MY ONE BLOGby Manishdai
Cloud & DevOps

What is Serverless?

Quick answer

A cloud model where developers run code without managing servers, and the provider automatically handles scaling and charges per use.

Serverless, explained

Servers still exist in serverless computing, but developers do not provision, patch, or scale them. With function as a service offerings such as AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, and Google Cloud Functions, you upload a small piece of code that runs in response to an event, such as an HTTP request, a file upload, or a scheduled timer.

You typically pay only for the time your code actually runs, which can be very cost-effective for irregular workloads. For example, a blog could use a serverless function to resize images whenever a new photo is uploaded. Limitations include cold starts, which add delay when a function has been idle, execution time limits, harder local testing, and potential vendor lock-in.

Related terms

Cloud Computing

Delivering computing resources such as servers, storage, databases, and software over the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Platform as a Service

A cloud model that provides a ready-to-use environment for building, deploying, and running applications without managing servers.

Webhook

An automated message one application sends to another via an HTTP request when a specific event happens.

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