Monkton Starter Guide: Functions as a Service
Life in the FaaS Lane: Accelerate Change and Increase Mission Readiness
Defining Function as a Service
Function-as-a-Service, or FaaS, is a type of Cloud Computing service that gives customers a way to develop, run, and manage application functionalities without maintaining the complex compute infrastructure that comes with building and launching applications.
Previously, maintaining a software application on the internet required managing and provisioning a server of an operating system and web server host. With FaaS, the physical hardware, virtual machine operating system, and web server software management are all handled automatically by the cloud service provider. This allows developers and customers to focus on solving business problems rather than developing elaborate infrastructures. Employing repeatable architecture enables the rapid development of solutions that can easily migrate to the Edge.
FaaS vs. Serverless
Sometimes confused with “Serverless,” building an application following a FaaS model achieves a Serverless architecture. Serverless Computing is a Cloud Computing model in which the cloud provider allocates machine resources on demand, taking care of servers on behalf of customers. In essence, FaaS is a subset of Serverless technology that allows developers to build and run applications without having to manage cloud infrastructure.
The focus of Serverless lies in any service category where the process of managing, configuring, and building servers is invisible to the end user—meaning they don’t have to worry about storage, databases, messaging, and API gateways.
As one of the key components in Serverless architectures, FaaS focuses on the event-driven computation where application code only runs in response to requests or events. Resources are automatically applied to the functions that need them, enabling efficient resource utilization. That means you only pay for the resources you use, making FaaS cost-effective. This is especially true for sporadic workloads or event-driven batch-processing scenarios.
Life in the FaaS Lane
FaaS is relatively new. It was first introduced in 2010, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Lambda as the first FaaS offering by a large public cloud vendor.
What makes FaaS so attractive is its event-driven computing, meaning the system sends event messages to notify other systems of a change in its domain. If there is no event-driven request, the server shuts down, freeing up resources for other requests. Once deployed, FaaS responds to demand and automatically scales up and down as needed. Usually, when a Serverless function is sitting idle, it doesn’t cost anything, ultimately saving money. In pre-FaaS architectures, servers ran continuously, wasting millions of dollars in unused resources.
When considering cloud migration, FaaS is an efficient, cost-saving tool that effectively accelerates transformation. Some benefits include:
Function-Centricity: Focus on executing individual functions or microservices (a piece of code that handles a few small tasks), in response to specific events or requests. It’s designed to execute code in a Serverless environment, abstracting away the infrastructure management. Agencies can then deploy and execute discrete functions without needing to manage the underlying servers or infrastructure.
Quick Iteration and Experimentation: FaaS platforms offer a lightweight and agile environment for rapid prototyping, experimentation, and iterative development. Government agencies can quickly deploy and test new functions or features without the need for complex infrastructure setup. FaaS's fast deployment and execution also allow agencies to gather feedback, iterate on their ideas, and accelerate modernization.
Granular Scaling and Cost Efficiency: Automatically scale functions based on incoming requests. FaaS allocates resources precisely to the functions that need them, enabling efficient resource utilization. You only pay for the resources used by each function, making FaaS incredibly cost-effective, especially for sporadic workloads. FaaS is also particularly suitable for event-driven or batch-processing scenarios.
Simplified Development: Simplify the development process by streamlining complex elements within the infrastructure and focus on the code execution. This means the developers can focus on writing the business logic for individual functions without worrying about complex infrastructure provisioning, scalability, or deployment details. This streamlined development process allows government agencies to build and deploy functions more quickly, promoting faster modernization.
FaaS, PaaS, and IaaS
Within Cloud Computing, it’s crucial to differentiate between traditional infrastructure deployment, known as Infrastructure as a Service (“IaaS”), and the more specialized services of Function as a Service (“FaaS”) and Platform as a Service (“PaaS”). Unlike IaaS, FaaS and PaaS offer distinct approaches to cloud infrastructure provisioning. While IaaS focuses on providing fundamental computing resources like storage, networking, servers, and virtualization, FaaS and PaaS serve specific purposes in delivering cloud services.
FaaS brings a unique paradigm to Cloud Computing by allowing developers to execute individual functions or code segments without the need to manage traditional infrastructure elements.
