Abstract

It is notable that serverless computing is an increasingly popular cloud computing model that allows developers to embark on their applications without concerns about server management and maintenance. This technology enables developers to deploy their applications without having to provision and manage servers, allowing them to focus on creating and deploying their code. Serverless computing has seen rapid adoption, as it presents a number of advantages over traditional computing models. It allows for rapid application development, scalability, improved security, reliability, as well as reduced costs. However, it also has some drawbacks, such as the lack of control over underlying infrastructure and the limited availability of certain services and tools. The survey helps illustrate these ideologies by incorporating diverse studies focusing on serverless computing.

Introduction

Serverless computing is a cloud computing model that allows developers to focus on their application code rather than the underlying infrastructure. It eliminates the need for infrastructure management, such as server provisioning, configuration, and maintenance, and enables developers to quickly deploy applications and services without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. As a result, serverless computing enables developers to focus on their core business logic, allowing them to build applications faster and more efficiently (Hassan et al., 2021). Additionally, serverless computing is idealized to reduce operational costs, as it eliminates the need for expensive infrastructure and allows customers to pay only for the resources they use instead of paying for idle servers. This paper provides a survey of various recent resources presenting diverse aspects associated with serverless computing to establish the rise, applications, importance, challenges, and opportunities.

The rise of serverless computing

Serverless computing is a new technology that is gaining traction in the corporate world due to its cost efficiency, scalability, and lack of maintenance. The article by Castro, Ishakian, Muthusamy, and Slominski examines the current state of serverless computing and its potential to change the way software is developed and deployed. As a foundation, it assesses the benefits and challenges associated with serverless computing, including its ability to reduce costs and complexity, but also its potential for vendor lock-in, security risks, and the need for expertise in this new technology (Castro et al., 2019). Additionally, the survey helps identify some of the existing serverless technologies such as Amazon Web Services Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, Microsoft Azure Functions, and IBM OpenWhisk.

Besides, there are comprehensive insights highlighting the implications of serverless computing for software development and deployment. Specifically, it is established that there is potential for increased collaboration, the need for new development and deployment models, and the importance of organizational culture in the successful adoption of serverless computing (Hassan et al., 2021). Given the extensive rise and development, it is assertive that the future of serverless computing affiliates to the potential for new business models, the need for more research, and the capability for serverless computing to revolutionize how software is developed and deployed.

Opportunities and application

As highlighted, serverless computing is a technology that has been rapidly gaining popularity among developers and businesses in recent years. This technology has the potential to reform how applications are built and deployed and has the potential to drastically reduce the cost of developing and deploying applications. This creates a purpose to survey and offer a detailed overview of serverless computing opportunities and their potential applications. The studies aid in identifying several opportunities associated with serverless computing, encompassing cost saving, scalability, and ease of deployment (Shafiei et al., 2022). Ideally, cost savings are achieved by reducing the need to maintain physical servers, while scalability allows businesses to quickly and easily scale their usage according to their needs. Furthermore, the ability to deploy applications quickly and easily without the necessity to facilitate additional servers is another crucial opportunity of serverless computing.

Furthermore, the growth of serverless computing contextualizes the relevance of the survey to determine the various applications. It is notable that individuals and organizations apply serverless computing to facilitate the functionality and efficiency of web and mobile applications, serverless databases, the Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning applications. There are highlights on the featured advantages and disadvantages of the viable applications. Insightfully, web applications are well-suited to serverless computing, as they can benefit from cost savings, scalability, and easy deployment (Jangda et al., 2019). Mobile applications incorporate serverless computing to leverage the cloud provider’s services to provide better performance and scalability. On the other hand, IoT applications are suited to serverless computing due to their ability to quickly provide resources, while real-time streaming applications can benefit from the capacity to scale rapidly in response to changing usage patterns. Therefore, these practical demonstrations of serverless computing in real-world situations imply its potential to become a significant paradigm in cloud computing.

Challenges

A significant challenge affiliated with serverless computing is the lack of a unified platform that allows developers to easily switch between different cloud providers. Currently, there are multiple cloud providers offering serverless platforms, but each one has its own unique set of features, making it difficult for developers to move their applications from one provider to another. This lack of a unified platform makes it difficult to manage and track application performance across different cloud providers (Shafiei et al., 2022). Similarly, there is a lack of visibility into serverless applications. In traditional cloud computing, administrators have access to various performance metrics, such as latency and throughput, which can be used to identify and troubleshoot problems. Conversely, serverless computing lacks this type of visibility, making it complex to identify and address performance issues.

Besides, there are emerging issues regarding the security of serverless functions. Often, it is written in open-source languages, such as JavaScript or Python, which can be vulnerable to security threats. These functions are also typically hosted on public cloud infrastructure, making them susceptible to malicious actors (Jangda et al., 2019). Ultimately, serverless computing is still relatively immature, and its maturity depends on the availability of various tools, such as debugging and monitoring tools, to support development and operations. Without these tools, developers are unable to properly debug and monitor their applications, leading to performance issues and security vulnerabilities.

Conclusion

Overall, this survey provides an in-depth overview of serverless computing, its potential applications, and its associated opportunities and challenges. By assessing the current state, it is viable to analyze the technology based on its potential applications. Furthermore, it provides valuable insights into the positive implications of serverless computing for businesses and developers. Comparing serverless computing and traditional cloud computing illustrates the affiliated merits of reduced costs, scalability, and flexibility. As such, the survey is an invaluable resource in contextualizing serverless computing in modern and future technologies. Although serverless computing is a promising new paradigm for cloud computing, there are still several challenges that must be addressed before it can reach its full potential. Inevitably, addressing these issues will help make serverless computing a more robust and secure platform for developing and deploying cloud applications.