Serverless Computing: Advantages, Limitations and Use Cases

Serverless computing, also known simply as "serverless," represents a significant transformation in how applications are designed, deployed, and executed. Contrary to traditional methods where developers manage servers, serverless allows them to focus only on coding, trusting cloud providers with infrastructure responsibilities. This paradigm shift results in dynamic resource allocation, where users are billed based on actual resource consumption rather than pre-allocated capacities. The article elucidates serverless computing's nature, highlighting its core components - Function as a Service (FaaS) and Backend as a Service (BaaS). The benefits of serverless are underscored, including cost efficiency, inherent scalability, rapid development, and reduced operational demands. Yet, it is not without limitations. Concerns such as "cold starts," potential vendor lock-in, restricted customization, and specific security vulnerabilities are discussed. Practical serverless applications include web applications, data processing, IoT backends, chatbots, and ephemeral tasks. In conclusion, while serverless computing heralds a new age in cloud technology, businesses are encouraged to discerningly evaluate its pros and cons, mainly as the landscape evolves. The future is serverless, prompting organizations to determine their readiness for this revolution

A review on serverless architectures - function as a service (FaaS) in cloud computing

Emergence of cloud computing as the inevitable IT computing paradigm, the perception of the compute reference model and building of services has evolved into new dimensions. Serverless computing is an execution model in which the cloud service provider dynamically manages the allocation of compute resources of the server. The consumer is billed for the actual volume of resources consumed by them, instead paying for the pre-purchased units of compute capacity. This model evolved as a way to achieve optimum cost, minimum configuration overheads, and increases the application's ability to scale in the cloud. The prospective of the serverless compute model is well conceived by the major cloud service providers and reflected in the adoption of serverless computing paradigm. This review paper presents a comprehensive study on serverless computing architecture and also extends an experimentation of the working principle of serverless computing reference model adapted by AWS Lambda. The various research avenues in serverless computing are identified and presented

Securing Serverless Computing

Serverless applications are based on a microservices-oriented system design, often consisting of several services, each with distinct functions that are composed and orchestrated to deliver specific functionality. The architecture allows firms to build and deploy software applications without consideration towards provisioning or maintaining the underlying infrastructure. The novelty of the architecture and its inherent characteristics present new challenges for cybersecurity. We discuss the security imperatives of this emerging cloud computing software paradigm. We then identify some of the approaches and practices that can be used by organizations to mitigate security threats in the context of serverless computing

A proposed cloud-based billers hub using secured e-payments system

Automation of several payment processes from start to end is a challenging task, particularly when multiple payments from online and offline billers are involved. In this paper, we introduced a new aggregator system to combine all billing system types, in which it is possible to pay invoices electronically. The proposed aggregator system was designed to be employed in a cloud-based Billers Hub (CBBH) developed by the central banks. Furthermore, many applications can be realized such as; deposit e-money, withdrawal e-money, and other applications. A Gateway translator is used to apply authentication rules, security, and privacy. The proposed system was employed in the Jordanian payment gateway and successfully fulfills its purpose

Perinteisistä monoliittisista palvelimista palvelimettomaan

Tiivistelmä. Yritykset ovat nykypäivänä yhä isomman paineen alla kasvavien datamäärien, sovellusten kompleksisuuden kasvamisen ja nousevan kilpailun takia. Palvelimeton arkkitehtuuri on luomassa uusia tapoja toteuttaa sovelluksia lyhyemmässä ajassa ja olemalla kustannustehokkaampi kuin perinteiset ratkaisut. Ala onkin kokemassa yhdenlaista murrosta ja yhä enenevissä määrin siirtymässä käyttämään palvelimetonta arkkitehtuuria. Se ei ole kuitenkaan aina paras ratkaisu ja sen edut ja haitat olisi hyvä tiedostaa etukäteen. Tutkielmassa tarkasteltiin tutkimusongelmana mitä asioita palvelinarkkitehtuurista päättävän tahon tulisi ottaa huomioon ennen päätöstä palvelimettoman järjestelmän kehityksestä tai siihen siirtymisestä perinteisen monoliittisen palvelimen sijaan. Tutkielma on toteutettu kirjallisuuskatsauksena. Tutkielmassa tuli esille useita eri asioita, joita tulee ottaa huomioon ja jotka voivat vaikuttaa valittaessa perinteisen monoliittisen palvelinmallin ja palvelimettoman arkkitehtuurin välillä. Samalla selvisi, ettei palvelimeton sovellu automaattisesti kaikkiin käyttötarkoituksiin. Lisää tutkimusta aiheesta kuitenkin kaivattaisiin, sillä se on yritysmaailman verrattuna huomattavasti jäljessä. Moni tähänastinen tutkimus keskittyy lähinnä taloudellisiin seikkoihin ja palvelimien skaalautumisen eroihin, joten tilaa tutkimuksille uudenlaisista näkökulmista riittäisi

Serverless computing: a multivocal literature review

Serverless computing is a cloud computing execution model which enables developers to focus more on business logic rather than on infrastructure or maintenance of servers. This new paradigm has become a source of attraction for developers and organizations alike as it does not only reduce but simply eliminates the overhead of scaling, provisioning and infrastructure altogether. Given the novelty of the phenomenon, this paper is meant to study the phenomenon in a systematic way in order to define the core components of serverless computing, its benefits, challenges and what lies in the foreseen future of the serverless concept. To this end, authors conducted a multivocal literature review in order to better comprehend the state-of-art on serverless computing. The study shows that serverless computing is a solution that allows users to create functions that intercept and operate on data flows in a scalable manner without the need to manage a server, although presents several challenges.publishedVersio

Right Scaling for Right Pricing: A Case Study on Total Cost of Ownership Measurement for Cloud Migration

Cloud computing promises traditional enterprises and independent software vendors a myriad of advantages over on-premise installations including cost, operational and organizational efficiencies. The decision to migrate software configured for on-premise delivery to the cloud requires careful technical consideration and planning. In this chapter, we discuss the impact of right-scaling on the cost modelling for migration decision making and price setting of software for commercial resale. An integrated process is presented for measuring total cost of ownership, taking in to account IaaS/PaaS resource consumption based on forecast SaaS usage levels. The process is illustrated with a real world case study