PaaS, on the other hand, offers a more comprehensive platform for application development and deployment. It provides developers with ready-to-use frameworks, middleware, development tools, and deployment environments, freeing them from the complexities of managing the underlying infrastructure. PaaS abstracts away the infrastructure components and streamlines the development process, facilitating rapid application deployment, efficient resource allocation, and simplified scalability. This allows developers to focus on crafting robust and modern applications while relying on the platform to handle the infrastructure-related aspects.
Previously, organizations had to manage patches and servers while ensuring that infrastructure hadn’t been compromised. With FaaS and PaaS, most of this work is offloaded to the cloud service provider. By leveraging PaaS and FaaS solutions, problems can be solved in months—not years—in a highly scalable, inexpensive, easily maintainable way.
Move Faster in the Serverless Ecosystem
PaaS provides a platform for building complete applications, offering flexibility, customization, and support for full-stack development. FaaS, on the other hand, focuses on executing individual functions in a Serverless environment, providing granular scaling, cost efficiency, and rapid development for event-driven or batch processing. The choice between PaaS and FaaS depends on the specific needs, requirements, and the nature of the application or service developed.
FaaS and PaaS are subsets of Serverless Computing. Because FaaS is the front runner of the Serverless ecosystem, it’s worth surveying how FaaS differs from various computing models and the level of abstraction between the user and the infrastructure.
Below are some key benefits to help navigate the Serverless ecosystem:
Application-focused development: PaaS focuses on providing a platform for developing, deploying, and managing complete applications. It offers a comprehensive development environment with pre-configured infrastructure components, runtime environments, and development tools.
Growth-centric mindset: Entire applications can be built and deployed on a PaaS platform, leveraging its features for scalability, collaboration, and integration.
Faster provisioning time: All cloud services provision within milliseconds, compared to minutes and hours with traditional models.
DevOps + continuous deployment: PaaS platforms support DevOps practices, such as continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD).
Enhanced agility: CI/CD enables the adoption of agile development methodologies, automates the build and deployment processes, and shortens the time between code changes and application updates. By streamlining the development and deployment pipeline, PaaS enhances agility and accelerates modernization.
Elastic scaling: Each action is always instantly and inherently scaled, compared to other models which offer automatic—but slow—scaling requiring careful tuning of auto-scaling rules.
Simplified maintenance: Most all maintenance is managed by the FaaS provider. This is also true for PaaS.
Collaboration + integration: All cloud platforms often provide collaboration and integration features that facilitate teamwork and interoperability, which supports seamless integration with existing systems, databases, and APIs. This enables agencies to leverage their existing investments while developing modern solutions.
Billing + charging: This action occurs in blocks of 100 milliseconds, compared to hourly (and sometimes by-the-minute) operations of other models.
FaaS Track: Change
Using FaaS and PaaS platforms in government and industry partnerships provides a means to efficiently tackle data challenges, streamline processes, improve data availability and security, and foster collaboration among different departments. These platforms provide enhanced provisioning time and agility, enabling organizations to implement incremental changes without significant risk. Leveraging DevSecOps and continuous deployment ensures that developers can continuously build, test, and maintain mission-ready solutions, further enhancing efficiency and effectiveness.
The integration of FaaS, along with other cloud services such as PaaS, delivers rapid problem-solving capabilities while ensuring scalability, cost-effectiveness, and ease of maintenance. These platforms empower organizations to address challenges swiftly by leveraging their highly scalable and flexible nature. Additionally, they offer cost advantages, allowing government agencies and industry partners to optimize resource allocation and achieve efficient utilization.
The benefits of adopting FaaS and PaaS extend beyond efficiency gains. These platforms foster collaboration among different departments and stakeholders, enabling seamless data sharing and promoting a cohesive approach to complex challenges.
By harnessing the power of FaaS and PaaS, government agencies and industry partners can achieve faster and more effective problem resolution while maintaining the security and integrity of their data. Furthermore, these solutions provide the flexibility and adaptability required to meet evolving mission needs, ensuring that organizations can keep pace with technological advancements and stay ahead in an ever-changing landscape.
