Serverless is a term that has been around for some time, but many companies are dipping their toes in to see if it is for them. Serverless computing is a new way to build and deploy applications – you don’t plan ahead how much storage your application needs or lines of code it will need, etc., as there are no servers to manage.
It allows developers to run code without provisioning or managing any servers. These services are designed to provide scalability and high availability, and they can be run in response to events or invoked directly by other cloud computing services.
With serverless services, developers can build applications faster and cheaper, without having to worry about server management.
One of the biggest benefits of serverless compute is that it can help you save money on infrastructure costs. With traditional server-based architectures, you have to pay for the servers even when they’re idle.
With serverless compute, you only pay for the resources your code actually consumes. This can result in considerable savings, particularly for apps with sporadic or infrequent usage
Why is this called ‘serverless’?
The term “serverless” can be a bit misleading. In this context, it doesn’t mean that there are no servers involved. Rather, it means that the developer doesn’t have to worry about which servers their code is running on or how those servers are being managed.
With serverless compute, all of that is taken care of by the service provider. The developer just needs to write their code and deploy it. This can be a major advantage, as it frees up developers to focus on building features and functionality, rather than worrying about infrastructure.
It’s also worth noting that serverless compute can be a very cost-effective way to run code, as you only pay for the resources you use (often by the millisecond). There’s no need to worry about underutilized servers or paying for idle time.
How is serverless compute different than other web hosting models?
Like I said in serverless compute, you don’t have to worry about provisioning or managing servers. Your code is simply deployed to a cloud provider and executed on demand. This can provide significant cost savings and simplify your overall architecture.
Traditional web hosting models require you to provision and manage servers. This can be costly and complex. With serverless compute, you don’t have to worry about this. Your code is simply deployed to a cloud provider and executed on demand.
Serverless compute can provide significant cost savings and simplify your overall architecture. It’s definitely worth considering for your next web project.
What can you do with serverless compute on AWS, what are some examples of usage?
With serverless compute on Amazon Web Services (AWS), you can run code without provisioning or managing servers. AWS Lambda, one of the services that offers serverless compute, runs your code only when needed and scales automatically to match the rate of incoming requests.
Some examples of usage for serverless compute include powering real-time applications such as chatbots and gaming applications, running event-driven workloads such as processing images or videos, and building IoT backends.
Why would businesses want to use serverless computing like AWS Lambda?.
Businesses seeking to tap into the power of serverless computing can significantly decrease the cost and effort of building, operating, and scaling applications by eliminating need for managing servers and backing them up.
In addition to these benefits, new serverless compute services can enable developers to focus on problem solving rather than back-end infrastructure design. The flexibility of serverless computing is enabling companies around the world to build highly scalable, high-availability systems at a price point unheard of just a few years ago.
AWS Product Breakdown
Serverless is the native architecture of the cloud that enables you to shift more of your operational responsibilities to AWS, increasing your agility and innovation. Serverless allows you to build and run applications and services without thinking about servers.
1. AWS Lambda
AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that allows you to run code without provisioning or managing servers. Lambda executes your code only when needed and scales automatically, from a few requests per day to thousands per second.
You pay only for the compute time you consume – there is no charge when your code is not running. With Lambda, you can run code for virtually any type of application or backend service – all with zero administration.
Just upload your code and Lambda takes care of everything required to run and scale your code with high availability.
2. Amazon API Gateway
If you’re looking to get started with serverless compute, a great place to start is with Amazon API Gateway. API Gateway is a managed service that makes it easy to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale.
With API Gateway, you can create RESTful APIs and WebSocket APIs that enable real-time two-way communication applications. Plus, API Gateway integrates with other AWS services to give you even more power and flexibility.
For example, you can use API Gateway with Lambda to process requests and responses in your backend code without having to provision or manage any servers. So if you’re ready to take the plunge into serverless compute, be sure to check out Amazon API Gateway.
3. Amazon DynamoDB
Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed, serverless database service that offers fast and predictable performance with seamless scalability.
It is simple to set up and use, making it a popular choice for developers who want to focus on building their applications rather than managing infrastructure. DynamoDB offers two main benefits: it is cost-effective, and it offers high performance and reliability.
4. Amazon S3
Amazon Simple Storage Service is an object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. Amazon S3 is easy to use, with a simple web service interface to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the web.
This means customers of all sizes and industries can use it to store and protect any amount of data for a range of use cases, such as websites, mobile applications, backup and restore, archive, enterprise applications, IoT devices, and big data analytics.
5. Amazon Kinesis
One popular type of serverless compute is Amazon Kinesis. Kinesis is a fully managed, cloud-based service that makes it easy to collect, process, and analyze streaming data at massive scale.
Kinesis can ingest and process data in real time so you can get actionable insights quickly. And because it’s serverless, there are no servers to manage or provision.
If you’re looking for a way to process streaming data at scale without having to worry about manageability or scalability issues, Amazon Kinesis might be the right solution for you.
6. Amazon Aurora
One popular type of serverless compute is Amazon Aurora. Amazon Aurora is a MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database engine that’s fully managed by AWS. That means you don’t have to worry about patching, backups, or scalability—AWS takes care of all that for you.
Since Aurora is compatible with existing MySQL and PostgreSQL applications and tools, it’s easy to get started with serverless compute using Aurora. And because it’s fully managed by AWS, you can be confident that your website or application will always be up and running.
