Cloud computing started as an alternative to traditional infrastructure and platforms. In the face of finite hardware and software technology resources, the cloud proposes “infinite” and scalable solutions. When it comes to the cloud, there is much talk about serverless architecture. This term describes architectures and structures where the management of a company’s data is outsourced to third parties. Contrary to what you might understand from the name, serverless architecture does not imply the absence of servers in data management, but only the transfer of these concerns by your company to providers of such services, like Google, Amazon, or Microsoft. While not every business is ready to go all-in on serverless, this could be a game-changer for the telecommunications industry. In this article, we discuss the serverless architecture concept, as well as the advantages, disadvantages, and costs of this type of infrastructure.
What Is Serverless Architecture?
Serverless architecture allows developers to build and run applications in the cloud without a server. Thus, the cloud provider takes over routine services such as provisioning, maintenance and scaling, leaving developers to worry only about the actual building of applications in containers. This architecture model comes with several advantages over traditional server-based infrastructure—greater scalability, increased flexibility, faster release time for applications as well as faster application updates. Another big benefit is cost control—the absence of workloads and traffic mean no extra costs under a serverless system.
What Makes Serverless Architecture Different?
What makes serverless architecture unique is the shift in developer focus to product and application development. Network configuration and security settings are taken care of by the cloud provider. These functions are taken over by the vendor forming the Functions-as-a-Service (FaaS) component—one of the most important facets of serverless solutions. In addition to FaaS, there could also be Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) infrastructure services, which include features such as authentication, monitoring, and private and internalized services.
With an event-driven architecture, each part of an application is independent and each event triggers the next. In a linear architecture, however, there are connections to each service. Thus, in the event of a failure, choosing a serverless infrastructure will help you isolate the impact on each event, instead of the entire service—as would be the case with traditional architecture.
Other features of serverless architectures are also the increased speed and reduced release or update times. Applications can be launched in just a few hours when you don’t depend on a traditional, cumbersome infrastructure. Flexibility is also important in urgent and unpredictable scenarios.
Once deployed, serverless applications respond to demand and automatically scale according to business needs. Serverless offerings from public cloud providers are typically metered on-demand through an event-driven execution model. As a result, when a serverless function is idle, it costs nothing.
What Does Serverless Infrastructure Management Entail?
Even if serverless means no servers, there are still management and configuration operations to be executed. Instead of configuring instances and networking resources, as in an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) stack, serverless architectures need to configure and keep functions, storage, API rule-sets and other additional resources under control. Infrastructure management also consumes resources, depending on the nature of the serverless stack. For this type of management, however, each cloud provider offers its own solutions. Thus, AWS has Cloud Formation, Azure offers Resource Manager, and Google offers Cloud Deployment Manager.
What Are the Costs Associated with Serverless Architecture?
With serverless architecture, you are only billed for the time the platform is actively used. When the platform is inactive, meaning no traffic or events, it costs nothing.
For example, with Google Cloud, you pay as you consume, with no other hidden costs or termination fees. Google claims that you can save up to 57% on resources like Compute Engine.
AWS also has a pay-for-value billing model, where resource utilization is automatically optimized and a customer never pays for over-provisioning.
Is Serverless a Solution for the Telecommunications Industry?
Cloud-based infrastructure deployments seem to be a favorite among start-ups, and larger companies, including telecommunications, seem to be opting for serverless.
In recent years several innovative technologies have been developed. The internet of things (IoT) and 5G will power new operations needing intense application processing for massive volumes of data. But there is a catch: The more complex the function, the more computing power is needed. By continuing to rely on traditional servers, telecommunications companies are paying for capacity they don’t need.
Serverless infrastructure helps companies save money and pays only for the resources used along the way. The solution also sums up the fundamental advantages of cloud computing: Standardization and simplification of IT structure, innovation with AI solutions, and security and backup in case of disaster.
