Imagine a small online store (we will call it HypeGadgets) that sells the latest gadgets such as smartphones, laptops, and their accessories. The business is growing steadily, and during seasonal promotions such as Black Friday, traffic to their website surges dramatically. One day, their site crashes due to an overwhelming number of visitors that they never anticipated when initially deploying their website, causing potential sales to be lost and frustrating customers. 

What if I told you HypeGadgets and other similar businesses could effortlessly avoid these issues without having to go through the complexity of optimizing their server infrastructure or investing in expensive IT infrastructure and teams? This is all possible, thanks to serverless computing. With serverless computing, businesses like HypeGadgets can effectively deploy a scalable website without worrying about the underlying infrastructure that runs.

Serverless computing offers a solution that is not only cost-effective but also simplifies the management of IT resources. The good news is that all the popular cloud infrastructure providers, including AWS, Azure, and GCP have serverless computing offerings. In today’s article, we’ll explore how serverless computing can be a game changer for small businesses and how they can effectively leverage its benefits to achieve their business goals. Let’s start with the basics of serverless. 

The Basics of Serverless Computing: What You Need to Know

Before we dive into the details of serverless computing and how it can benefit small businesses, let’s first explain what it is to ensure everyone is up to speed. 

Serverless computing might sound like a futuristic concept, but it’s a practical and increasingly popular technology that has been around for over 16 years. The goal of this technology is to simplify how we run web applications and services. At its core, serverless computing allows developers to build and run applications without having to manage the underlying servers or infrastructure. For example, if you are deploying a website on AWS, you won’t have to manage any EC2 instances if you choose to use serverless computing. 

Another benefit of serverless is that you only pay for the exact amount of computing resources you use. That means if your website is not being accessed, AWS or any other cloud host of your choice won’t charge you. This allows developers to focus on writing code and deploying it with minimal overhead. Remember, in the traditional model where you deploy dedicated resources, your cloud provider charges you for every second your resources are deployed.

The concept of serverless computing first came into the spotlight with Google’s App Engine, launched in 2008. App Engine was a pioneering platform that allowed developers to run web applications without managing the underlying infrastructure. This marked the beginning of a shift toward more abstract and automated computing environments. Since then, serverless computing has evolved, with various cloud providers introducing their own serverless offerings, such as AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Google Cloud Functions, and Alibaba’s Function Compute.

Benefits of Serverless Computing

Some of the major reasons small businesses should consider serverless computing include: 

• Pay-as-you-go pricing: The most obvious benefit of serverless computing is that it uses the pay-as-you-go model, where you are billed based on the actual compute resources used. Instead of paying for a fixed amount of server capacity, you only pay for the time your application runs, which can be a significant cost saver for small businesses. 
• Reduced Operational Costs: Serverless computing reduces the costs associated with managing and maintaining servers. With serverless, your cloud provider handles server management, maintenance, and updates, lowering the operational overhead for businesses. 
• Scalability and Cost Efficiency: Serverless computing automatically scales resources up or down based on demand. This means businesses do not need to over-provision servers to handle peak loads or under-provision for normal usage. 
• Faster Time to Market: Serverless computing accelerates development and deployment processes. With reduced infrastructure management, developers can focus on coding and deploying applications quickly, allowing them to launch new features and products faster. 
• Improved Reliability: Serverless platforms often come with built-in redundancy and high availability features. This means applications can achieve higher reliability and uptime without needing to set up complex failover systems. 
• Enhanced Security: Serverless providers, including AWS, Azure, And Google Cloud Platform include built-in security features, such as encryption, access controls, and compliance certifications. This can enhance the security of applications without requiring extensive setup or management by the small business. 
• Integration with Other Services: Serverless computing often integrates seamlessly with other services your cloud provider offers, such as databases, messaging systems, analytics tools, and more. For instance, AWS Lambda integrates with the rest of the services including API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, and more. 

How to Effectively Implement Serverless Technology

As discussed in the previous section, serverless computing has several benefits. However, there are a few things that small businesses need to carefully consider to enjoy the full benefits of serverless computing. Let’s explore these considerations: 

Monitor Usage

To effectively manage costs with serverless computing, it’s crucial to monitor how your functions are being used. Most serverless platforms offer built-in monitoring tools that provide detailed insights into the performance and utilization of your functions. By regularly reviewing metrics such as invocation frequency, execution time, and resource consumption, you can identify patterns and potential inefficiencies. 

For example, if you notice that certain functions are being called more frequently than anticipated, or they are consuming more resources than expected, you can take corrective actions. 

Set Up Alerts

Another important aspect of cost management is setting up alerts. Most serverless platforms allow you to configure alerts that notify you of significant changes in usage or unexpected spikes in costs. For instance, you can set thresholds for function execution rates or resource usage that, when exceeded, trigger an alert. This proactive approach ensures that you are aware of any anomalies or unexpected increases in costs as soon as they occur. 

Organize Functions

Organizing functions involves grouping related functions and maintaining a clear naming convention to ensure that they are easy to manage and maintain. Additionally, using versioning for your functions allows you to track changes and roll back to previous versions if necessary. By implementing proper version control, you can avoid conflicts and ensure that updates are deployed smoothly. 

Automate Deployments

Implementing Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines allows you to automate testing, building, and deploying your functions. With CI/CD pipelines, you can ensure that your functions are thoroughly tested before they are deployed to production, reducing the risk of introducing errors. Automation also speeds up the deployment process, enabling more frequent updates and faster release cycles. 

