With the advancement in technology, everything started to transition from the physical to the digital world. Bulky and difficult to use machinery reduced to compact small-sized chips. This brought a great revolution in machines and server architecture as well. In the previous generation of application deployment, physical servers were used with real-time space occupation and high maintenance. But now the architecture of servers has been shifted from physical nature to digital with high output and low maintenance called serverless architecture.

 

Serverless architecture is an application of cloud computing where the host of the cloud provides you multiple services like backend, database, security, etc. dynamically based on your request. This allows you to focus more on the development of the application rather than deployment. Going serverless is becoming a trend in popular brands as it allows them to invest resources in a more profitable way. The basic thing of serverless architecture is it mostly provides you service in form of FaaS “Function as a Service”.

Traditional vs Serverless

Traditional servers were the go-to of most start-ups in previous times but with the popularity of cloud hosting, the latter has out-classed traditional servers in every possible way and manner. The serverless architecture along with providing services like database, servers, and security, gives you the freedom to scale your application with minimal changes. The features that differ serverless computing from physical servers are explained below:

Pricing

Serverless architecture only charges upon the utilization of the services. It means that you are charged on the basis of the usage of your application or website. The traditional servers charge you once a month or annually and it doesn’t matter if they are used or not in the time, you’ll have to pay money. Cloud hosting is actually a “Pay as you go” service which helps a lot in financial stability.

 

Elasticity

Cloud hosting is elastic as it can easily manage a large audience whereas the physical servers are not so elastic making it difficult to improve the setup without spending extra money. Cloud hosting thus helps a lot in the horizontal scalability of any company.

Distributed Computing

Although both traditional servers and cloud computing utilize distributed computing, cloud-hosting does it in a better and efficient way. The distributed power of cloud hosting is much stronger than traditional servers making it a viable option.

 

 

Event-Driven

Serverless architecture works on the principle of “Event-Driven” where all the services activate when a user tries to access certain things. It is the main principle of “FaaS” whereas traditional servers are up all the time regardless of being used or not. The up-time of cloud deployment is also 99.99% because whenever a user accesses it, it is available.

Maintenance

Physical servers have high maintenance and cost money and labor while cloud servers have low maintenance because they don’t actually exist. This allows cloud hosts to focus more on the services rather than maintenance.

 

Easy Deployment and Latency

The deployment on the cloud is just a few clicks away and boom! Your application is visible worldwide. Since they also provide more locations for deployment, they are fast and have very low latency. On physical servers, it is a long and hectic procedure to acquire them and deploy your services on them. Since they are not in the place of your choice, there are chances they have high latency.

 

POPULAR SERVICE PROVIDERS

With the popularity of cloud computing, big technology giants came in the market with cloud services of their own. Some of the famous are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud (GC), Microsoft Azure (MA). All of them have their own features and setbacks and usage in different fields. Nonetheless, they make up to 90% of total cloud hosting providers worldwide.

 

AMAZON WEB SERVICES

Amazon Web Services commonly known as AWS is a cloud-hosting service provided by Amazon, one of the biggest tech-savvy in the market. AWS provides all the services that one needs to not only deploy but also to upscale his application. AWS has completely revolutionized cloud hosting by providing facilities like none else. Many of its services are also free to use up to a limit so that you get to know the actuality of them. Some of the popular and most used services of AWS are:

 

Computing Power

AWS servers allow you to use their computing power in your application. There are a lot of frameworks for that purpose. Amazon “EC2” is their computing power server.

 

DataBase

AWS gives a large variety of databases to work with including SQL and non-SQL ones. MySQL, PostgreSQL is among the most commonly used databases.

 

Storage

AWS gives you different types and amounts of storage including 5GB base storage and other dynamically used storage options like DynamoDB.

 

Machine learning

AWS has powerful servers letting you effectively work and deploy Machine Learning models on them. It is called “Sagemaker”.

