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☁️ Serverless Architecture

Serverless architecture is an approach that allows developers to build and run services without having to manage the underlying infrastructure. Developers just write their code and deploy, while a cloud provider provisions servers to run their applications, databases, and storage systems at any scale.

⚙️ Working​

  1. One of the most popular serverless architectures is Function as a Service (FaaS), where developers write their application code as a set of discrete functions. Each function performs a specific task when triggered by an event, such as an incoming email or an HTTP request. After testing, developers deploy their functions, along with their triggers, to a cloud provider account. When a function is invoked, the cloud provider either executes the function on a running server or, if there is no server currently running, spins up a new server to execute the function. This execution process is abstracted away from developers, who focus on writing and deploying the application code.
  2. Another popular option is serverless containers.

🌟 Benefits​

  1. Cost efficiency (Pay per use)
  2. Scalability (Auto scaling)
  3. Developer Productivity (Focus on code)
  4. Resilience and Availability
    • Each function/container runs in isolation
    • Built-in fault tolerance

⚠️ Challenges and Considerations​

  1. Cold start latency
    • The first invocation of a function after a long period of inactivity can experience higher latency.
    • Can be mitigated by using techniques like function warmers or provisioned concurrency.
  2. Complexity in State Management
    • Since serverless functions are stateless, managing state across multiple sessions can be challenging.
  3. Vendor Lock-In
    • Heavily reliant on services provided by a vendor.
    • Can be mitigated using an open-source serverless framework like Knative.
  4. Debugging and Monitoring
  5. Resource Limits
    • Serverless functions generally have execution time limits (e.g., 15 minutes for AWS Lambda).

🛠️ Common Use Cases​

  1. Web applications
  2. Data processing
  3. Event-Driven Automation: Serverless functions can automate routine tasks such as backups, monitoring, and notifications based on predefined events.
  4. DevOps and CI/CD

🚀 Examples​

  1. Google Cloud Functions
  2. AWS Lambda
  3. Microsoft Azure Functions