7. AWS Fargate
AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine for Amazon ECS and EKS that makes it easy to run containers without having to manage servers or clusters. Fargate removes the need to provision and manage servers, so you can focus on building your applications and services.
Fargate is simple to use: just specify the number of vCPUs and memory for your task, and Fargate will launch and scale your containerized application using AWS infrastructure.
With Fargate, you no longer have to worry about matching instance types to your workloads, or over-provisioning instances to handle occasional spikes in traffic.
Fargate automatically scales your tasks based on the demands of your application, so you can optimize cost while maintaining performance. And because Fargate lets you launch containers directly on AWS infrastructure, it integrates seamlessly with other AWS services like Amazon CloudWatch for logging, monitoring, and tracing.
If you’re using containers in Amazon ECS or EKS, Fargate is a great way to simplify your architecture and reduce your operational overhead. Give it a try today!
8. Amazon SNS
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) is a flexible, fully managed pub/sub messaging service for coordinating the delivery of messages to large numbers of recipients.
Amazon SNS makes it simple and cost effective to push notifications to mobile devices, distributed systems, and AWS Lambda functions, or to other services.
9. Amazon SQS
Amazon SAS is a highly available, durable, secure, fully managed pub/sub messaging service that enables you to decouple microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications.
Using SQS, you can send, store, and receive messages between software components at any volume, without losing messages or requiring other services to be available.
This Serverless compute can also be used to process data in response to events. For example, a customer could use Amazon SQS to process orders placed on an ecommerce website. When an order is placed, an event is generated and sent to an Amazon SQS queue.
A message processing worker picks up the event from the queue and processes it accordingly. The customer pays only for the resources used while processing the event.
10. Amazon EFS
Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) provides simple, scalable, elastic file storage. It is built to elastically scale on demand, growing and shrinking automatically as you add and remove files.
With this serverless compute, you don’t have to worry about spinning up new instances or managing existing ones. Instead, you can simply create a function and run it on demand. When your function is no longer needed, it automatically shuts down, so you only pay for the resources you use.
Amazon EFS is designed to provide massively parallel shared access to thousands of Amazon EC2 instances, enabling your applications to achieve high levels of aggregate throughput and IOPS with consistent low latencies.
11. Amazon RDS Proxy
If you’re using Amazon’s Relational Database Service (RDS), you can now take advantage of a new proxy feature.
The RDS Proxy feature makes it easier to set up, manage, and monitor database connections. It also improves performance and availability for applications that use RDS databases.
The RDS Proxy feature is available for all supported RDS database engines. To get started, you simply create a proxy instance and then configure your applications to use the proxy.
The proxy handles the connection pooling and monitoring for you, so you don’t have to worry about those details.
There are a few things to keep in mind when using the RDS Proxy feature. First, it’s important to understand how the proxy works with connection pooling.
Second, the proxy instance must have the correct security settings so that only authorized applications can access your RDS databases.
Lastly, you need to configure your applications to use the proxy instance.
Amazon has detailed instructions on how to set up and use the RDS Proxy feature. Be sure to follow these instructions carefully so that you can take advantage of all that the proxy has to offer.
13. AWS AppSync
If you’re looking to get started with serverless compute, then you should check out AWS AppSync. AWS AppSync is a managed GraphQL service that makes it easy to develop and deploy serverless applications.
With AppSync, you can create scalable, cloud-native apps without having to worry about provisioning or managing servers. Plus, AppSync integrates with other AWS services to give you the ability to build powerful serverless applications.
So if you’re interested in getting started with serverless compute, then be sure to check out AWS AppSync.
12. AWS Step Functions
If you’re looking to get started with serverless compute, AWS Step Functions is a great option.
With Step Functions, you can easily create and manage workflows that are triggered by events in your AWS services. Plus, you can use pre-built templates or create your own custom workflows.
And since Step Functions is fully managed, you don’t have to worry about provisioning or managing servers.
13. Amazon Athena
AWS Athena is a serverless compute service that makes it easy to analyze data in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. Athena is ideal for ad-hoc querying, interactive exploration, and analytics workloads.
With Athena, there is no need to set up or manage any infrastructure. You can start using Athena immediately with no upfront costs or commitments.
14. Lambda@Edge
Lambda@Edge is a serverless compute service that makes it easy to run code close to your users, with low latency and high availability.
You can use Lambda@Edge to build user-facing applications, such as websites and mobile apps, that scale automatically and deliver high performance. Lambda@Edge is available in all AWS Regions.
15. Amazon EventBridge
Amazon EventBridge is a serverless compute service from Amazon that makes it easy to connect applications together so they can share data and events. EventBridge structure helps you to write code that is less error-prone and easier to maintain.
With EventBridge, you can connect applications across multiple AWS accounts and on-premises systems, making it easy to coordinate workflows and process data in real time.
Conclusion
We hope this article has helped you understand what serverless compute is and why it is becoming increasingly popular. With its benefits of reduced costs, improved scalability, and increased flexibility, it’s no wonder that more and more businesses are making the switch to serverless computing.
In conclusion, serverless compute is a great way to reduce costs and increase efficiency. It allows you to focus on your application code, rather than worry about provisioning and maintaining servers. Plus, it’s scalable and easy to use. If you’re looking for a way to simplify your infrastructure, serverless compute is definitely worth considering
