How Serverless Can Impact Your Business

Serverless is a funny concept that disrupts the way we think about infrastructure. We’ve moved from Software as a Service (SaaS) to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to a thing that’s headlining the serverless world — Functions as a Service (FaaS). 

However, it’s not a matter of copying and pasting your current code over in order to turn your software into a serverless application. 

There’s more to it than that.

Here are 4 things you should really know before you dive right into the world of serverless infrastructure.

How Function as a Service Actually Works

Function as a Service is a methodology of development that puts infrastructure first in the architecture. As a result, the ensuing code becomes highly modular and uni-functional — meaning that it does one thing and it does it very well. 

The main perk of the FaaS approach is that it allows developers to create apps quickly due to the reduced time cost and complexity of developing a separate infrastructure on the side to host the application. Apps that are built with a FaaS first approach often lead to a serverless architecture. 

However, a fully serverless architecture isn’t just limited to FaaS. Due to the nature of software development, there are often layers that represent different interfaces of an app. A typical app often breaks into three different layers — a presentational front end for the end-user and customers, a back end to process data and hold the business logic and a database layer for storing data. 

What it Means for Your Developer’s Workflow

When an automated deployment system is put into place, a serverless architecture can increase your developer’s ability to make changes and deploy quickly in an isolated manner. 

For backends, the traditional build, test and then deploy cycle can be reduced by one step. Testing can be done live and on a testing infrastructure where developers can be certain that it will reflect the production environment. 

It also means that if something needs to be created quickly — such as a patch for an older system or new feature to help pivot the business’ strategy — it can be done in a timely manner, minus the additional costs of creating a new set of infrastructure schema and architecture to build up a new scaffold app to hold the deployment. 

With serverless, your developer’s workflow and workload are shortened, meaning a smaller overall time spent in a particular development cycle. 

The Impact Serverless Can Have on Your Running Costs

Cloud providers often have their own offerings that are similar in concept. For example, AWS has Lambda, Google Cloud has Google Cloud Functions and Microsoft has Azure Functions. They are essentially the same FaaS service but are different through pricing models and developer’s interface.

Google’s Firebase and AWS’ Dynamo DB, for example, are essentially serverless databases that function on demand, rather than your traditional database instances that you are required to pay based on uptime and size. 

The interesting part about a serverless architecture is that rather than charges being based on the uptime hours, the final bill is based on total actual usage. 

This is because in the serverless world, computational power is distributed and the end-user doesn’t have to worry about servers, security, their uptime, capacity, and sizing. The task of scaling to demand is automated by the provider at no additional cost, other than the stipulated usage pricing table.

The Impact Serverless Can Have on Your Current Systems

If you’re running a legacy system, a serverless architecture can help your system through transitional periods by creating virtual struts that work alongside what’s currently existing without significantly impacting it.

For example, you may need a particular set of data but the only way that it’s currently accessible is through your current application. With a serverless approach, a set of functions can be built in a quick and cost-effective manner to address the issues without the need to construct an entire application to house the code.

For startups, a serverless approach can also let the business implement MVPs and agile up the market testing process at minimal upfront infrastructure costs. 

Final Thoughts

Serverless is not just an industry buzz word. It’s an ecosystem and methodology of creating applications of the future. 

With a serverless approach, the architecture can eliminate a good portion of your bill by replacing the payment model with one that’s based on true demand rather than what the business expects demand to be.

Serverless isn’t just popular because there’s less work required, but because it is highly scalable and the code can be ported to a traditional structure if needed. The modularity of how everything fits together to work as a cohesive unit and parts are easily replaceable. 

Co-authored by:

Dave Wesley ~ President, SRG
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Aphinya Dechalert ~ Marketing Communications, SRG
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