing editor of video content for the Learning Content team. She plans and develops video content for TechTarget's editorial YouTube channel, Eye on Tech. Previously, Sabrina was a reporter for the Products Content team.