Serverless Computig: A Compellig Opportuity for Today s Digital Eterprise Abstract Cloud computig has eabled orgaizatios to focus less o their IT ifrastructure ad more o their core products ad services. I fact, the cloud is o loger viewed as a alterative to hostig ifrastructure: I today s world, all kids of busiesses are usig cloud services without havig to worry about ay uderlyig ifrastructure issues. This ew cosumptio model has evolved to serverless architecture. By adoptig serverless architectures, customers ca re-imagie their ext-geeratio products from ideatio to productio, without waitig for, or worryig about, ifrastructure. The bee ts are sigi cat, geeratig ef ciecies, lowerig costs, ad speedig time to market.
A evolutio of the cloud The serverless cloud is a evolutioary step i leveragig the cloud to its full potetial. I a serverless eviromet, your applicatios still ru o servers, but you do t have to ow, maage, or maitai those servers. You simply cosume computig ifrastructure i the same way that you cosume other cloud services. The cloud service provider (CSP) is resposible for uderlyig ifrastructure maagemet, freeig your resources to focus o your core busiess fuctios. Two key drivers Advaces i computig techology have eabled the serverless eviromet, ad eterprises are embracig it because of two key drivers: New busiess models: The digital era has greatly accelerated the pace of chage ad evolutio for ew products, services, ad busiess models. Market dyamics are chagig faster tha ever before. Eterprises are uder icreasig pressure to release ew features ad products that meet the expoetially growig expectatios of customers. Digital reimagiatio ad the Iteret of Thigs are affectig every idustry. This ew eviromet makes the idea of serverless architecture more attractive tha ever before. It effectively elimiates the time-cosumig ad expesive traditioal approach: buildig compoets i-house, purchasig ew hardware, istallig servers, co gurig, ad troubleshootig. A paradigm shift i the orgaizatioal midset: DevOps ad the agile developmet culture are drivig orgaizatios to fudametally chage the way they develop busiess applicatios. Moolithic applicatios are givig way to micro services, API, ad fuctio-based executio uits. The tred of Cotiuous Itegratio ad Cotiuous Deploymet (CI-CD) is helpig IT match pace with busiess agility. The log cycles of chage maagemet ad waterfall executio models are givig way to weekly or bi-weekly sprits of smaller scrum teams pushig ew code chages. For may eterprises, the big questios today are these: How ca my ifrastructure support this agile approach characterized by frequet but small chages? How ca we provide developers ad operatios teams with a ifrastructure that ca self-maage, scale o demad, ad provide the compute ad storage capacity eeded to grow?
These treds have fudametally chaged the way eterprises approach ifrastructure. The cloud has eabled orgaizatios to build their ow eterprise-grade ifrastructure at commodity cost. Noetheless, whether servers reside o premise or i cloud, you still eed to ivest i creatig, maitaiig, ad maagig the ifrastructure to esure high availability, scalability, ad elasticity. For eterprise developers, the resultig depedecy o ifrastructure i the cloud makes the developmet ad release process slow. Serverless architecture characteristics The solutio is the serverless architecture. With this approach, you do t have to purchase, ret, or provisio servers or virtual machies to ru your code (see Figure 1). Serverless architectures are de ed by these features: Built usig services (ot servers or virtual machies) provided by CSP ad fully maaged by the CSP Services that support elasticity ad fault tolerace while providig eterprise-level global security Automatic scalig Built-i high availability Itegrated security Evet-drive compute to execute busiess logic (examples iclude AWS Lambda, Azure fuctios, IBM Bluemix OpeWhisk, Google Cloud Fuctios Pay-as-you go fee structure (for cosumed services oly) Developer-productivity cetric Promotes cotiuous build, itegratio, ad deploymet efforts Iovatio by focusig o developig ad deployig busiess fuctioality Reduced time to market
Traditioal laas Applicatio Release to Productio Severless Applicatio Release to Productio Serverless+Microservices Fuctio Release to Productio F1 F2 F3 F4 You Maaged Core Busiess Applicatio Data Rutime You Maaged Core Busiess Applicatio Data Rutime You Maaged B1 A1 D1 R1 B2 A2 D2 R2 B3 A3 D3 R3 B4 A4 D4 R4 Middleware Middleware Middleware CSP Maaged Operatig System Virtualizatio Server Storage CSP Maaged Operatig System Virtualizatio Server Storage CSP Maaged Operatig System Virtualizatio Server Storage Networkig Networkig Networkig CLOUD SERVICES REIMAGINED LEGO MODEL OF SERVICES CSP: Cloud Service Provider B#: Busiess Feature A#: Fuctio for B# D#: Data for B# R#: Rutime for A# F#: Software Release for B# Serverless Architecture Buildig Blocks Use cases for serverless Whe should you choose a serverless architecture over a server-based oe? There are o speci c rules, but examiig the followig attributes ad use case possibilities ca help you come to the right decisio: Data i terms of variety (structured vs ustructured), volume, ad variability Security requiremets: Legal, regulatory, compliace, ecryptio, tokeizatio Maagemet cotrol: Goverace ad reportig Licesig: Third-party products, licese extesibility Portability/Lock-is: Ability to brig software compoets i house to port to differet CSP, lock-is Geographical restrictios: Serverless compoets may ot be available i all geographies Itegratios: Number ad complexity of itegratios with opremise systems, other cloud services, ad SaaS
