Pros and Cons of Serverless Backend Development: Is It Right for Your Project?

If you want to develop an application but worry about maintaining servers, scaling infrastructure for your app, or wish to have a more cost-effective solution, serverless backend development may be the answer you've been looking for. A serverless back end is a type of backend architecture that uses serverless computing to run and scale applications and services. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits and challenges of using serverless technology for backend development and determine if it suits your project.

First of all, it's important to note that the term "serverless" itself can be misleading. The code still needs to run on a server, but it is a cloud service provider that manages the infrastructure and servers. It should not be confused with hosting your own servers on the cloud. This architecture model is often referred to as infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), where you are responsible for managing and maintaining the servers and infrastructure yourself - the vendor only provides the hardware. In fact, the term "serverless" usually means not without a server but without managing the server. It is often used to describe Functions as a Service (FaaS) and Backend as a Service (BaaS) architectures. FaaS is a cloud-based service that allows developers to execute code in response to specific events or triggers. It typically operates on a pay-per-use model, where users only pay for the computing resources used to run their code. FaaS platforms allow developers to build and deploy small, standalone functions that can be triggered by events such as a user request or the arrival of new data. BaaS is a cloud-based service that provides developers with a backend infrastructure for their applications. It typically includes features such as user management, data storage, and APIs, allowing developers to focus on building the front end of their applications without having to worry about setting up and maintaining a backend infrastructure. Overall, FaaS and BaaS can be thought of as different levels of providing serverless backend integration.  All the major cloud providers have both BaaS and FaaS products. Both approaches can be used in combination, allowing you to build and deploy modern, serverless applications and services by leveraging a cloud provider's resources to run your backend code.

Some general benefits of using serverless architecture are the following:

• Lower costs: Serverless architectures can reduce costs as there is no need to maintain and pay for dedicated servers - you only pay for the resources you use. It means you can scale up or down as needed.

• Scalability: Serverless architectures are highly scalable, as the cloud provider automatically allocates resources based on the demand for the application or service. It means that your application can handle sudden spikes in traffic without any additional effort on your part. It can result in cost savings, especially for applications that have fluctuating or sporadic usage patterns.

• Flexibility: Serverless architectures offer a high degree of flexibility, as you can easily deploy new code or make changes to your application without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure.

• Faster time-to-market and quick updates: Serverless architectures allow developers to write code for a set of functions rather than a monolithic application, making it easier to bugfix, update, and add new functions. Developers can upload bits of code and then release a new app quickly. They don't need to upload code to servers and spend more time on configuration when updating the app.

• Reduced expenses on human resources: With a serverless model, you don't need to purchase specific hardware and hire staff for its maintenance.

• Focus on business needs: With a serverless model, developers can focus on writing code rather than on infrastructure and scalability. It allows them to be more productive and efficient.

• Reduced latency for end users. With serverless architecture, traffic from end users doesn't have to be directed to a single location. Instead, serverless functions can be executed by the nearest server, using all of the cloud provider's data centers. It greatly reduces the response time, as end users' traffic is directed to the closest server. 

With the advantages mentioned above, you may now think you should go for the serverless back end. What's there to think about? But it's not that simple. If your company already runs on legacy infrastructure and has an established workflow, you may find it challenging to transit to a serverless model. Besides, even if you are a startup holder, serverless technology also has some drawbacks for you to consider, and they are:

• Limited control over infrastructure: Since the cloud provider manages the infrastructure and servers, developers have limited control over how they are configured and maintained. It can be a disadvantage if you need to customize the infrastructure or want more visibility into how it is used.

• Dependency on the cloud provider: With a serverless model, you depend on the provider to run and scale your applications and services. It can be risky if the provider experiences outages or you want to switch to a different provider. Besides, some cloud providers may not support certain technologies or programming languages, limiting your options for building a serverless back end.

