Serverless is a cloud deployment model where the cloud provider manages the server infrastructure for you.
You still run code on servers, but you do not usually manage the servers directly.
Common examples
- AWS Lambda
- OpenFaaS
- Managed queues like SQS
- Event-driven integrations between services
Why people use it
Serverless is useful when you want:
- Automatic scaling
- Pay-per-use execution
- Less infrastructure management
- Event-driven workflows
Tradeoffs
Serverless can reduce operational work, but it can also introduce cold starts, more vendor coupling, and limits around execution time or runtime behavior.
Compare
Serverless is a deployment model, not a single product.
- AWS Lambda is a common function-as-a-service example
- OpenFaaS is a self-hosted function-as-a-service platform
- SQS is often used as a trigger or buffer in serverless systems