Feasibility of redesigig compoets ad time to market Resource availability ad skill sets Cost of hostig ifrastructure i cloud versus cost of ruig busiess fuctio Serverless architectures ca be useful i several situatios: Web/Mobile applicatios Streamig ad telematics solutios IoT solutios Advaced aalytics ad arti cial itelligece solutios Cloud automatio ad DevOps eablemet Before makig a architectural decisio, it s critical to make a thorough evaluatio of the attributes ad use cases. The bee ts of goig serverless Reduce costs: Like cloud services, serverless is a ew way of of oadig IT overhead. A serverless architecture elimiates the resposibility of maagig servers, databases, ad eve applicatio logic, reducig set-up ad maiteace costs. You oly pay for the time your code executes, reducig operatioal costs. Serverless architecture lowers cloud admiistratio cost (cloud server maagemet ad associated people costs). Rapid developmet ad deploymet: Serverless architectures are built to ehace developer productivity ad to make build, test ad release cycles iheretly agile. With the serverless approach, you ca do as may test rus as you like without havig to worry about whe your ifrastructure will be ready or whe other compoets i the solutio will be available for rollout. Cloud service providers are also ivestig to stadardize developmet eviromets to ecourage use of serverless architectures (such as the 2016 aoucemet of AWS Lambda supportig C#). Reduced time to market: By usig a serverless architecture, you ca trasform ideas ito reality i a matter of miutes or hours. Serverless architectures also eable ruig multiple versios of code to meet tight deadlies. For example: To develop a fuctioality that returs credit score for mobile users as part of your mobile bakig app, a traditioal cloud IaaS model (such as AWS EC2) could requires
days or eve a week for developig, testig, ad deliverig the fuctioality. Usig AWS Lambda (serverless, evet-drive computig) you ca develop the same fuctioality i matter of few hours. It takes just a few clicks to provisio serverless services with scalig, fault tolerace, ad elasticity all built i. Built-I scalig: Like cloud services, serverless offerigs have built-i scalability. There s o eed for guesswork whe it comes to scalig policies or over-/uder-provisioig cocers. Just pay for the service usage, ad the serverless architecture ifrastructure will grow or shrik based o demad. Failover: Disaster recovery is itegrated ito CSP offerigs. Because serverless compoets are based o the pay-per-use model, settig up failover ifrastructure i paired regios of a give geography comes at fractio of the cost of the traditioal server-based architecture. The additioal bee t is brigig the recovery time (RTO) dow to ear zero, makig seamless switchover a possibility at fractioal cost of existig setups. The risks of goig serverless Loss of cotrol over ifrastructure: The cloud service provider cotrols the uderlyig ifrastructure, so you will ot be able to customize/optimize the ifrastructure to suit speci c eeds. CSP-established service limits for serverless compoets may challege the applicability for your use case. Multiple customers sharig the same serverless architecture may raise security cocers. CSPs are addressig these cocers by allowig customer to use serverless offerigs i a virtual private etwork. Lock-I: Switchig from oe vedor s serverless offerig to aother s may require sigi cat time ad efforts. (TCS Digital Eterprise offers frameworks ad professioal services to help customers choose the right set of serverless compoets ad make cloud portability a possibility.) Compliace cocers: CSPs are resposible for doig vulerability scaig ad peetratio tests o ifrastructure uderlyig serverless offerigs. But as a cosumer of serverless offerigs, you caot do these tests. For example, you caot perform peetratio test o uderlyig ifrastructure for your AWS Lambda fuctio. For most customers this may ot be a issue but if your use case requires you to perform peetratio tests o ifrastructure for compliace, legal reasos you may prefer a more traditioal, server-based approach.
Moitorig, loggig ad debuggig: Moitorig, loggig ad debuggig of serverless architecture may ofte eed customized code ad/or third-party software addig more costs. Coclusio Adoptig serverless ca deliver may bee ts but the road to serverless ca get challegig depedig o the use case. Ad like ay ew techology iovatios, serverless architectures will evolve e route to becomig a well-established obvious stadard. While serverless architecture may ot be a solutio to every IT problem, it surely represets the future of may kids of computig solutios i the comig years.
About The Authors Sameer Limaye ad Asif Kha Cotact Visit TCS Digital Eterprise uit page for more iformatio Email: digital.eterprise@tcs.com Blog: Digital Reimagiatio Subscribe to TCS White Papers TCS.com RSS: http://www.tcs.com/rss_feeds/pages/feed.aspx?f=w Feedburer: http://feeds2.feedburer.com/tcswhitepapers About Tata Cosultacy Services Ltd (TCS) Tata Cosultacy Services is a IT services, cosultig ad busiess solutios orgaizatio that delivers real results to global busiess, esurig a level of certaity o other firm ca match. TCS offers a cosultig-led, itegrated portfolio of IT ad IT-eabled, ifrastructure, egieerig ad assurace services. This is TM delivered through its uique Global Network Delivery Model, recogized as the bechmark of excellece i software developmet. A part of the Tata Group, Idia s largest idustrial coglomerate, TCS has a global footprit ad is listed o the Natioal Stock Exchage ad Bombay Stock Exchage i Idia. For more iformatio, visit us at www.tcs.com All cotet / iformatio preset here is the exclusive property of Tata Cosultacy Services Limited (TCS). The cotet / iformatio cotaied here is correct at the time of publishig. No material from here may be copied, modified, reproduced, republished, uploaded, trasmitted, posted or distributed i ay form without prior writte permissio from TCS. Uauthorized use of the cotet / iformatio appearig here may violate copyright, trademark ad other applicable laws, ad could result i crimial or civil pealties. Copyright 2017 Tata Cosultacy Services Limited TCS Desig Services I M I 01 I 17