The rate of technological advancement is progressing at an astonishing rate. If you take your eyes off the IT and programming world, even for a short while, you can quickly find yourself lagging behind in terms of knowledge. Therefore, it is important to stay up to date with new developments in order to remain competitive.
Every day, it appears, a new tool emerges that claims to either simplify or complicate the lives of system administrators and coders, depending on the purpose it claims to serve. One such innovation in the IT sector is serverless technology.
It is important to clarify that the term used is not entirely accurate. To ensure accuracy, let us first address this misunderstanding before delving into whether this novel approach of offering software and services is suitable for your organization.
You should know that serverless technology is likely already in use in your organization.
Serverless: what is it?
It is important to note that the term “serverless” does not suggest that servers are not needed. Instead, it allows organizations to access software and services hosted off-site, without the need for investing in their own servers.
Serverless computing involves a third-party providing the necessary backend services to power applications and services, on an as-required basis. By utilizing serverless architecture, development teams can create and deploy code to a hosting service without end users being aware of the external hosting.
Serverless technology provides an opportunity for businesses to eliminate the need for server infrastructure. It facilitates the deployment of applications and services to cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Rackspace and Linode.
In order to gain a better understanding of serverless computing, it may be useful to consider the option of renting computing, networking and storage space from a third-party cloud provider and paying for it as and when needed. In essence, this approach means that you will be charged for the amount of resources you use. This minimalist strategy offers a range of advantages that can be utilized by any company, regardless of size or age.
The Value of Server-Less Computing
Let’s have a look at the upsides of serverless computing.
Cost-Effectiveness
The cost savings associated with serverless computing are a major advantage. By utilizing space in a third-party data center, organizations can avoid purchasing and maintaining their own high-capacity server hardware. In addition, this setup provides improved scalability in response to increased demand.
In a traditional data center, updating existing servers to increase their memory, storage and processing power, or purchasing new ones when they are unable to cope with demand, can be a costly process which can result in an inability to meet future demands.
Effective Administration
In the same way, your hosting service will manage the hardware so that your IT team does not need to. Consequently, creating and managing backups becomes much simpler (and, in certain cases, they can even be set up automatically for you).
Scalability Improvements
Serverless architecture can enable quick and reliable scalability. With the right platform, auto-scaling capabilities can be achieved both on-premises and in the cloud. However, access to sufficient computing resources and data storage is still required.
Eco-Friendly Hosts
In today’s society, going green is becoming increasingly important for businesses. Companies such as Google and Microsoft Azure, which provide hosting services to other businesses, are well-placed to reduce their environmental footprint without compromising their capacity to serve a large number of websites.
Faced with the serious threat posed by climate change, a single company, even a large enterprise, may not have the resources to keep pace. Therefore, transitioning to a serverless model is akin to “going green”, which is critical if reducing your company’s carbon footprint is a priority.
With Greater Availability
Large companies that provide serverless services can guarantee high levels of availability, which may not be achievable for smaller organizations. It is easy to find tools, such as the Google Cloud Status Dashboard, to monitor the health of a provider’s infrastructure.
But even with serverless platforms, your availability will be limited by the quality of the apps and services your team creates.
Pay Attention to the Vitals
By moving to a serverless architecture, your team can focus their efforts on aspects such as improving user experience, increasing system stability, developing new features and revamping the front end, all of which are necessary to ensure customer satisfaction.
Do You Want to Go Serverless?
Now that you are aware of the potential benefits of serverless technology, you must decide whether it is suitable for your organization. The initial step is to assess whether your team of developers possess the necessary skills and knowledge. Are they familiar with cloud-native technologies and can they develop applications for containers and Kubernetes? These two systems are highly compatible with serverless architectures.
Serverless technology is not restricted to cloud-native or containerization; rather, it can also be utilized to deploy mobile and web applications, in-house business tools, databases and websites at scale.
Ultimately, the ability of serverless to manage scalability without exceeding the budget is the main reason why it is the best choice for your business. Once your developers understand how to optimize applications and services for the on-demand scaling approach, you should anticipate considerable cost savings.
Prior to transitioning to a serverless architecture, it is important that both the development and operations teams have a comprehensive understanding of the associated technologies. If implemented correctly, serverless computing can be beneficial in terms of cost savings, customer satisfaction and improved availability. However, if not implemented correctly, serverless may lead to issues such as troubleshooting, redeployment and downtime. To ensure the best possible outcome, it is advisable to equip oneself with the necessary knowledge and experience before embarking on the transition.
