Serverless computing has been gaining popularity in recent years due to its ability to provide numerous benefits for businesses, including cost savings, increased scalability, and improved reliability. In this article, we will explore the concept of serverless computing, discuss the benefits it offers, and take a closer look at the Serverless Framework, a popular tool that helps businesses implement serverless architecture. Additionally, we will discuss a case study where a large UK-based DIY chain was able to significantly reduce costs and improve reliability by migrating their enterprise-wide product service to serverless using the help of Kedos Consulting.
What is serverless computing?
In traditional computing models, businesses have to maintain their own servers and IT infrastructure. This can be costly, time-consuming, and requires specialized technical skills to manage. Serverless computing eliminates the need for businesses to manage their own servers by providing a cloud-based architecture that allows them to run their applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
In serverless computing, the cloud provider manages the infrastructure, and the business only pays for the resources they use. This means that businesses can scale their applications up or down quickly and easily, only paying for the resources they need at any given time. Additionally, serverless computing provides automatic scaling, which means that if an application experiences a sudden spike in traffic, the cloud provider will automatically allocate additional resources to handle the increased demand.
Benefits of serverless computing
Cost Savings: Serverless computing offers cost savings for businesses, as they only pay for the resources they use. This means that businesses can scale up or down their applications based on demand, only paying for the resources they need at any given time. Additionally, serverless computing eliminates the need for businesses to purchase and maintain their own servers, which can be costly.
Increased Scalability: Serverless computing offers unlimited scalability, as businesses can scale up or down their applications quickly and easily based on demand. This means that businesses can handle sudden spikes in traffic without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
Improved Reliability: Serverless computing offers improved reliability, as the cloud provider manages the infrastructure. This means that businesses can focus on their applications and not worry about server maintenance, security, or software updates.
The Serverless Framework
The Serverless Framework is a popular tool that helps businesses implement serverless architecture. The framework provides a set of tools and plugins that make it easy to deploy serverless applications to the cloud. Additionally, the Serverless Framework provides a standard way of working with serverless architecture, making it easy for businesses to adopt and implement this technology.
The Serverless Framework supports multiple cloud providers, including AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. This means that businesses can choose the cloud provider that best fits their needs and can easily switch between providers if necessary. Additionally, the Serverless Framework provides a set of templates and examples that make it easy for businesses to get started with serverless architecture.
Case Study: Kedos Consulting and a large UK-based DIY chain
Kedos Consulting is a UK-based consultancy firm that specializes in helping businesses adopt serverless architecture. They have helped numerous businesses migrate their workloads to serverless and have seen significant improvements in cost savings, scalability, and reliability. One of their recent projects involved helping a large UK-based DIY chain migrate their enterprise-wide product service to serverless using the Serverless Framework.
Before migrating to serverless, the DIY chain's product service was running on a traditional infrastructure that was costly to maintain and lacked scalability. The DIY chain was also experiencing frequent downtime, which impacted their sales and customer satisfaction. Kedos Consulting identified serverless architecture as a solution to these issues and recommended the DIY chain migrate their product service to serverless using the Serverless Framework.
After migrating to serverless, the DIY chain saw significant improvements in stability and availability,with their product service achieving 5 nines (99.999%) uptime. This meant that their service was almost always available to their customers, which significantly improved their overall customer satisfaction. Additionally, the DIY chain saw a reduction in costs of over 90%, as they no longer had to maintain their own servers and only paid for the resources they used.
One of the key benefits of serverless architecture that the DIY chain experienced was its ability to handle sudden spikes in traffic. During peak periods, such as holiday seasons or sales events, the DIY chain's product service would experience a significant increase in traffic. With their traditional infrastructure, the DIY chain struggled to handle these spikes and often experienced downtime, which impacted their sales and customer satisfaction. However, with serverless architecture, the DIY chain was able to easily scale up their application to handle the increased demand, without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
Another benefit of serverless architecture that the DIY chain experienced was its ability to automatically scale down when the demand decreased. With their traditional infrastructure, the DIY chain had to maintain their servers, even when they were not in use, which resulted in unnecessary costs. However, with serverless architecture, the DIY chain only paid for the resources they used, and the cloud provider automatically scaled down their application when the demand decreased, resulting in significant cost savings.
Kedos Consulting was able to help the DIY chain migrate their product service to serverless using the Serverless Framework, which provided a standard way of working with serverless architecture. The Serverless Framework made it easy for the DIY chain to deploy their application to the cloud and provided a set of tools and plugins that made it easy to manage their application.
Conclusion
Serverless computing offers numerous benefits for businesses, including cost savings, increased scalability, and improved reliability. The Serverless Framework is a popular tool that helps businesses implement serverless architecture and provides a standard way of working with this technology.
Kedos Consulting was able to help a large UK-based DIY chain migrate their enterprise-wide product service to serverless using the Serverless Framework. The DIY chain saw significant improvements in stability and availability, a reduction in costs of over 90%, and unlimited scalability to handle sudden spikes in traffic. Overall, serverless architecture is a powerful technology that can help businesses improve their applications' performance and reduce costs.