Permissions and Security

You must carefully manage access controls to protect your data and resources from unauthorized access. Most serverless platforms offer role-based access control (RBAC) and fine-grained permissions settings that allow you to define who can access and manage specific functions and resources. This includes setting permissions for developers, administrators, and other users based on their roles. You must also regularly review and update these permissions to ensure they align with your security policies and practices. 

Configuration

Proper configuration involves setting up environment variables, which are used to store configuration settings that your functions need to operate, such as database connection strings, API keys, or other sensitive information. You must also configure triggers that determine how and when your functions are executed. For example, triggers might be set up to activate functions in response to HTTP requests, changes in a database, or messages in a queue. 

Testing

Developers should thoroughly test their serverless functions in a staging environment. A staging environment replicates your production environment, allowing you to test functions under conditions similar to those they will face in live operation. This helps identify and resolve issues, such as performance bottlenecks, errors, or integration problems before they impact end-users. Comprehensive testing should include functional tests, load tests, and security tests to ensure that your functions perform as expected and are secure. 

Challenges of Serverless Computing for Small Businesses

Despite the many benefits, serverless computing has a couple of limitations that you need to keep at the back of your mind before choosing it over the traditional cloud computing deployment models. 

• Potential Cost Pitfalls: Serverless computing can sometimes lead to unexpected costs. High-frequency invocations or long-running functions can increase expenses significantly. Without careful monitoring and optimization, costs can creep up, especially during periods of high demand or inefficiencies.
• Vendor Lock-In: Relying on a specific serverless provider can create vendor lock-in, making it difficult to switch providers or integrate with other systems. It is much easier to switch cloud providers if you’re using virtual machines compared to serverless computing options.
• Complexity and Learning Curve: Adopting serverless technologies can involve a steep learning curve, particularly for teams new to cloud computing. This challenge is common for businesses that are already using virtual machines to run their applications on on-premise infrastructure. 
• Limited Execution Time: Many serverless platforms impose limits on the maximum execution time for functions. The time limit for AWS Lambda is 15 minutes. GCP and Azure’s serverless offerings also have time limits of 9 minutes and up to 10 minutes respectively. If your application requires long-running processes, these limits can be a constraint. 
• Cold Start Latency: Serverless functions can sometimes experience “cold starts,” which occur when a function is invoked after being idle for some time. This can lead to increased latency as the platform initializes the function environment. While this is usually a brief delay, it can affect performance, particularly for functions with high responsiveness requirements.
• Resource Limitations: Serverless platforms often have limitations on resources such as memory, CPU, and disk space for each function. If your application requires more resources than the limits allow, you may need to rethink your architecture or consider alternative solutions.

Best Uses Cases for Serverless Computing

Consider choosing serverless if your applications fall under any of these: 

1.     Event-Driven Applications

Serverless computing excels in scenarios where applications respond to events or triggers. For example, functions can be set up to automatically process data when a file is uploaded to a cloud storage service such as S3, handle messages from a messaging queue, or react to changes in a database. 

2.     Microservices Architecture

Serverless is well-suited for building microservices, where applications are broken down into smaller, independently deployable services. Each microservice can be implemented as a separate serverless function, allowing developers to deploy, scale, and manage each component individually. 

3.     APIs and Webhooks

Serverless functions are a great fit for creating APIs and handling webhooks. For instance, a serverless function can process HTTP requests and return responses, making it possible to build RESTful APIs without managing servers. Similarly, serverless can handle webhooks from third-party services, enabling your application to integrate with external systems and perform actions based on incoming data.

4.     Real-Time Data Processing

Applications that require real-time data processing benefit from serverless computing’s ability to scale automatically and handle high-throughput data streams. For example, serverless functions can be used to analyze and process data streams from sensors, social media feeds, or log files in real-time. This capability supports use cases such as real-time analytics, monitoring, and alerting.

5.     Scheduled Tasks and Batch Processing

Serverless computing is also effective for running scheduled tasks and batch-processing jobs. Functions can be scheduled to execute at specific times or intervals, such as performing regular data backups, generating reports, or processing periodic tasks. This eliminates the need for a constantly running server and ensures that tasks are performed efficiently without manual intervention.

6.     File Processing and Transformation

Serverless functions can be used to handle file processing tasks, such as converting file formats, resizing images, or extracting data from documents. For instance, when a file is uploaded to a cloud storage service, a serverless function can be triggered to process the file and store the result. This is particularly useful for applications that handle large volumes of files or need to perform data transformations on the fly.

7.     Prototyping and Development

For startups and development teams, serverless computing provides a cost-effective way to prototype and develop new applications. It allows for rapid experimentation and iteration without the need for significant upfront investment in infrastructure. As prototypes evolve into production-ready applications, serverless computing can scale to meet growing demands.

The Future of Serverless Computing

Serverless computing will continue to be the preferred choice for most computing needs of small businesses, thanks to its ability to enhance operational efficiency, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. Providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud are actively expanding their serverless offerings to meet diverse business needs. 

They are also making significant strides in making serverless more affordable and accessible to more businesses. For instance, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft all offer ARM CPU options for serverless computing, which are relatively cheaper without significant performance compromises. Check out our article about how ARM will power the future of cloud computing. 

Looking ahead, serverless computing is expected to become even more accessible and versatile for small businesses. Providers are already prioritizing enhancements in performance, latency reduction, and service limit expansions to handle larger workloads and complex applications. Improved monitoring and debugging tools will empower small business developers to optimize their serverless applications effectively. 

Finally, as the serverless ecosystem matures, increased standardization and interoperability across different cloud providers are anticipated. This development will further reduce barriers to adoption, allowing small businesses to seamlessly leverage top-tier services from multiple platforms.