Force-Multiply Your Tech Investments — Go Serverless

Wide interest in serverless computing — that is, Function as a Service or FaaS — has been trending among the tech community for some time now, and for good reason. At its most basic, it allows organizations to get functionality (and software) into production at a faster rate than the more traditional cloud-based models. Delivering that functionality to users and figuring out if it resonates with them is the key to long-term success. But, let’s face it, we are all impatient technology users and when a tech piece becomes somewhat outdated we instantly assume that the company that developed it has lost its sense for innovation or is altogether irrelevant.

Investment In Serverless Returns More Value — But Why?

More time to build —  With no servers to provision or patch, you get to spend more time building
Pay only for what you use  — Ephemeral resources enable you to avoid paying for idle time
High availability  —  Serverless engines are fault-tolerant so they generally run longer and with fewer outages (outages are still possible but the chances of one occurring are rather slim)

Once you’ve committed to embracing Serverless, target some of its best practices to harness even more momentum.

Getting To Know Your Cloud Provider

To benefit from your selection of a cloud provider, your first goal is to read up on its pros and cons. Each provider has its own set of considerations in that regard and knowing what you are getting into before launching your app will help your efforts tremendously. Another thing to keep in mind is that you could simply start using the provider’s features and figure out the do’s and don’ts along the way. Satisfied or not, you’ll be able to switch providers easily at any point in time.

Utilizing Microservices

Think of the Serverless functions as small independent building blocks. Also, always make sure to use asynchronous communication and publish events from your function. In doing so, other subscribers (sometimes other functions) get notified and therefore can decide on their own if they should perform any additional work.

Make Maximum Use of the Frameworks at Hand

Your easiest way to get going is to start with a blank slate. If, at some point, you would like to benefit from the expertise offered and work others have already done, check out some of the available frameworks. A couple of the more widely used options are:

Serverless  —  It’s cloud provider agnostic and heavy into DevOps principles. It also has a great plugin ecosystem that supports local invocation

AWS SAM  —  Built by AWS for AWS Lambda, it helps you avoid common security mistakes

The Final Word

Serverless computing provides teams with more time to put users at the forefront of their focus, instead of servers. It also contributes to accelerating your highly-available, elastic scaling, and cost-efficient objectives. While it’s no silver bullet, instilling a moderate amount of self-discipline will go a long way in enabling you to get more out of your investment. As long as you keep your functions simple, think about your cloud provider choice, and look to frameworks that will help you mature, you’ll be set up for success with serverless.

For more helpful tips, reach out to one of our experts.