Cloud Native Infrastructure with Azure

Chapter 11. Serverless

Up to this point, we have largely focused on taking on-premises concepts and discussing and implementing their cloud-based equivalents. In this chapter, we will take a deep dive into a new type of computing architecture known as serverless, which is rooted in cloud computing. Specifically, we will examine common serverless platforms including Azure function apps, Knative, KEDA, and OpenFaaS.

Introduction to Serverless Computing

Similar to containers, there is a lot of hype around serverless computing and what can be done with it. This chapter will examine the features and benefits of serverless computing.

What Is Serverless?

Unlike containers, which largely still contain a number of host-based concepts, serverless abstracts all of that away to the point where you are only worried about being able to run a software function.

Serverless has gained a lot of popularity due to the ability to create applications quickly and run them without worrying about infrastructure management. Furthermore, serverless considers autoscaling as a first-class feature, which means you do not need to worry about anything other than writing code and deploying it using standardized framework deployment mechanisms.

The benefit of serverless is that server maintenance and configuration is mostly not a concern. Furthermore, if you want to run a software function infrequently, serverless functions can be a much more economical option as you pay by the request, not by the reservation ...