FaaS (Function-as-a-Service) is a category of cloud computing services. It’s a fairly new development that originated from PaaS. FaaS is a cloud computing model that abstracts server management and low-level infrastructure decisions away from developers, but takes it much further than PaaS. FaaS is a distinct technology. All allocation of resources is managed by the platform, allowing applications to be developed without any thought of implementation, load balancing, or scaling. It allows developers to execute small snippets of code in response to events without having to build complex infrastructure.
FaaS is often known as serverless. FaaS has been gaining popularity. The main advantage of this technology is the ability to create and run applications without the need for infrastructure management. In other words, when using a serverless architecture, developers no longer need to allocate resources, scale and maintain servers to run applications, or manage databases and storage systems.
With serverless you focus on your code and the platform takes care of the rest. This reduces the time “from idea to production” significantly. In addition, serverless systems should be easier to design and implement as complex issues like scaling, high availability, and security are pushed to the serverless platform. Large scale vendors take on the tougher issues and economies of scale results in a costs savings. This allows you to just focus on your code and what it needs to do. And the cost of serverless applications, over the long haul, should be cheaper as you pay for fewer resources, and not for idle time.
There’s a growing number of open source solutions. Our verdict is captured in the ratings chart below. Only free and open source software is eligible for inclusion.
Click the links in the table below to learn more about each application.
| FaaS | |
|---|---|
| Serverless | Simple way to build serverless applications |
| OpenFaaS | Serverless Functions Made Simple |
| Fission | Fast and Simple Serverless Functions for Kubernetes |
| OpenWhisk | Serverless Functions Platform for Building Cloud Applications |
| Knative | Kubernetes-based, scale-to-zero, request-driven compute |
| Nuclio | Serverless for Real-Time Events and Data Processing |
| Kubeless | Kubernetes Native Serverless Framework |
| Fn | Event-driven Functions-as-a-Service (FaaS) compute platform |
This article has been revamped in line with our recent announcement.
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