Serverless Architectures with AWS & Azure (eBook)

Code-Less but not Effortless

Dorian Thorne (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
391 Seiten
Dargslan s.r.o. (Verlag)
978-0-00-110119-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Master Serverless Computing on AWS and Azure - Transform How You Build and Deploy Applications

Serverless computing has revolutionized cloud architecture, enabling developers to build scalable, cost-effective applications without managing infrastructure. 'Serverless Architectures with AWS & Azure: Code-Less but not Effortless' is your comprehensive guide to mastering serverless technologies on the industry's two leading cloud platforms.

Why This Book?

While serverless abstracts away infrastructure management, it introduces unique challenges in design, security, and optimization. This book bridges the gap between serverless promise and production reality, providing both theoretical foundations and practical implementation strategies for AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, and their surrounding ecosystems.

What You'll Learn:

Foundational Concepts: Understand serverless fundamentals, event-driven architectures, and when serverless is the right choice for your projects

Dual-Platform Mastery: Deep-dive into both AWS and Azure serverless offerings with side-by-side comparisons and platform-specific best practices

API Development: Build robust, scalable APIs using API Gateway, Azure API Management, and serverless functions

Data Management: Handle databases, storage, and data processing in serverless environments effectively

Workflow Orchestration: Implement complex business logic using AWS Step Functions and Azure Durable Functions

Production-Ready Skills: Master CI/CD pipelines, monitoring, observability, security hardening, and cost optimization techniques essential for production deployments

Real-World Applications: Explore practical use cases including data processing pipelines, real-time stream processing, and microservices architectures

Avoid Common Pitfalls: Learn from real-world challenges including cold starts, timeout management, vendor lock-in considerations, and debugging distributed systems

Comprehensive Coverage:

From basic function deployment to advanced hybrid architectures, this book covers the complete serverless spectrum. You'll explore event sources, triggers, state management, authentication, authorization, and integration patterns. Each concept is reinforced with practical examples and deployment templates you can use immediately.

Perfect For:

Cloud architects designing scalable, modern applications

Developers transitioning to serverless paradigms

DevOps engineers implementing serverless CI/CD pipelines

Technical decision-makers evaluating serverless adoption

Anyone building cost-effective, automatically scaling cloud solutions

Practical Resources:

The book includes valuable appendices with AWS vs Azure comparison charts, deployment templates in YAML/JSON, CLI tools and SDK references, a comprehensive serverless glossary, and curated learning paths for continued growth.

What Sets This Book Apart:

Unlike platform-specific guides, this book provides dual-platform expertise, enabling you to choose the right tool for each project or work effectively in multi-cloud environments. The focus on real-world challenges-not just happy-path tutorials-prepares you for production deployments where reliability, security, and cost management matter.

Start building more efficient, scalable, and cost-effective applications today. Your comprehensive guide to serverless success on AWS and Azure awaits.

Textauszug

Introduction

Welcome to the World of Serverless Computing

In the rapidly evolving landscape of cloud computing, few paradigms have captured the imagination of developers and architects quite like serverless computing. This revolutionary approach to building and deploying applications has fundamentally transformed how we think about infrastructure, scalability, and resource management. As we embark on this comprehensive journey through serverless architectures on AWS and Azure, it's essential to understand that while serverless promises to be "code-less," it is certainly not effortless.

The term "serverless" itself is somewhat of a misnomer. Servers still exist; they're simply abstracted away from the developer's immediate concern. This abstraction represents one of the most significant shifts in computing since the advent of virtualization. In traditional server-based architectures, developers and operations teams must provision, configure, maintain, and scale physical or virtual servers. With serverless computing, cloud providers handle all these operational complexities, allowing developers to focus purely on writing business logic and creating value.

The Evolution of Computing Paradigms

To truly appreciate the revolutionary nature of serverless computing, we must first understand the evolutionary path that brought us here. The computing industry has witnessed several major paradigm shifts, each building upon the limitations and lessons of its predecessors.

From Physical Servers to Virtual Machines

In the early days of enterprise computing, applications ran on dedicated physical servers. Organizations would purchase, install, and maintain hardware in their own data centers. This approach, while providing complete control, came with significant challenges: high upfront costs, lengthy procurement cycles, inefficient resource utilization, and substantial operational overhead.

The introduction of virtualization technology marked the first major shift. Virtual machines allowed multiple operating systems to run on a single physical server, dramatically improving resource utilization and reducing costs. However, organizations still needed to manage the underlying infrastructure, including the hypervisors, storage systems, and networking components.

The Container Revolution

Containerization, popularized by Docker, introduced another layer of abstraction. Containers provided a lightweight alternative to virtual machines, enabling applications to run consistently across different environments. While containers improved deployment efficiency and resource utilization, they still required orchestration platforms like Kubernetes, which introduced their own operational complexities.

