Serverless and Cloud - What Does it Really Mean for Your Business?

Serverless and Cloud - What Does it Really Mean for Your Business?

Serverless has become one of those concepts which drive the tech world nowadays. Using serverless architecture has been a godsend for many entrepreneurs. Would it also work for you?

When people hear “serverless” placed in the same sentence with “cloud computing”, they imagine an alternate reality with no hardware at all. The data floating somewhere amongst fluffy digital clouds might sound like cyber-idyll, but the truth is that serverless does not mean - hardwareless. As Scott Fulton from ZDNet says - the whole idea is not about taking servers out of the equation.

Wait… What? Yes. Serverless does not mean working without any servers. It means an entirely different approach to the way servers are used for the developer - and in the end - the business.

Previously, server usage also required knowledge about the operating system running on that server, the framework, as well as, thinking about your own data and software.

Developers had to have in mind not only the details of their code but also lots of technical challenges connected to the place where their code would be stored and used by customers. That also included maintenance issues, scalability, and security of the data.

Better Workflow

With cloud computing and the serverless revolution, developers just deploy an application into the cloud, and the cloud itself, thanks to its infrastructure, figures out how to put that application on the servers and deliver it to the end users. “All the technical stuff like setting up instances, the orchestration, is off the equation” - adds Fulton.

Lower Costs

Cloud computing is based on the principles of sharing resources. With a serverless approach also comes a better business model. The company which wants to use the cloud for its web applications or software delivery will pay only for what is used. No more bills for empty space on the server or idle servers, no more bills for some extra job done in an emergency. Developers can just focus on business logic and writing own code rather than setting up, patching, maintaining and troubleshooting servers. That means both: faster delivery and lower costs.

Wider Perspectives

Access to the resources available in the cloud also means enterprises have the ability to use Big Data or reach next-gen technologies like voice search, machine learning, and AI. Thanks to that, you can focus on innovation, not on infrastructure.

Availability

With the serverless approach, you do not have to worry that the infrastructure your application is using won’t be available - from technical issues to even the most unimaginable external threats (floods, fires, earthquakes). The biggest cloud computing service providers, like for example, Amazon, with its AWS and Lambda infrastructure, can run your applications on highly available, fault-tolerant infrastructure spread across multiple Availability Zones. The idea behind the cloud offers you multiple backups that continuously are being updated and can take over duties within milliseconds.

Better Security

Cloud technology removes the security duties from you as an owner of web applications. It places it in hands of a worldwide dedicate staff focused on preventing, fixing and patching servers as soon or in some cases before threats are detected, 24/7. What is more, the cloud provides an extremely large distributed attack vector. By design, cloud servers are located all over the world and attacking one means it can be shut down and another location can take over. In the end - the cloud-based environment is much more secure than an on-premise environment.

Why then bother with in-house servers, worrying about the security and involve IT and development into constant maintenance and endless updates? The answer is you don’t have to, we can show you how.