 

Security

AWS has high security for not only protecting your data but also strong protection against threats and viruses. It is called “GuardDuty”.

 

API gateway

AWS provides you with the service of API gateway for the secure transition of data from the user to the server end. It lets you customize API according to your needs.

 

Much more

The above are just a glimpse of services provided by AWS. In reality, there are tons and tons of more valuable services that you can utilize for your own benefit. Some even consider AWS a must-have tool for startups.

 

Benefits of AWS

The main benefits of using AWS as your fundamental are following:

 

i.) AWS ensures a secure approach for not only your data but also for the protection of their servers and infrastructure including machines and Virtual Machines. There is high-end-to-end security and minimal data beaches.

ii.) AWS is highly elastic and helps you to gain more audience and giving services according to them. There is “Elastic Load Balancing” in AWS dealing with horizontal improvement in your application.

iii.) AWS makes your application high horizontal and vertical scalable by its services. You can scale up or down and can opt to use the services accordingly.

iv.) AWS is easy to use with a user-friendly interface allowing you to easily navigate between tabs and use its services. Tracking an existing application and adding new is also very easy.

v.) Since it is built on the “Pay as you go” model it is very cost-effective. There is no down payment and you pay for only the services you use.

Drawbacks of AWS

There are not many disadvantages of services like AWS. Most failures that occur under its name are due to a lack of knowledge or less understanding. The main setbacks of AWS are:

 

i.) The billing can sometimes be difficult to understand due to some taxes and other stuff.

ii.) The EC2 servers can be less helpful if you are doing something highly complex.

iii.) You need to pay AWS if you need immediate technical support.

 

 

GOOGLE CLOUD SERVICES

Google has always been a leading technology maker in society. Similarly, in the case of cloud computing, Google hopped in early and launched its own cloud hosting platform under the name of Google Cloud Services referred to as GC. GC has all the services necessary for cloud hosting in a single place and is mostly used in medium-ranged applications. GC is the host for many big companies and provides you virtual services in 82 zones and 200+ countries making it a number one choice for many consumers. The main services of GC are explained below:

 

Computing Servers

GC provides a lot of options for computing servers. There are small-scale servers to larger scale depending on the complexity of the problem. These include “A2, C2, E2” etc.

Cloud Storage and Database

GC provides storage for your application either in form of HDD or SSD. There is a base limit of storage that can be scaled up at any time. There are plenty of databases like “CloudSQL” for better management and retrieval of data.

AI support

There is a lot of support for Artificial Intelligence in GC including Virtual machines, servers, and frameworks. The basic platform for it is called as “Vertex AI”.

 

API management

There is strong API management in GC that helps you to move data from servers to users in your own way. The “Apigee API platform” is all in one place to look for API gateways in GC.

 

Next-Gen services

GC has taken a step up and gives you support for upcoming technology advancements like Big Data termed as “BigQuery”. It has wide support for data analytics and data management as well.

Other Services

There are a lot of other services provided by GC including developer tools, Cloud containers, Healthcare, etc. In short, Google Cloud has all that one needs to deploy and smoothly run their applications.

 

Advantages of Google Cloud

The main advantages of using GC as a cloud host are explained below:

 

i.) Google Cloud provides its services in a better price-effective way than its competitors. It allows you to spend money in a more useful way.

ii.) Google Cloud uses a better and strong network for its services making it fast and consistent overall regions of the world.

iii.) Google Cloud allows the shifting of virtual machines among different regions making the use of VM more effective. It allows patching and repairing to happen easily.

iv.) Google cloud gives an overall better performance than its rivals because of the state-of-the-art infrastructure being used in its backbone.

v.) Google Cloud has a strong security setup for protecting your data and machines from data leakage and virus threats

vi.) Google Cloud has backups of your data at multiple places. These redundant backups allow the smooth running of applications even in server failure at some places.

