Serverless Computing and FaaS

Serverless computing, also known as function as a service (FaaS), allows cloud providers to fully manage the container used to deliver requests. 

 

These architectures enable event-driven calculations instead of continuously operating computers. This architecture allows for the creation of highly scalable applications. 

 

Imagine writing, uploading, and running code without worrying about infrastructure, setup, or environment management. Serverless architecture allows for faster delivery of fully working and scalable apps compared to traditional building methods.

Misconception: Serverless computing eliminates the need for servers. This is actually incorrect. Serverless functionalities continue to run on servers but are managed by a third party rather than the developer. We'll compare a standard three-tier system with server-side functionality to a serverless architecture to demonstrate the differences.

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Serverless As an Event-Driven Computation

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Event-driven computation is an architecture pattern that focuses on taking action in response to events. This paradigm supports loosely linked services and only runs functions when prompted. 

Developers are encouraged to consider the necessary events and replies for a function before programming it.In this event-driven architecture, functions act as event consumers, meaning they handle events as they happen. 

 

Serverless functions can be triggered by several events, including:

• API requests
• Object storage operations
• Database changes
• Scheduled events
• Voice commands (e.g., Amazon Alexa)
• Bots (e.g., AWS Lex and Azure LUIS, natural language processing engines).

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Functions as a Service (FaaS)

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Serverless computing is a cloud computing approach that runs code as a service, eliminating the need for users to manage infrastructure. 

 

Serverless architecture still requires servers, but they are managed by a third party and are not visible to users. Consider this "Functions as a Service" (FaaS).

The developer creates custom event-driven code, which runs in stateless containers produced and maintained by a third party.

IaaS offers computer infrastructure, real or virtual machines, disk image libraries, block and file storage, firewalls, load balancers, IP addresses, and virtual networks. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances are one example of this. 

 

PaaS offers computing platforms that contain the operating system, programming language execution environment, database, and web server. Some examples are AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Azure Web Apps, and Heroku. 

 

SaaS gives access to application software. The installation and setup are deleted, leaving only the application. Examples include Salesforce and Workday.

FaaS allows you to run back-end code without having to design and deploy your own server applications or systems. All of this is managed by a third party. We shall cover this further in this section.

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Happy Exploring!