Serverless Computing in Cloud Development

Abstract

This thesis focuses on serverless computing, mainly serverless functions. It explains what serverless functions are and what purpose they serve. It also talks about different cloud providers and what kinds of serverless services they offer. In the thesis traditional non serverless backend solutions are compared to serverless. The advantages and disadvantages of each are evaluated. Various factors being examined are performance, cost, scalability and ease of development. The thesis also explains what kinds of tasks serverless functions perform well and what should be avoided. It also talks about monoliths and microservices, the two architectures of software development; serverless functions being part of the latter. Tools for developing serverless functions such as infrastructure as code are also talked about. The aim for the thesis was to learn about serverless computing.

In the practical part of the thesis serverless functions are used to build a chat application on the web. On the website users can join and create chats. There they can have conversations with other users. Text and image messages can be sent. AWS was the cloud provider chosen for the project. Actions on the website trigger Lambda functions that perform the required task.

The project was successful, and the web application has all the required features. Serverless functions are not always the most reasonable choice for this kind of service. Messaging services with great user numbers choose to use traditional servers for their lower cost. Serverless functions offer benefits in scaling with demand and development simplicity.