Enter Serverless Computing

Serverless computing represents the natural evolution of this abstraction journey. It takes the concept of infrastructure abstraction to its logical conclusion, completely removing the need for developers to think about servers, containers, or even operating systems. In a serverless model, developers simply upload their code, and the cloud provider handles everything else: provisioning compute resources, scaling based on demand, managing security patches, and ensuring high availability.

Understanding Serverless Architecture

Serverless architecture is built on the principle of Function-as-a-Service (FaaS), where applications are decomposed into small, stateless functions that execute in response to specific events. These functions are ephemeral by nature, spinning up when needed and shutting down when idle, ensuring that you only pay for the actual compute time consumed.

Core Characteristics of Serverless

The serverless paradigm is defined by several key characteristics that distinguish it from traditional computing models:

Event-Driven Execution: Serverless functions are triggered by events such as HTTP requests, database changes, file uploads, or scheduled tasks. This event-driven nature makes serverless architectures highly responsive and efficient.

Automatic Scaling: One of the most compelling aspects of serverless computing is its ability to automatically scale from zero to thousands of concurrent executions without any manual intervention. When demand increases, the cloud provider automatically provisions additional compute resources. When demand decreases, resources are deallocated, ensuring cost efficiency.

Pay-per-Use Pricing: Unlike traditional server-based models where you pay for reserved capacity regardless of utilization, serverless follows a pay-per-use model. You're charged only for the actual execution time and resources consumed by your functions.

Stateless Design: Serverless functions are inherently stateless, meaning they don't retain information between executions. Any persistent data must be stored in external services like databases, object storage, or caching systems.

Managed Infrastructure: The cloud provider handles all infrastructure management tasks, including server provisioning, operating system updates, security patching, and capacity planning.

The AWS and Azure Serverless Ecosystems

Both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure have developed comprehensive serverless ecosystems that extend far beyond simple function execution. These platforms offer a rich array of serverless services that can be combined to build sophisticated, scalable applications.

AWS Serverless Services

AWS pioneered the serverless movement with the introduction of AWS Lambda in 2014. Since then, the platform has expanded to include numerous serverless services:

AWS Lambda serves as the cornerstone of AWS's serverless offering, providing the compute layer for executing code in response to events. Lambda supports multiple programming languages and integrates seamlessly with other AWS services.

Amazon API Gateway enables developers to create, deploy, and manage RESTful APIs and WebSocket APIs at scale. It handles authentication, authorization, throttling, and monitoring, making it an essential component for serverless web applications.

Amazon DynamoDB provides a fully managed NoSQL database service that scales automatically based on demand. Its integration with Lambda makes it ideal for serverless applications requiring persistent data storage.

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) offers object storage with built-in event notifications, making it perfect for triggering serverless functions based on file operations.

Amazon EventBridge (formerly CloudWatch Events) provides a serverless event bus that connects applications with data from various sources, enabling complex event-driven architectures.

Azure Serverless Services

Microsoft Azure has built a competitive serverless platform centered around Azure Functions, complemented by a comprehensive suite of supporting services:

Azure Functions provides the compute foundation for serverless applications on Azure, offering support for multiple programming languages and extensive integration with other Azure services.

Azure Logic Apps enables the creation of automated workflows that integrate with various services and systems, providing a visual design experience for complex business processes.

Azure Cosmos DB offers a globally distributed, multi-model database service with automatic scaling capabilities, making it an excellent choice for serverless applications requiring global reach.

Azure Event Grid provides a fully managed event routing service that connects data sources and event handlers, enabling reactive programming patterns.

Azure Service Bus offers reliable cloud messaging services that can trigger serverless functions, supporting both queue and topic-based messaging patterns.

Benefits and Advantages of Serverless

The adoption of serverless architectures brings numerous benefits that address many of the challenges associated with traditional computing models.

Cost Efficiency

One of the most immediate and tangible benefits of serverless computing is its cost efficiency. Traditional server-based applications require you to provision and pay for compute capacity even when your application is idle. In contrast, serverless functions only consume resources when they're actually executing, resulting in significant cost savings for applications with variable or unpredictable traffic patterns.

Consider a typical web application that experiences peak traffic during business hours but remains relatively idle during nights and weekends. In a traditional server-based model, you would need to maintain servers capable of handling peak load 24/7, resulting in substantial waste during low-traffic periods. With serverless, you automatically scale down to zero during idle periods, paying nothing for compute resources.

Simplified Operations

Serverless architectures dramatically reduce operational complexity by eliminating the need to manage underlying infrastructure. Developers no longer need to worry about server provisioning, operating system updates, security patches, or capacity planning. This reduction in operational overhead allows teams to focus on developing features and improving user experience rather than maintaining infrastructure.

The operational benefits extend beyond just compute resources. Serverless databases like DynamoDB and Cosmos DB automatically handle scaling, backup, and maintenance tasks. Serverless messaging services manage queue provisioning and scaling. This comprehensive approach to infrastructure management significantly reduces the operational burden on...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.11.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik ► Datenbanken
• ISBN-10: 0-00-110119-6 / 0001101196
• ISBN-13: 978-0-00-110119-7 / 9780001101197