Function as a Service (FaaS), most commonly known as serverless architecture, is a concept of cloud computing where cloud user can work on code and run it on a server within the cloud without worrying about this server.
This server would be created on demand in an architecture that would be similar to microservices.
This concept has similarities with platform as a service (PaaS), but the main difference is that PaaS usually sets a complete platform where some resources are unused while FaaS only uses the resources required for the functions being run and are freed when the operation is completed.
FaaS Providers
Some examples of function as a service (FaaS) are:
- AWS Lambda
- Zappa
- Apex
- Azure Functions
- Google Cloud Functions
- Kubeless
AWS Lambda
AWS Lambda is the cloud native serverless solution for AWS.
Some serverless frameworks for AWS Lambda are:
- Zappa
- Apex
Zappa
Zappa is a serverless framework for deploying Python applications (particularly Flask/Django) to AWS Lambda.
Apex
Apex is a serverless framework that helps developers deploy AWS Lambda functions without requiring AWS-specific boilerplate.
It supports writing functions in languages that AWS Lambda doesn’t natively support (like Go) by using a Node.js wrapper. It also provides features like environment variable management, deployments, and logging. Website: https://github.com/apex/apex
Azure Functions
Azure Functions is the cloud native serverless solution for Azure.
Google Cloud Functions
Google Cloud Functions is the cloud native serverless solution for GCP.
Kubeless
Kubeless is a Kubernetes-native serverless framework, meaning it allows running functions on Kubernetes without needing external FaaS providers.
It leverages Kubernetes resources (CRDs, controllers) to manage function execution.
Functions can be written in Python, Node.js, Ruby, and other languages. It provides an alternative to solutions like OpenFaaS or Knative for running serverless workloads in Kubernetes. Website: https://kubeless.io/
OpenFaaS
OpenFaaS
Knative
Knative