• Multitenancy and Security Concerns. Multitenancy means that a service provider may simultaneously use the same physical server to provide service to a few customers. Thus, it may impact your app's performance and even threaten the security of the app.

• Cold start latencies: As serverless code is not constantly running, the first request may have longer latencies, as the function has to be "cold started" and the necessary resources allocated. It can be a problem for applications with high traffic or real-time requirements.  

• It is not suitable for long-running apps. When you use serverless technology for time-consuming tasks, you will have to pay much more since serverless providers charge for the amount of time the code is running. In this case, it may be more reasonable to use traditional servers.

• Debugging is more complicated. Debugging serverless applications can be more complex than traditional applications, as the code is distributed across multiple functions and may be triggered by different events. Developers don't see how backend processes work, and it is difficult for them to see how code will perform after deployment, and thus harder to track down and fix issues.

• Learning curve: Serverless architectures can be new and unfamiliar to some developers, which means there may be a learning curve involved in getting up to speed with this type of technology.

So, serverless architecture may not be a perfect fit for every company or product as it is best suited for specific use cases. A Serverless back end is commonly used for building web and mobile applications. It is also widely used for automating tasks and processes such as data processing, image and video processing, and machine learning workflows. Serverless technologies can be used to analyze and visualize large datasets, such as log files or social media data. We can see the benefits of serverless technology in action. For example, Netflix uses serverless technologies to power its streaming service to easily handle millions of requests per second. Spotify uses serverless technologies to power its music streaming service to handle the high volume of requests and data generated by its users and scale its infrastructure up and down as needed. Twitter also uses serverless technologies to power its data analytics platform, which allows users to analyze and visualize large amounts of data in real time. These companies have all seen scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness improvements due to using serverless technologies.

The most common FaaS are AWS Lambda, Microsoft Azure Functions, and Google Cloud Functions. Some other popular Faas are Oracle Cloud Functions, IBM Cloud Functions, and Cloudflare Workers. Many serverless function platforms offer a generous free tier of usage, often based on the number of API calls or the compute time of the serverless function. This free tier can be more than enough to support small side projects or experimental backend development. 

AWS Lambda is a serverless computing service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Since its introduction in 2014, it has become a leading product in the market and has a direct association with the concept of serverless computing. According to the Cloud Native Computer Foundation survey published in 2021, AWS Lambda was the most popular serverless solution, with 53% of serverless developers using it. AWS Lambda supports a wide range of programming languages, including Java, Go, PowerShell, Node.js, C#, Python, and Ruby code, and provides a Runtime API for using any additional programming languages. AWS Lambda's payment model is based on the number of requests for the functions and the duration it takes for the code to execute. Its free tier includes one million free requests and 400,000 GB seconds of compute time per month. AWS Lambda is one of the most mature options available. Its track record of reliability and ability to handle a wide range of workloads make it a popular choice for many organizations. Additionally, its integration with other AWS services is a major advantage for those who are already using Amazon's ecosystem. 

Microsoft Azure Functions is a serverless computing service offered by Microsoft. It was launched in 2016 as a competitor to AWS Lambda, and it provides a similar set of services for building and deploying serverless applications and services. Azure Functions strongly focuses on the Microsoft ecosystem of languages and tools. It supports a number of programming languages, including C#, F#, Java, Powershell, and JavaScript. Just like with AWS Lambda, Azure Functions' payment model is based on per-second resource consumption and executions. The free tier also includes 1 million requests and 400,000 GB of resource consumption per month. Azure Functions is a logical choice for your serverless needs if you're already working within the Microsoft ecosystem. It's seamlessly integrated with other Azure services and works well with Windows-centric development technologies. 

