Serverless: Is this really the future? (two)

About In the second article on serverless, we will discuss some broader issues. Again, we are not making hard and fast rules. We want to make some points to promote discussion among all stakeholders. Many people who say that all applications will be serverless applications have not run their applications on a large scale, nor have they solved all the issues related to latency, complexity, and vendor lock-in. This is what we are going to talk about here.

Original | https://www.pulumi.com/blog/is\_serverless\_the\_future\_part\_2/
Author | Lee Briggs & Piers Karsenbarg
Translator | donghui

In the second article on serverless, we will discuss some broader issues. Again, we are not making hard and fast rules. We want to make some points to promote discussion among all stakeholders. Many people who say that all applications will be serverless applications have not run their applications on a large scale, nor have they solved all the issues related to latency, complexity, and vendor lock-in. This is what we are going to talk about here.

What about supplier lock-in?

How much do you care about vendor lock-in issues? For example: you may not be able to transfer the serverless architecture in AWS to another cloud provider. Some organizations do not care about vendor lock-in issues, but many organizations care. If you really care, then before you move on, decide how much you should care.

How big is your organization?

Serverless is a good choice for younger organizations or smaller organizations, and perhaps novice teams in large organizations are directly focused on delivering value. Once the organization grows large enough to support the team dedicated to managing the infrastructure, and the usage rate increases, it may be time to reassess the situation. Large organizations that successfully adopt a serverless platform often experience a cultural shift to achieve success. If you are not ready to invest heavily at all levels of the organization to make serverless adoption successful, then a more traditional approach (where a dedicated team controls the supply infrastructure) may be more appropriate. Finally, as discussed in the previous article, large enterprises may want to consider building an infrastructure platform where technologies like Kubernetes can benefit.

What is the architecture?

One thing to consider is the significant difference in the way of thinking between serverless products and more "traditional" methods, which means that when switching platforms, applications may often need to be redesigned. You may need to consider what the ROI of these architectural changes is. Generally, from a time and financial point of view, any application redesign is expensive and can even cause problems for the most successful engineering teams.

Whether you are developing a newly developed application or evaluating an existing application, it is important to consider the architecture of a serverless application. Traditional N-tier style architecture or N-tier style web applications require a lot of investment to migrate to a serverless platform.

to sum up

All in all, serverless does not solve all problems, but many services can be provided in the right place. Please remember the following questions:

1. How much do you care about vendor lock-in?

Serverless architecture cannot simply migrate from one cloud provider to another. To what extent does your organization care about vendor lock-in?

2. What is the size of your organization?

Serverless is generally more suitable for small organizations. Once you have IT staff to support it, you may want to look at more traditional options. Large enterprises may wish to study Kubernetes.

3. Are you more concerned about providing value quickly than providing application transparency?

If you want to get your application to market as soon as possible, then serverless may be a good choice. However, you will sacrifice the metrics and insights of the application. As the scale grows, this can cause real problems.

4. Do you understand the properties of the application?

It is generally said that serverless saves money because you only pay for the time you use it. However, if your application has a long response or startup time, please observe carefully. Serverless can be an expensive option.

5. What is the architecture of your application?

Don't expect the traditional end-tier style architecture to work well with serverless applications. Look for applications that can be broken down into smaller components that work together. On the other hand, migrating a serverless application to a server you control also requires rebuilding the application. Do you have time to do it with someone?

6. Is serverless a way to bypass IT?

Using serverless as a way to bypass the IT department may not be the best idea. It is too easy to write non-compliant and vulnerable code. Instead, use DevOps methods and meet with all stakeholders to propose solutions.

7. How safe is it?

There is a problem with the security of the serverless architecture. Cloud providers provide some off-the-shelf options, such as Amazon GuardDuty, but they may have many restrictions that limit the flexibility provided by serverless. Implementing a secure serverless application requires a lot of thinking.

This article is reprinted from the Serverless Life official account, please contact the original author for reprinting.

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