Regardless of any industry, if it is going to have an online business, a common approach is considered. You have a server, you deploy the apps and serve them. That is how the Business infrastructure has been indulged traditionally. In general, there is a complete team that manages it and monitors it from time to time to do the needful. Ever since cloud computing has risen, lately a new model of a similar sort has been gaining attention. This is called serverless. To get you know with this, we bring you Serverless vs. Server-based architecture.
In today’s post we are going to check what is server-based architecture, What is serverless architecture, and serverless vs. server-based architecture. Without further due, let’s begin it.
What is Server-Based Architecture
A server-based architecture is a model that has been followed for quite a long time now. Generally, the application under Server-based architecture would be installed in the server which is managed by the team of the organization. In this model, the management body is responsible for allocating the specification under the Server for that particular application.
This also means that you would get full control over the machine where the application is installed or served. As they say, with great power comes great responsibility, you would need to have skilled teammates who can manage the server and maintain its complexity during the deployment of apps. Along with the maintenance, the server-based architecture would have to be dealt with by scaling the specification as per requirements.
In Server-based architecture maintenance, scalability and monitoring are very necessary and cost is also a main factor. If we talk as a whole, the server-based approach is better when the startup is well-working and well-funded. There is also a thin line as to when the startup might decide to go with a serverless approach, and that might be for specific applications or even to test the application in the beta stage.
What is Serverless Architecture
When you read the term serverless, it does not mean that the app deployment is going to happen without Server. The server is involved indeed! The difference is that you do not have to worry about patching the server, or its security concerns because the service provider is going to take care for you. The serverless concept was made available to the developer community and the public back in 2008 by Google.
Google App Engine was the first service that provided serverless architecture. Along the way, Amazon started providing serverless facilities in 2015 in the name of Lambda service. There are some awesome key points of the serverless approach. In this model, the serverless function applies an event-driven strategy. It basically waits for the events and then continues with an appropriate response.
This means the entire code is not required to run all at once. The event-driven approach is great for apps that need interaction or input to go to the next step. Some other interesting factors include scalability, reduced cost, and almost zero maintenance. The developers need to only mind the application, write more cool code, and try to make it as perfect, and flawless as possible.
Serverless vs. Server-based architecture
Scalability
A Server-based architecture requires a manual provisioning of the server. The scale of specification might require migrating the application from one server to the other and that might cause application downtime and service issues. Contrary to Server-based architecture, the serverless approach is smoother. You can call the specifications per your requirement without having to worry about much.
Control
A server-based model gives you more control over the hardware and software part of the machine. If you have a Dedicated server, serving the application over it gives you full access to it. This might also increase the complexity of managing it and can affect the cost. Serverless is quite different, you would get limited control over the hardware side of it. For example, when you deploy the app over Serverless, you would get lesser control over things other than your deployed app.
Maintenance
The server-based approach requires updates of the machine, patching, and overall maintenance. This might also require some time and there is a risk of server halts if upgrading or maintenance is going on. Serverless is a good relief here because you do not have to worry about the server part. The patching and maintenance are the responsibility of the Serverless provider. This is a plus as it does not involve you worrying about it.
Cost
When we talk about cost for Server-based architecture, the server-based architecture involves solid hardware and dedicated software cost. Also, the maintenance and scaling costs might sky-high the budget. Contrary to Server server-based model, the serverless approach is more convenient. The cost would be on pay-as-you-go which simply means you only pay for the amount of service used. Along with this, there is almost less worry about the hardware or the machine maintenance.
Conclusion
A venture might prefer relying on a serverless model for its noticeable advantage but might lack the freedom it is on a server-based model. What to prefer is completely upon the business requirement and the budget the organization has. Some of the top companies like Netflix and Coca-Cola are using the Serverless model to justify user experience in various aspects of performance. This concludes with Serverless vs. server-based architecture. What model do you feel is better, and why? do let us know in the comments section below. If you need any help or have any suggestions to make, then do reach us via the contact page here. Happy Labour Day!
