Serverless vs. IaaS
Explore the differences between serverless applications & Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
What is Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) ?
Under the commonly used Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud computing model, users pre-purchase units of capacity instead of on-demand. This results in firms paying public cloud providers for always-on server components to run the key components of an application.
This would mean that it would be the responsibility of the company’s server admin & technology team to estimate what the application usage would be in a typical month & ensure that a pricing plan was selected to reflect those needs.
The downside of this approach is that cloud infrastructure required for functionality could be over or under provisioned.
How does IaaS compare with serverless?
In contrast, serverless architecture apps are launched only as needed as an event triggers app code to run. The public cloud provider then allocates resources specific for that operation to take place. The user stops paying when the code finishes executing.
By way of example, if one was to create a food delivery app under an IaaS setup – cloud providers would charge a flat rate to ensure the solution was available 24/7. However if there was a spike in orders, perhaps due to a lockdown situation – DevOps would need to make sure the app could scale accordingly.
Under a serverless model – the app would have negligible charges during off-peak hours (early morning) & during surges in traffic it could scale openly via the provider without DevOps needing to get involved
Learn More About Serverless Development
In this publication, we’ve asked leading experts around Australia for their views on serverless; with a particular focus on Google & how Google Cloud can be used to scale enterprise applications.
From transforming outdated on-premise solutions to reviewing data sets with rows in the millions, serverless technologies have accelerated the growth of B2B & B2C companies at a phenomenal rate.
The report examines what serverless technologies, the advantages of serverless technologies and how to harness this technology to foster more innovation in the Australian technology space.
