Serverless computing refers to an application development model. In serverless computing, developers build and deploy their applications on third-party server infrastructure. The third party handles all of the ‘work’ behind the scenes to maintain infrastructure: They manage the operating system, help with any needed security patches, manage the system’s capacity, and overall just keep the system running efficiently and effectively.
The following provides information about cloud computing, cloud computing service providers and what to look for in an edge compute or cloud computing solution.
How does serverless computing work?
Serverless computing is the practice of writing and deploying code (and applications) via managed third-party infrastructure. This third-party infrastructure is referred to as either a cloud computing or edge computing solution.
Instead of hosting and managing the backend services needed to perform compute themselves, a company will pay for these ‘services’ from a third-party provider. This helps the organization avoid the resource-heavy (and expensive) requirements of maintaining their own infrastructure, and lets them pay for services (compute) as they actually use them.
What are the benefits of serverless computing?
Serverless computing provides several key benefits to the business and to developers.
Lower costs and resource demands
By outsourcing compute (that is the memory, CPU or other resources used to run your code), teams can pay for only what they use. The organization also avoids all of the costs and resources requirements necessary to manage and maintain infrastructure themselves. By purchasing only the compute they need, and leaving infrastructure management to the third party, an organization can dramatically reduce their development.
More developer productivity
When a third party is responsible for all infrastructure maintenance and configuration, developers can focus solely on developing. Almost like renting an Airbnb, developers can enjoy all the benefits of the home (the serverless platform and its capabilities) without worrying about decorating the home, maintaining the roof (infrastructure), and so on.
Scalability
By using an essential “subscription” to compute power, organizations can quickly and effortlessly scale up or down on usage, depending on their changing needs. This is especially helpful when an organization suddenly scales up. This also avoids challenges you would face maintaining infrastructure at home; no conflicting priorities drain capacity. You are free to use what you need, when you need it.
Better end-user experience
When you don’t host applications (and code) on an origin server, the application’s code can run from anywhere. This allows you to run code very close to the end user, resulting in decreased latency, and a better overall experience of your applications for your customers.
Who needs serverless computing?
So who needs serverless computing? In short, anyone or any business who wishes to reduce development costs, get their products to market faster, and who wants the freedom to scale when they need to.
Developers are the primary beneficiaries of serverless computing, as it allows them to use only the compute they need, and importantly, to serve their applications closer to end users, resulting in better user experiences.
From a business perspective any organization that seeks to reduce overall costs and resources needed to support development and application deployment should consider serverless computing.
What should you look for in a serverless computing solution?
Below are some key capabilities you should look for when assessing serverless computing solutions. Solutions that satisfy most or all of these benefits are likely the best choice. yYou can prioritize your selection based upon which capability best aligns with your business needs.
No infrastructure management. The whole goal of serverless computing is to ‘outsource’ the maintenance and management of infrastructure to a third party. Any solution you choose should provide complete infrastructure management that you can verify.
Automatic scaling. The solution you choose should automatically scale capacity as you need it, regardless of request volume. It should be something you don’t have to even consider. There should be no need for manual intervention at any time to scale relative to your needs.
Easy Integrations. You should ensure the vendor offers seamless integration with other cloud services you use and that it will not cause any conflicts or issues with your existing ecosystem.
Security built in. Since you technically won’t have any real control over the vendor’s servers, you need assurances that they use robust security tools to maintain security. This should include logging and monitoring tools plus the ability for you to actually see what they are doing; a way for you to track performance and security.
What are the best serverless computing solutions?
We’ve provided a comparison chart to map out some of the top serverless computing solutions on the market.. Use the chart to identify which capabilities and use cases are the best fit for your business needs.
Vendor | Strengths | Use Cases | Good for Developers? | Good fit for |
Fastly Compute | -Real-time control -Low-latency compute -Strong observability and insights -Security built in -Massive global network | -API acceleration -Security logic -Real-time personalization -Streaming -All apps | Excellent | Strong for modern web stacks, composable architectures |
Cloudflare Workers | -Large global network -Simple to use -Integrated storage (KV, Durable Objects) | -Edge APIs -Authorization -Personalization -Lightweight apps | Good | Strong all-in-one edge platform |
AWS Lambda | Deep AWS integration -Scalable edge logic tied to CloudFront | -CDN customization -Request/response processing | Moderate | Best within AWS ecosystem |
Azure IoT | -Device management -Security built in -Hybrid cloud integration | -Enterprise IoT -Regulated industries | Moderate | Best for Microsoft ecosystem |
Google Cloud Edge | -Kubernetes-native -Telecom and 5G support | -Telco -Large-scale distributed systems | Moderate | Strong for GCP and Anthos users |
How Fastly can help
Fastly’s Edge Cloud Platform enables teams to deliver fast, secure, and personalized digital experiences at global scale. You can dramatically accelerate deployment and transform how you build and deploy applications by moving execution to the edge. Fastly helps to reduce latency and operational complexity with our high-performance serverless platform that enables you to innovate, faster.
Learn more about Compute on the Fastly Edge Cloud Platform.