What is Serverless Computing?

Serverless Computing is a cloud computing execution model in which the cloud provider runs the server, and dynamically manages the allocation of machine resources. Serverless Computing lets you run application code without creating, configuring, or maintaining a server. The core idea is that your application is broken into separate functions that run when triggered by some action. This is ideal for automated tasks - for example, you can build a serverless process that automatically sends an email confirmation after a customer makes an online purchase.

The serverless model differs from VMs and containers in that you only pay for the processing time used by each function as it executes. VMs and containers are charged while they're running - even if the applications on them are idle. This architecture doesn't work for every app - but when the app logic can be separated to independent units, you can test them separately, update them separately, and launch them in microseconds, making this approach the fastest option for deployment. Pricing is based on the actual amount of resources consumed by an application, rather than on pre-purchased units of capacity.