Google Cloud Functions (GCF) is a serverless computing service offered by Google Cloud. It was released in 2017 and has since become one of the largest and most popular serverless computing platforms. GCF supports various programming languages, including Node.js, Python, Ruby, C#, Java, PHP, and Go, and integrates with other Google Cloud services, such as Google Cloud Storage and Google Cloud Pub/Sub. Cloud Functions are priced according to how long your function runs, how many times it is invoked and how many resources you provision for the function. The free tier includes the first 2 million free invocations per month. However, it's important to note that the functions themselves are stored in the Google Container Registry, which incurs additional storage costs. Overall, Google Cloud Functions is a good choice if you're already working with Google Cloud tools and services. 

IBM Cloud Functions is a serverless computing service offered by IBM since 2016. It is a managed infrastructure solution based on Apache OpenWhisk, an open-source serverless computing platform. Cloud Functions supports many language runtimes, including Node.js, Python, Go, Ruby, Java, and PHP. Languages without specific support in Cloud Functions are supported by using Docker actions. The free tier also includes 5 million requests and 400,000 GB of resource consumption per month. As IBM Cloud Functions can run on any cloud platform, it makes it a good choice if you want the freedom to choose where you host your functions. Besides, it is a good choice to take advantage of IBM's enterprise-grade security: IBM Cloud Functions is built with security in mind and offers enterprise-grade security features such as data encryption and identity and access management. It can be beneficial for organizations with strict security requirements.

Oracle Cloud Functions is a serverless platform offered by Oracle since 2019. Functions integrate with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, platform services, and SaaS applications. Oracle Functions is based on open source Fn Project, which provides function development kits (FDKs) for Java, Python, Node, Go, and Ruby. In addition, it lets developers bring their own Dockerfile. Because Functions is based on the open-source Fn Project, developers can create applications that can be easily ported to other cloud and on-premises environments. Code based on Functions typically runs for short durations, and customers pay only for the resources they use. Oracle Cloud Functions offers a pay-per-invocation pricing model and a free tier includes 2 million requests and 400,000 GB-s of resource consumption per month. Oracle Cloud Functions offers a highly portable solution, allowing it to be easily transferred to different cloud environments. It makes it a flexible and go-for option for those who want to avoid vendor lock-in.

Cloudflare Workers is a serverless platform offered by Cloudflare since 2017. It allows developers to build and deploy small, standalone functions that are triggered by events such as HTTP requests or responses, allowing them to add custom logic and functionality to their applications. It supports JavaScript and languages that compile to WebAssembly, such as Rust, C, and C++. Since 2020 it also supports Python, Scala, Kotlin, Reason, and Dart. Cloudflare Workers are charged based on both the number of requests and the duration of each request. It offers a generous free tier of 100,000 free requests per day with up to 10ms CPU time per request. Cloudflare has many data center locations, which is excellent if low-latency access is essential. So, the platform has gained popularity due to its competitive cost and high performance. However, it has relative incompatibility with the other platforms. Besides, the vendor is not a full-service cloud provider and doesn't have other products like databases or message queues. In case you need integration with all that major cloud vendors are more preferable.

Apart from these proprietary serverless platforms, there are also some open-source alternatives that are gaining ground. Open-source serverless frameworks help to avoid vendor lock-in and offer greater flexibility in terms of programming language options. Additionally, these frameworks can be run on your own hardware, giving developers more control over the infrastructure. The rise in popularity of self-hosted serverless frameworks occurred between 2016 and 2018. Iron Functions and OpenFaaS were all introduced in 2016, Kubeless in 2017, Knative, and OpenWhisk in 2018. Some of them seem to not have stood the test of time. Kubeless is no longer maintained. Iron Functions and Fn Project are mainly inactive. However, Apache OpenWhisk, OpenFaaS, and Knative continue to be popular among developers. 

Apache OpenWhisk is an open-source serverless computing platform designed for building and deploying event-driven applications and services. It supports multiple programming languages, including Go, Java, NodeJS, .NET, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, Scala, and Swift. It can run custom containers. It also supports integration with a variety of services and platforms and the ability to scale automatically in response to demand.  

