Part 1. History of Serverless Cloud Computing
15.09.2022
The primary concept behind cloud computing is the delivery of extremely scalable IT-related facilities to multiple customers using the Internet.
Customers can choose between different cloud models depending on their own needs. This selection of possible services is also referred to as XaaS. X represents different services such as software, infrastructure, platform, data, etc.
The most common are SaaS, PaaS, IaaS and, with increasing importance, FaaS. In terms of deployment models, cloud computing can be further subdivided into public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and community cloud.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Functionality
The term SaaS means software that is provided via the cloud and can be accessed as part of a subscription.
The users use the software as needed on demand directly via the network, but only within the framework provided by the software provider. Examples of SaaS solutions include Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Google Docs.
Pricing Models
In the SaaS model, the subscription model is the silver bullet. The customer pays a monthly fixed amount for the selected parameters of the offer. This depends, for example, on the number of active accounts or the support level.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Functionality
The basis for PaaS is a collection of runtime environments such as software and software development tools that are made available on the provider\'s server for direct use. It works in the background and provides the necessary runtime environments, software frameworks and component libraries. The payment model is per use. This means that a micro fee is charged with each access to these resources made available by PaaS. This flexible use of the preconfigured IT resources enables software developers, testers and administrators to work on their own software without complex configuration of the runtime environment. Examples include Amazon Beanstalk, Heroku, Rollbase, jelastic.com, force.com, Google App Engine (GAE) and Microsoft Azure.
Pricing Models
In most cases, the PaaS providers offer either monthly fixed prices based on certain preconfigured packages or usage-based billing, as is the case with AWS. The price of AWS Beanstalk is influenced by the following factors, for example (exact prices can be checked with the AWS pricing calculator to be appreciated):
- Number of deployed EC2 instances
- Using Elastic Load Balancing
- Traffic to the provisioned instances
Function as a Service (FaaS)
Functionality
Function as a Service is an example of a serverless cloud computing offering in which the provider provides the user with individual functions that are executed and billed to the second. The user does not interact directly with the infrastructure - this is provided and managed by the provider. The user can write the function in such a way that it performs a specific task and returns a result. This is then executed in the environment provided and preconfigured by the provider and thus hides the server complexity from the user.