Serverless computing is a cloud computing paradigm where we do not need to set up servers to execute tasks. The cloud service provider manages and provisions the servers to execute tasks.

Monolith applications vs. serverless architecture

Traditionally, applications were designed on request/response models. The client would send requests to the backend, consisting of multiple classes to process the request and return responses. Since such applications are all bundled in one package, they are also called monolith applications.

With the arrival of cloud computing, developers deployed their monolith software applications on virtual machines on the cloud, such as an EC2 instance. They would install an operating system and the application code on these machines and configure a firewall to secure the application. If the demand spiked, they would spin up new EC2 instances, perform installations, and set up proxies to balance the traffic. In simple terms, they manually upscaled and downscaled the compute resources.

Create a free account to view this lesson.

By signing up, you agree to Educative's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy