Serverlessfunktsioone

Serverlessfunktsioone are a cloud computing execution model where code runs in response to events without the user provisioning or managing servers. In this model, developers deploy small units of code, called functions, to a cloud provider who runs them on demand in stateless containers. The provider handles provisioning, scaling, and operating system management.

Functions are triggered by events such as HTTP requests, message queue events, database changes, or scheduled times. Each invocation is typically short-lived and isolated, with an ephemeral execution environment that may be created on demand or reused for subsequent invocations (warm starts).

Key benefits include pay-per-use pricing, automatic horizontal scaling, reduced operational burden, and faster iteration. When traffic varies, the platform scales to meet demand without manual capacity planning.

Drawbacks include cold-start latency for infrequently invoked functions, potential vendor lock-in, limits on execution time and memory, and challenges around stateful processing. Design often emphasizes idempotency and stateless interactions; external services or storage handle state.

Common use cases are API backends, real-time data processing, file and image processing pipelines, event-driven automation, webhooks, and scheduled tasks.

Popular platforms include AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, and Azure Functions, among others. They provide integrations with API gateways, queues, storage, and database services.

Best practices involve fine-tuning memory and timeout settings, implementing retries with backoff, using idempotent operations, decoupling with message queues, and implementing observability through logs, metrics, and tracing.