Serverless computing with AWS

Cloud computing in general and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) have become commonly accepted for computing with virtual machines (VM) on demand. Serverless Computing Market is expected to register a healthy CAGR of over 23.17% during the forecast period (2021 - 2026).

AWS Serverless Computing is a popular serverless option. Serverless is a cloud-native design that allows you to delegate more operational tasks to AWS, increasing agility and creativity. Serverless refers to the services, processes, and procedures that enable you to build more agile programs that quickly adapt and respond to change. It encourages people to think less about servers by eliminating various cluster and server-related chores.

You can create and execute applications and services without worrying about servers. You may make them for almost any application or backend service, and serverless computing takes care of everything you need to run and scale your app with high availability.

What is AWS Serverless Architecture?

The AWS serverless computing architecture allows you to create and execute services and applications without worrying about infrastructure. AWS manages the servers on which user's applications are continuously running. It is a technique that offers backend service assistance. AWS charges users only for their computation services and nothing else.

AWS still uses servers to execute our tasks. It provides Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) that takes care of our service operations. AWS lambda is one of the most popular FaaS offerings. So serverless is not server-less since AWS will still use servers to perform our tasks, but developers are not required to be aware of this.

Advantages and disadvantages of AWS Serverless Computing

AWS Serverless Computing is a boon since it allows a developer to concentrate all of his efforts on coding rather than worrying about server deployment and management.

• Advantages of AWS Serverless Computing:
• No knowledge of servers, operating systems, software, or hardware is required. The developer can concentrate only on the application's logic.
• You can pay only for the number of services you use. There's no need to pay for capacity you've not used, saving money.
• Serverless has several beneficial architects that are built-in and available by default.
• It allows the developer to concentrate solely on the code, freeing up time to innovate the program or communicate with clients for feedback, reducing time to market.
• You can develop code, and after finalizing your code, you can deploy the system right away, making it available to the rest of the globe in a matter of minutes. As a result, there is no need to work into or manage servers.
• Serverless programs are self-scaling. There is no need to build any scalable infrastructure.

Disadvantages of AWS Serverless Computing

• As AWS's serverless designs are on temporary containers, the usable memory is limited, making processing procedures difficult.
• Running a 24x7 application on a serverless cloud system can be more expensive than running the same form on a server-based cloud system.
• Flaws in implementation: Serverless programs require considerable integration testing compared to other architectural methods.
• There are also deployment, versioning, and packaging problems to consider.

Why use AWS Serverless Architecture?

The AWS serverless architecture has several benefits over typical server-centric or cloud-based infrastructure. It gives developers more scalability, faster time to market, and more flexibility, all at a lower cost because the customer pays only for the services used. Some interesting features are as follows.

Serverless automated deployment

AWS Lambda serverless apps use Lambda functions, event sources, and other resources described using the AWS Serverless Application Model (AWS SAM).

Using best practices like infrastructure as code in serverless apps allows teams to standardize components across businesses, rebuild applications fast without performing manual operations, and enforce healthy stewardship practices like code reviews.

JSON web tokens (JWT)

JWT is a small and self-contained method of securely sending data. It's a string with three components separated by the "." character.

JSON Web Token helps ensure the integrity and validity of the information. A Lambda authorizer is an API Gateway capability used by AWS Lambda. Lambda functions control user API access. Authorizers are of two types:

• A Lambda authorizer based on tokens
• Lambda authorizer with request parameters

AWS serverless - authentication

Easy authentication. One can access it by following types of identities AWS account root user, IAM user, or an IAM role.

IAM

IAM offers many advantages like better security profiles and an improved user experience. Besides allowing easy access, it helps increase productivity and reduce IT costs. However, IAM does not have access to all resources except ones provided by the root user.

AWS Services for AWS Serverless Computing

1. Serverless computing service: AWS Fargate is a container-focused serverless compute engine. AWS Serverless offers AWS Lambda, which allows users to run code without managing servers and pay for the calculations they need. Lambda Edge will enable users to run Lambda functions at AWS Edge sites in response to Amazon CloudFront events. It aids in scaling and managing the infrastructure necessary to run the user's box.
2. API proxy services: Amazon API Gateway is a fully managed service that enables the creation, maintaining, publishing, monitoring, and securing of APIs at any size, making it simple for developers. Gateways let users manage traffic, authorization and access control, monitoring, and API version management while processing thousands of concurrent API calls.
3. Serverless storage services: Amazon EFS provides pure, scalable, elastic file storage that is simple and portable. It self-adjusts and expands, and contracts in response to the user's needs. A developing team can use Amazon S3 to store durable, safe, and scalable objects.
4. Serverless data store services: AWS offers Amazon DynamoDB, a fast and flexible No-SQL database service for all types of applications that need millisecond latency at any scale. Amazon Aurora Serverless is an auto-scaling setup for on-demand (MySQL-compatible) systems. This database will start up and shut down automatically. The system will scale to the requirements of the user's application.

Application of AWS serverless

1. Web Application and Backend: You can develop Serverless web applications and backend using AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon S3, and Amazon DynamoDB, and these would help handle web, mobile, IoT, and chatbot requests. For example, weather applications and mobile backend for social media apps.
2. Data processing: You can use AWS Serverless Computing to build many different real-time data processing system variants. AWS Lambda, Amazon Kinesis, Amazon S3, and Amazon DynamoDB. One may use them for data processing. For example, image thumbnail creation and analysis of streaming social media data.

Winding up: Serverless is an architectural style in which business logic is moved from long-running server components to ephemeral services using FaaS. It can solve many architectural and operational concerns, making it easier for developers and operators.

As with previous treatments, it isn't a panacea. It will not be able to replace all of your current components. However, it would be best if you decided to deploy serverless by thoroughly examining business and technological requirements, including various pros and cons.