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ncovering the hidden costs of serverless computing: Why pay-as-you-go may surprise you
With the popularization of cloud computing, serverless computing has gradually become an important trend in the IT industry. It refers to a cloud service that does not require users to manage hardware or software resources. Users only need to provide application code or data to run the corresponding service. Despite the “serverless” in the name, this technology still relies on a server to execute the developer’s code.
Serverless computing refers to the abstraction of computing, allowing developers to focus more on the logic of the application rather than the underlying infrastructure.
The definition of serverless has evolved over time and has different interpretations across the industry. Experts suggest shifting the emphasis from technical specifications to a mindset — one that focuses on how serverless can be used to solve business challenges.
However, the popularity of serverless technology does not mean that everything has become simple. Its use has gradually transferred the complexity that originally belonged to the operations team to the development team. Even so, operations teams still need to manage issues such as authentication, networking, security policies, and cost optimization.
Challenges and opportunities
In the world of serverless computing, developers may face several challenges, one of which is that applications are susceptible to errors in distributed computing.
“Version control is easy, compensating transactions always work, and observability is optional.” These are common misconceptions about distributed computing.
In addition, monitoring and debugging serverless applications is challenging because their distributed and event-driven nature often makes them difficult to track. While traditional monitoring tools may face limitations, modern technologies such as distributed tracing tools and centralized logging can effectively improve these issues.
Safety and Risk Management
According to the OWASP report, serverless applications are still vulnerable to traditional attacks and cyber attacks specifically targeting serverless (such as "wallet denial of service" attacks). This forces developers to change their thinking and prevent these risks in new ways.
Vendor Lock-in
Serverless computing is often provided by third-party services, which means applications and software are locked into a specific cloud provider. The vendor lock-in issue becomes more prominent when considering more complex workflows, as cloud providers generally only allow customers to upload code on their platforms and cannot set up the basic environment. This makes migration of serverless workloads almost impossible; therefore, designing and deploying serverless workflows from a multi-cloud perspective is gradually becoming a viable solution.
Applicability of High-Performance Computing
While serverless computing offers flexibility and scalability in many scenarios, it may not be as effective as targeted resource allocation for certain high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. When workloads require continuous or predictable resource usage, traditional batch provisioning of servers can sometimes be more cost-effective than a pay-as-you-go billing model.
“For certain HPC workloads, serverless computing appears to be increasingly adaptable to increasingly complex requirements.”
The advantage of serverless is not only its wide range, but also the flexibility it brings and the ability to meet different needs. Developers need to find the best ways to apply these technologies rather than blindly following trends.
Anti-patterns and best practices
In serverless architectures, developers must be wary of anti-patterns such as the "sand anti-pattern," which refers to the system's functionality being too granular, leading to management complexity and reduced performance efficiency. Another anti-pattern, called "Lambda Pinball," involves excessive function calls, causing latency and observability issues.
To solve these problems, enterprises can consider establishing clear domain boundaries to distinguish public interfaces from published interfaces, thereby reducing dependency complexity.
“The adoption of serverless technology must be combined with security practices, namely the application of DevSecOps, which helps improve efficiency and security.”
Overall, the flexibility and scalability brought by serverless computing provide many business opportunities for both developers and enterprises. However, in such an environment, we must also be aware of the potential challenges and risks. Will serverless computing become a mainstream option in the future, or will its limitations force it to other architectures?
