Serverless computing is a cloud computing model where developers can build, run, and manage applications without having to provision or manage servers. Instead of managing infrastructure, developers can focus on writing code and deploying it to a serverless platform.
Key characteristics of serverless computing:
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Pay-per-use: You only pay for the resources consumed by your application, rather than paying for a fixed server capacity.
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Automatic scaling: The platform automatically adjusts the number of instances based on demand, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficiency.
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Event-driven: Serverless functions are typically triggered by events, such as HTTP requests, API calls, or messages from other services.
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Managed infrastructure: The platform handles all the underlying infrastructure, including servers, networking, and security.
Example:
Imagine you want to create a web application that processes images. Instead of setting up and managing servers to handle the image processing, you could use a serverless platform to deploy a function that triggers when an image is uploaded. The function would then process the image and store the result in a cloud storage service.