Serverless Architecture
Event-driven computing model where cloud providers manage infrastructure and automatically scale based on demand.
Medium ComplexityTechnologies & Tools
AWS LambdaAzure FunctionsGoogle Cloud FunctionsAWS Step FunctionsEventBridge
Architecture Flow
1
Event Trigger
Function triggered by events (HTTP, S3, SQS)
API GatewayEvent SourcesTriggers
2
Function Execution
Code executes in managed runtime
Lambda RuntimeContainerCustom Runtime
3
Auto-scaling
Platform automatically scales based on load
Auto-scalingConcurrency LimitsProvisioned Concurrency
4
Result Return
Function returns result or triggers other services
ResponseEvent SourcingIntegration
Use Cases
Web APIs and microservices
Data processing pipelines
Scheduled tasks
Real-time file processing
IoT data processing
Pros
No server management
Automatic scaling
Pay-per-use pricing
High availability
Rapid deployment
Cons
Cold start latency
Vendor lock-in
Limited execution time
Debugging challenges
Memory limitations
When to Use
Event-driven workloads
Variable traffic patterns
Rapid prototyping
Cost optimization
Microservices
Alternatives
Container-based deploymentTraditional VMsPlatform as a ServiceSelf-hosted solutions
Performance Metrics
Latency
Low (milliseconds, cold start excluded)
Throughput
High (scales automatically)
Scalability
Excellent
Reliability
High
Cost
Low to Medium
Key Trade-offs
Cold Start Latency
Initial function execution delay
Cost Efficiency
Pay only for actual execution time
Vendor Lock-in
Tightly coupled to cloud provider
Category Information
Category
Serverless
Complexity Level
Medium