The server is a key component of enterprise computing, providing the functional compute resources required to support software applications. Historically, the server was so fundamentally important that it – along with the processor, or processor core – was also a definitional unit by which software was measured, priced and sold. That changed with the advent of cloud-based service delivery and consumption models.
Functionally, servers remain critical to cloud computing, providing the physical or virtual compute resources for software applications. However, in environments where software is consumed as a service without being installed or configured by the user, and resources automatically scale up and down in response to changing requirements, the server is an increasingly abstract concept. Server functionality is still there, executing the code, but the concept of the server as a measurable unit of computing has been substantially diminished. The services by which the user interacts with the software are increasingly serverless, as far as the user is concerned.
Serverless computing was initially associated with function-as-a-service, but has been extended by the launch of serverless databases. There are now examples of serverless databases in all data platform categories, including operational data platforms that are both relational and NoSQL, and analytic data platforms, which are primarily data warehouses, but also serverless query engines with which to analyze data in a data lake. Serverless databases are an increasingly attractive option for supporting the agility required by data-driven organizations. However, serverless is not the best fit for every application or workload, and there are some potential disadvantages that need to be weighed alongside the conceivable benefits when considering the suitability of serverless database offerings.
In a serverless environment, the service provider is responsible for configuring and managing available resources, which, from the user’s perspective, “automagically” scale in response to evolving performance and capacity requirements. As such, serverless databases provide several potential administrative benefits over more traditional database products that users need to install, configure and manage on physical or virtual compute resources. The biggest advantage could be time savings. Since the service provider is responsible for configuring and managing available resources, this reduces the time spent by organizations on capacity planning as well as installing, configuring and managing the infrastructure. I assert that through 2025, 7 in ten organizations will migrate on-premises workloads to cloud data platforms, shifting focus to solving business needs rather than maintaining systems. Serverless computing also removes requirements for the user to manage security, patches and bug fixing as well as the complexity of availability, backup and recovery. This potentially enables organizations to reduce the number of database administrators or focus developers on higher-value differentiating features such as applications and user experience.
