Serverless Architecture: What It Is and Why It Matters

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January 31, 2025

As technology advances, companies are constantly seeking ways to innovate and scale quickly. Serverless architecture, also known as serverless computing, has garnered significant attention due to its agility, flexibility, and most importantly, its cost-effectiveness. This comprehensive guide delves into what serverless architecture is, how it functions, and its crucial role in software development.

What is Serverless Architecture?

Serverless architecture is an approach that allows developers to build and run applications and services without having to manage the underlying infrastructure. The term ‘serverless’ can be a bit misleading-it doesn’t mean there are no servers involved. Instead, it means that a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, or Microsoft Azure provides and manages the serverless platform and back-end infrastructure. These providers handle the server maintenance, security updates, and other tasks, allowing developers to focus on writing and deploying code for their applications. This model is sometimes referred to as FaaS (Function as a Service) or stateless serverless computing.

How Does Serverless Architecture Work?

Serverless architecture is not really serverless; it is serverless only for the business. For the users, the applications still run on a server. Simply put, servers allow users to communicate with the application and use the business logic. Managing servers is a challenging task that requires considerable resources and effort. Web development in India teams must maintain the server hardware, software & security updates and create backup files to avoid uncertainties.

However, by embracing serverless architecture, developers shift these responsibilities to third-party providers. These third-party servers function as a service (FaaS) or perform as a service (PaaS). FaaS is one of the most popular serverless architectures that allows developers to write app code as a discrete function. Every function performs a specific task in case it is triggered as an event, like an HTTP request or incoming email. Upon the testing phase, developers later deploy their functions with the triggers to a cloud provider account.

Once the function is invoked, the cloud provider executes the function on a running server, and in case there is no running server, it spins up a new server to implement the function. This is a relief for developers who can focus on writing and deploying code for the app.

Core Concepts in Serverless Architecture

Below are some serverless architecture terms you need to familiarize yourself with:

Invocation: It means a single-function execution
Duration: Calculates the time taken to execute a serverless function
Event: Triggers execution of functions coming from different sources such as database changes, file uploads, HTTP requests, external servers, or timers.
Cold Start: The delay within the duration of initial invocation or after the period of inactivity.
Timeout: The time taken by the cloud provider for a function to run before terminating it.

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