Google Cloud Functions Alternatives

Understanding the Concept of Serverless

The solutions featured here all work on the same premise. They are all based in the cloud, without servers. Here’s an explanation of the terminology you’ll come across when seeing these services described.

• Functions: A function is a simple code snippet that serves just one purpose. Functions get associated with events.
• Events: A service will set off an event when something has changed states.
• Triggers: Events will happen regardless of whether developers define functions and triggers. But the trigger is what connects the function to the event.

This brings us to the five principles that should guide any developer who’s adopting a serverless environment.

1. Execute Code on Demand Using a Compute Service

Regardless of the type of serverless environment you choose, all of them serve the same purpose: executing code. With a cloud environment, you will not have to run your own virtual machines (VMs), servers, or containers. Everything stays in the cloud.

In the case of open source architecture, you can run the compute service in your public, private, or hybrid cloud environment. Alternatively, you can pay a vendor monthly and run your cloud environment as a FaaS (function as a service), which means focusing solely on custom code. The vendor handles the cloud and coding environment for you.

2. Write Stateless Functions That Serve a Single Purpose

The single responsibility principle (SRP) should guide your work in a serverless environment. You should focus on writing functions, or code snippets, that serve just one purpose. That’s because functions are easier to create. This explains the shift to function-based thinking, as it allows for much easier testing and debugging.

Compared to the development of single functions to the traditional approach of trying to develop an entire app or container all at once, it is an easier process. The focus on microservices allows for greater agility. This granular workflow puts your focus on specific actions, enabling developers to test and launch sooner. In turn, this approach increases efficiency.

3. Design Pipelines Driven by Events

In these environments, developers build pipelines driven by events, allowing even the most complex computing tasks to run easily. The main purpose of a serverless environment is to allow you to create code that connects various services. These pipelines allow you to do just that, giving you the capacity to make different services interact to give you the results you want.

With an event-driven pipeline that’s set up to be push-based, there should be minimal (if any) human intervention. The process should be as hands free as possible. This makes for less involvement on behalf of the users. So, it streamlines the workflow.

4. Create a Powerful Front End Interface

If you’re creating an entire system that consists of both a back and front end, and plan on hosting it in a serverless environment, then this principle is also important. On the other hand, if you find yourself building a pipeline meant to transform a file or some other type of system, you might not need to worry about a front end.

However, in situations where a front-end interface is applicable, the idea is to make it as smart as possible. This requires developers to allocate as much logic as they can to the front-end interface. In other words, this front end should interact directly with services. In turn, this will work to decrease how many serverless functions you need to run in the environment.

Obviously, there will always be situations where you cannot or should not set up direct communication with services. Security and privacy are some major examples of why that might be the case. In those situations, it’s best to use the serverless functions for these particular actions. With that said, when you can put something on the front-end, you should definitely opt to.

5. Use Third-Party Applications and Services

The beauty of a serverless environment is that you can connect a variety of third-party applications and services to reduce how much custom code you have to create. Obviously, this saves developers a great deal of time. By connecting other services, you’re able to leverage the code they’ve already created and use it for certain elements of your application.

Of course, when using third-party apps, always run tests and consider the disadvantages of doing so. Typically, using a third-party app means giving up control to make things faster. There is always a trade-off in some form. And this may prove worth it in many situations, but the goal is to make the right decision to best suit your serverless environment.