12-27-21 | Blog Post

What Serverless Computing Really Means

Blog Posts

Serverless computing is a complete misnomer. No, there is no such thing as true serverless computing. All computing can be traced back to a physical server. Even virtual servers are tied to physical servers via hypervisorsSo what do professionals really mean when they talk about serverless computing? They’re really talking about cloud computing. Again, the name is totally misleading. 

Cloud computing and serverless computing are almost synonymous. They both refer to the computing model in which a cloud service provider provides the computing infrastructure and manages the computing resources for a customer. Yet there’s one caveat.  

Serverless Computing 

Serverless computing adds another “layer” to cloud infrastructure so that IT teams need not worry about any servers – virtual or physical. One of the most common use cases of serverless computing is for developers. This model allows developers to completely take their minds off of infrastructure concerns –  meaning no need to provision and manage even virtual servers. Instead, the infrastructure is fully managed by the cloud service provider who bills the developer based on the resources consumed or for the time code is actually runningThis is referred to as function-as-a-service, where just a specific function, like codes or primitives (the simplest elements in IT programming languages).This significantly reduces the total cost of ownership required to be productive and efficient while also knowing you have high availability at your back. 

With serverless computing, you don’t pay for idle resources. You pay only for what you need and what you actually use.   

What it boils down to is infrastructure fully managed by a cloud provider. The provisioning of resources, patching, operating system maintenance, etc are all done by the cloud provider so that the developer doesn’t have to think twice about managing a virtual or physical server. 

The Bottom Line 

Allowing a cloud service provider to manage infrastructure and servers significantly reduces the total cost of ownership associated with data management. Serverless computing can be achieved by letting us handle your IT infrastructure, helping you virtualize your environment, and managing servers for you. Contact us today to learn about our infrastructure services and our public, private, and hybrid cloud solutions. 

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