What is serverless website and how does it work?

Serverless website, also known as serverless computing, is a cloud-computing execution model in which the cloud provider acts as the server, dynamically managing the allocation of machine resources. Pricing is based on the actual amount of resources consumed by an application, rather than on pre-purchased units of capacity. It is a form of utility computing. Serverless is used because the server management and capacity planning decisions are completely hidden from the developer or operator. The serverless code can be used in conjunction with code deployed in traditional styles, such as microservices. Alternatively, applications can be written to be purely serverless and use no provisioned servers at all.

Several serverless databases have also been released. These systems extend the serverless execution model to the RDBMS, eliminating the need to provision or scale virtualized or physical database hardware.

Azure Data Lake is a highly scalable data storage and analytics service. The service is hosted in Azure, Microsoft's public cloud. Azure Data Lake Analytics provides a distributed infrastructure that can dynamically allocate or deallocate resources so customers pay for only the services they use.

FaunaDB is a globally distributed, transactional database, based on technology from Twitter. It spans multiple public cloud providers with pay-as-you-go pricing and is also available on-premises.

Google Cloud Datastore is an eventually-consistent document store. It offers the database component of Google App Engine as a standalone service. Firebase, also owned by Google, includes a hierarchical database and is available via fixed and pay-as-you-go plans.

How does it work?

Serverless computing, or more simply Serverless, is a hot topic in the software architecture world. The “Big Three” cloud vendors such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are heavily invested in Serverless.

 

Serverless was first used to describe applications that significantly or fully incorporate third-party, cloud-hosted applications and services, to manage server-side logic and state. These are typically “rich client” applications (think single-page web apps or mobile apps) that use the vast ecosystem of cloud-accessible databases, authentication services (e.g., Auth0, AWS Cognito), and so on. These types of services have been previously described as “(Mobile) Backend as a Service" or BaaS.

Serverless can also mean applications where server-side logic is still written by the application developer, but, unlike traditional architectures, it’s run in stateless compute containers that are event-triggered, ephemeral (may only last for one invocation), and fully managed by a third party. One way to think of this is “Functions as a Service” or "FaaS".

AWS Lambda is one of the most popular implementations of a Functions-as-a-Service platform at present, but there are many others, too.

Aws, take care of the servers and no need to worry about scaling up and scaling down one good thing about serverless is Aws only charges for you when someone hits your webpage if there is no traffic it means no charges.

 

BaaS and FaaS are related in their operational attributes (e.g., no resource management) and are frequently used together. The large cloud vendors all have “Serverless portfolios” that include both BaaS and FaaS products.

Benefits of using serverless website

Cost efficient

The rising costs of in-house developers and DevOps to manage data processes has become a bottleneck for many companies trying to modernize and automate their data processes. A serverless data removes most of this bottlenecks, especially when it comes to updating and maintaining the database.

Scalability

One of the key benefits of going serverless is the flexibility to scale and grow. The cloud gives all businesses, big and small, the ability to use what they need and scale without worrying about complex and time-consuming data migrations. This unlimited room for growth also means that you should choose your cloud provider carefully – just as with your bank account, you’re likely to stick with it for years to come.

Full control

Maintaining a data pipeline can be costly and time-consuming, especially when it isn’t automated or hosted in the cloud. This ongoing monitoring process can become a burden, especially when new data sources need to be added and aligned with the rest of the database. A serverless data pipeline will give you the freedom to focus on insights with the peace of mind that your optimal data pipeline is taken care of and maintained to the highest standard.

Simplicity

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Using a platform like Rivery, you can set up your data platform in the cloud without a single line of code. All your data can be aligned and managed efficiently in your cloud. Whether you use Google, AWS, Azure Data Warehouse or Snowflake – once all your data sources are hosted in a single space in the cloud you can forget about data siloes or disjointed insights from different teams that are not aligned.

 

So, what do you think about the serverless website? Share your experiences with us in the comment section. Thank you!