Components of Serverless Computing Model

What is Serverless Computing?

Serverless Computing is a way to build and run applications and services without managing any infrastructure. In serverless computing, you have to write and provide code to the provider. In this, you do not need to maintain servers to run your applications, databases, and software. All the work related to server management is done by the provider.

It increases the productivity of the developer because now he has to focus only on building great applications. You have to pay for the resources you are using. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud are some of the famous serverless computing providers.

As an example of serverless computing, let us suppose a person has created an application, but he is facing many problems while deploying it. Suppose he has made the application using python and Django. The person has already made the application, but he is facing many errors while deploying it, and it is taking a lot of time. So, in that case, the person has two choices -

First, he can take his Virtual Private Server, and there, he can deploy the application known as ‘VPS Based Deployment’.
The second option can also give his code to a serverless service. He can get his way through serverless deployment by providing the code to serverless services like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or Google Cloud. Using this way, the developer only has to provide the source code and the application's dependencies to the service provider. Then, it is all up to the service provider to deploy the application.

Is serverless computing in fact, serverless?

It is always considered a myth that serverless computing means no server. However, it is not so. It means that the server you are using to run your code is managed by someone else and takes responsibility for managing the server.

For example, scaling up and scaling down. Going serverless computing provides you with the same hosting as compared to VPS Based Deployment.

Advantages of going Serverless

Serverless computing saves time for the developer. You provide the application's source code, and now, you do not have to spend time deploying. Whether ten thousand people visit your website or your website goes down due to a server, all such hectic things are not up to the developer now because someone else is managing the deployment.
Another advantage of serverless computing is that it automatically scales the server up and down depending on the rush and traffic on the website. So you do not have to maintain a bigger server on your own.
This also saves your money as it automatically scales up and down the server. You no longer have to pay a massive amount for a larger server if your website faces fluctuations in visits and traffic.

Components of Serverless Computing

There are three components of serverless computing.

1. API Gateway

This gateway acts as a mode of communication between the frontend and the FaaS (Function as a Service). It has API endpoints with some functions that run business logic. Moreover, if the server goes out of the equation, there is no need to deploy and manage the load balancers.

2. FaaS (Function as a Service)

Some common examples of FaaS are AWS Lambda, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Functions, etc. The FaaS solution is the critical enabler in serverless computing. This is used in the framework of the deployment.

3. BaaS (Backend as a Service)

It is a type of NoSQL database that is cloud-based distributed, and it also removed the database administration.

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