 

Disadvantages of Google Cloud

The advantages of Google Cloud overwhelm its disadvantages. The main setbacks of GC are:

 

i.) The options of programming languages to be deployed in GC are limited.

ii.) There is no free support available in case of some emergency situation.

iii.) The pricing of Google cloud is a bit complex than other cloud hosts making it difficult to use.

iv.) The SDK APIs used in Google Cloud is slower than its competitors.

 

MICROSOFT AZURE

Microsoft launched its cloud hosting services back in 2008 when cloud computing was not so popular. Microsoft Azure is a platform that gives small level to high-level services with customization according to users’ needs. It is very popular in big industries due to its effective support and ability to bear high loads. The main services of Azure are:

 

Virtual Machines

Azure provides you with the services of virtual machines on both windows and Linux. These VM let you solve high computing problems easily.

Storage

Azure gives storage of different kinds to the users. There is file storage for your data and “Blob storage” where you can even place your unstructured data.

 

Databases

Azure has support for many databases like SQL severs and complex ones like “MySQL” and “PostgreSQL”.

 

Azure App Services

Azure App Services are the ones that makes it different from the competitors. It has support for web applications as well as mobile applications. Programming languages like Node.js and PHP are supported.

 

Analytics

Microsoft Azure provides detailed analytics for your application being deployed. It has charts and graphs of days and months based on the performance for your convenience.

 

Advantages of Azure

The main advantages of using Microsoft Azure for your application are mentioned below:

 

i.) Azure is more scalable as compared to other cloud hosts. It is perfect for small as well as complex businesses.

ii.) Azure provides “Infrastructure as a Service” and “Platform as a Service” for better growth of enterprise-level businesses. It tackles the problems of web and mobile applications easily.

iii.) Azure has high security for its infrastructure as well as servers. The API gateways being used are also very secured making the data of users less likely to be leaked and manipulated.

iv.) Since Microsoft has other services like Office365 and outlook. Its Azure Services can be easily linked with them and the combination of both result in a better application.

v.) Azure is a very cost-effective solution for deployment. A lot of its services are free all the time while some are free for the first 12 months of registration. There are free credits every month making the financial condition even better.

Disadvantages of Azure

The main problems one can face while working with Azure are following:

 

i.) The pricing structure of Azure is confusing. There are no fair indications before termination of services before credits run out.

ii.) It is slightly slower than other cloud hosts which results in high latency and abrupt performance at times.

iii.) Using Azure, requires high expertise because of technical terms and is a bit difficult to understand nature.

iv.) The support system of Azure is weaker as compared to others like AWS and GC. So sometimes you get stuck in a problem for a long time.

 

THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE BUILDING SERVERLESS APPLICATION

Since serverless applications are a new trend and it is also not highly optimized, there are a few things you need to know before going serverless.

 

a.) You should be ready to make the jump from physical servers to cloud computing. The application should be built as ready to be deployed.

b.) Be aware of the fact that Cloud Hosting is expensive than physical servers. Although it is worth it, you need to plan things according to your financial condition.

c.) There is a lot of configuration and integration involved everywhere in cloud computing. You need to have expertise in this field to make things work.

d.) A proper workflow is needed to be built before the deployment of the application. It helps in tracking the error or information within the system.

e.) There is not much documentation available for cloud computing yet. Some of the hosts also give very less information about errors, so you need to be really careful while working in the cloud.

FUTURE OF SERVERLESS ARCHITECTURE

The future of serverless architecture is indeed very bright. Almost all the big companies have their data and application hosted on the cloud and those who haven’t are shifting towards the cloud. Cloud hosting does a lot of work itself and saves you from the big hassle of security and deployment. Furthermore, there is no risk involved if servers get down or are destroyed because clouds are digital and have backups at places like Antarctica. In short, serverless architecture is much better than the traditional system in all aspects and all the new businesses should fully focus on the development of their applications because deployment and accessibility will be taken care of by the CLOUD!