OpenFaaS is an open-source framework that allows developers to build and deploy serverless functions and microservices on a variety of platforms, including Kubernetes and Docker. The project has scored over 22,500 stars on GitHub. It is written in Go, while its functions can be written in any language and can be deployed as standalone microservices or as part of a larger application. OpenFaaS is popular among developers for its simplicity, low overhead, and easy integration with other tools and services.

Knative is an open-source project for building, deploying and managing serverless workloads on Kubernetes that is backed by a number of major companies, including Red Hat, IBM, and VMware. It extends Kubernetes by building containers and bridging the gap between containerized and serverless applications. Knative is intended to be cloud-agnostic, meaning it can be used with any cloud provider or on-premises infrastructure. The solution supports various programming languages: Node, Java, Python, Ruby, C#, PHP, and Go, and includes components for building, deploying, and managing functions, as well as components for connecting and integrating with other services and systems. 

All these platforms offer a more customizable and flexible solution for developers who want more control over their infrastructure. They can be run on private, public, or hybrid clouds and support a variety of programming languages and integration scenarios. It's worth considering these options if you want to avoid vendor lock-in and have more control over your serverless environment.

As for BaaS providers, according to Statista, Among iOS apps hosted in the Apple App Store as of July 2022, Firebase was the most popular mobile software development kit (SDK) for mobile backend as a service (BaaS) by far, with 93 percent integration reach. Some other BaaS to be named are AWS Amplify and Backendless. BaaS providers usually offer core features such as data storage, user/usage analytics, push notifications, and authentication for free up to a specific usage limit. Once usage exceeds that limit or developers request additional features, they are charged a fee that can be subscription-based and pay-per-use. This approach allows developers to create and launch an app at the free usage tier and then scale up to a paid tier as they add customers. It can be a convenient and cost-effective way to build and deploy applications, especially for startups with limited budgets. 

Firebase is a Google-owned BaaS platform that enables developers to develop iOS, Android, and Web apps without a server-side developing language. It is known for its simplicity, ease of use, and close integration with other Google Cloud services. Firebase provides a range of mobile and web application development services, including a real-time database, authentication, storage, hosting, and more. Its pricing model includes a free tier allowing developers to access certain features without incurring charges. However, if a developer's usage exceeds certain limits or requires additional features, they may need to switch to a paid-tier pricing plan.

AWS Amplify is a BaaS platform offered by AWS that provides a set of tools and services for building and deploying serverless applications, including authentication, storage, serverless functions, and more. It is designed to work seamlessly with other Amazon Web Services (AWS) products, making it a good option for developers building applications on the AWS ecosystem. Amplify's libraries, UI components, CLI, or Amplify Studio, are free; you pay only for the underlying AWS services you use. There is also the AWS Free Usage Tier to help you get started.

Backendless is a mobile backend as a service (MBaaS) platform that provides a range of services and tools for developing mobile applications. It offers features such as data storage, push notifications, user management, and real-time messaging, among others. Backendless is designed to help developers create and deploy mobile apps quickly and easily without worrying about managing the backend infrastructure. It is intended for use with a variety of mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, and HTML5, and is available as a cloud-based service or as a self-hosted solution. You can get started with a free Backendless Cloud plan that scales as you grow or get additional support and functionality with Backendless Pro and Managed Backendless.

In conclusion, we can state that as the demand for efficient, scalable, and cost-effective backend solutions continues to grow, it's clear that serverless technology is poised to play a significant role in the future of backend development. By allowing developers to focus on code quality and business logic rather than infrastructure management, serverless architectures have the potential to revolutionize the way that backend development is done. As the technology continues to evolve and mature, we can expect to see even more companies and organizations adopting serverless backend solutions. And with the increasing number of cloud providers, it's easier than ever for organizations to build and deploy applications and services quickly and efficiently. So, if you're considering using a serverless back end for your next project, now is the time to take the plunge and see what it can do for you.