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Are you looking for a powerful, reliable, and cost-effective solution for your cloud computing needs? If so, serverless architecture could be the answer. As more businesses move their data workloads to the cloud, it’s becoming increasingly important for them to consider how different architectures can help optimise performance at minimal expense. Serverless systems provide an alternative set of benefits specifically tailored around automating scalability and reducing operational costs—all without compromising on quality or performance. Based on a survey by IBM, 85% of the organisations surveyed strongly agreed with the effort and expense required to go serverless. In this blog, we’ll take a look at exactly what those benefits are and why they make serverless architecture such an attractive choice when it comes to cloud computing solutions.
…but what is Traditional Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing has been a big advancement in the tech world, setting up a virtual environment that allows for cloud-based services such as data storage, collaboration tools, and analytics. This technology enables organisations to access company, client, or third-party applications and software on demand, with reduced costs that would otherwise have been spent on physical hardware and infrastructure for storage. With cloud computing, businesses gain improved mobility, scalability, and accessibility of essential resources to increase productivity. Popular services like iCloud and Dropbox are examples of trusted cloud computing platforms customers love using for their daily needs. Gone are the days when you would need to buy expandable storage every other month to store your family pictures - you can now upload them to the cloud and access them from anywhere, anytime. Similarly, businesses are now saving tremendous amounts in hardware by investing in cloud computing, allowing them to scale and expand their operations without worrying about hardware limitations or maintenance costs.
What is Serverless Architecture?
Serverless Architecture has the potential to greatly benefit e-commerce businesses, both product and service-based. By breaking down complex tasks into smaller functions, businesses can deploy and execute their applications on a cloud provider without having to worry about maintaining a server infrastructure. This approach can help businesses to scale their applications on-demand and quickly respond to changing customer needs. No more site crashes during your #BlackFriday or #CyberMonday sale! Additionally, the automatic scaling of resources means that e-commerce businesses only pay for what they use, helping to reduce costs and optimise resource utilisation. By leveraging serverless architecture, businesses can focus on enhancing the customer experience rather than spending time on infrastructure management and maintenance activities.
Serverless VS Traditional Architecture
#1 Cost and Maintenance
In recent years, the rise of serverless computing has posed a challenge to traditional cloud computing. While both approaches offer significant benefits to businesses, serverless computing takes the cost savings and reduced maintenance offered by cloud computing to a whole new level. Serverless computing eliminates the need for businesses to manage servers, as the cloud provider handles all of the underlying infrastructure. This means that businesses no longer have to worry about server maintenance, which can be a time-consuming and expensive process. However, it's worth noting that traditional cloud computing still has benefits, especially for businesses requiring more control over their infrastructure, which can be essential for certain workloads. Ultimately, businesses need to evaluate their growing needs and choose the approach that best suits them.
#2 Scalability and Performance
Scalability is a key factor when it comes to Cloud Computing, as it allows businesses to quickly adjust their resources to accommodate changing demands. However, organisations are now turning to serverless computing to take scalability to the next level. With serverless computing, businesses can easily scale their resources in response to demand without worrying about managing physical servers or configuring server-level customisations. The shift towards serverless computing allows companies to focus solely on their application instructions and leave the underlying infrastructure to their cloud provider. This not only offers increased scalability but also improved performance and flexibility compared to traditional Cloud Computing. Serverless computing is also typically pay-as-you-go, allowing organisations to only pay for the resources they use, further enhancing their scalability and cost-effectiveness. As a result, serverless computing has become a popular choice for organisations looking to maximise their scalability and improve their overall performance.
#3 Security and Reliability
While Cloud Computing offers numerous benefits, security and reliability are critical concerns for businesses. In contrast, serverless computing takes care of many security and reliability concerns, allowing organisations to focus solely on their application code. Serverless computing allows cloud providers to manage many security-related tasks, such as updating servers and patching vulnerabilities. A testament to security is that the military and other government agencies also use AWS to go serverless. Additionally, with serverless computing, businesses can rely on their cloud provider to ensure their applications are running correctly, eliminating many potential reliability issues. This not only provides businesses with greater peace of mind but also frees up time and resources that can be dedicated to other critical areas of their operations.
Guzman y Gomez - Breaking Records by Going Serverless
One great example of cloud engineering expertise is Bilue’s work with Guzman y Gomez (GyG), a fast-food restaurant chain with over 150 stores across Australia, Singapore, Japan, and the United States. GyG approached us to help build their serverless architecture, enabling them to grow effectively at scale. We were able to leverage a blend of off-the-shelf technologies and custom-built solutions integrated into an API-first approach to provide GyG with a robust, scalable ordering solution. This solution allowed GyG to expand into new, international markets and offer new products quickly and easily via a comprehensive menu generation system that affords unparalleled flexibility in terms of product inventory, bundling, and customisation.
Bilue's cloud engineering expertise also enabled GyG to switch off legacy servers, resulting in cost savings for the company. We implemented AWS CloudWatch and AWS CloudTrail to oversee the platform, relying on their ability to provide logs at a very granular level. On the back of these logs, various business and infrastructure dashboards with associated alerts were created, aiding the Operations team in their day-to-day tasks of maintaining the platform. Ultimately, Bilue's cloud engineering work with GyG put a digital delivery framework in place that ensured the engineering teams could balance quality, scalability, and cost on a daily basis.
In fact, the results speak for themselves! In 2023, GyG broke sales records, with sales hitting an all-time high on their app/web channels. This is a clear indication that serverless technology is the way to go for businesses looking to take their digital game to the next level.
Is it time to upgrade to Serverless?
Cloud Computing has been a game-changer for businesses, providing them with modern solutions for data storage, computation, and analysis. However, the future of Cloud Computing lies in serverless applications. Serverless architecture offers businesses increased scalability, improved security, and cost savings, making it an attractive option for companies looking to stay ahead of the curve. With serverless functions, businesses can scale their applications quickly and efficiently without worrying about managing server resources. This reduces costs, saves time, and streamlines the development process. At this point, it's time for businesses to upgrade to serverless architecture to take advantage of its benefits.
