What is the difference between Serverless and Kubernetes

Serverless is a cloud computing execution model where the cloud provider dynamically manages the allocation and provisioning of servers.
A serverless application runs in stateless compute containers that are event-triggered, ephemeral (may last for one invocation), and fully managed by the cloud provider.
Pricing is based on the number of executions rather than pre-purchased compute capacity. This is the ideal framework for your next project.

Making the software developer’s life easier is now a multibillion-dollar industry, with Kubernetes at the head and serverless options from AWS and the like close behind.
It all boils down to different approaches toward a common goal in the end, which is making sure developers can concentrate on their code and not have to bother about infrastructure.

Kubernetes does this by packaging everything neatly into self-sufficient containers that can be run anywhere, so developers don’t have to worry about compatibility between different software environments.
It does, however, involve a lot of heavy lifting with regards to infrastructure setup and configurations,
so you need to know about containers and Kubernetes and Docker and how it all works before getting started.

Storage, security and networking issues remain top concerns for those deploying their architectures via Kubernetes.
This is because there are significant hurdles in adopting a fully container-based architecture, even one orchestrated by Kubernetes.

So while Kubernetes is a technology developed to provide a “serverless-experience” of running containers, at ground level, Kubernetes architecture is deeply infrastructure aware.
This is because at the root of Kubernetes infrastructure is the assumption that containers in Kubernetes are living on machines that are visible to Kubernetes,
so abstracting away all the infrastructure is still a pipe dream to say the least.

Focus on your application, not the infrastructure

Serverless, on the other hand, actually abstracts away the infrastructure and requires absolutely no heavy lifting and your instances are run on demand, as and when required, automatically.
Scaling is instantaneous and you don’t have to configure or provision anything at all, just focus on your application and deploy at will.
Just don’t expect to get the granular control over resources that Kubernetes gives you — it isn’t going to happen any time soon.

This is because serverless has its limitations too and doesn’t come anywhere near the functionality and control that Kubernetes offers, simply because all that is controlled by your cloud vendor.
It also has restrictions on run time and file size so is quite impractical for large data sets like online games and applications, latency is also an issue.

With a serverless architecture, you focus purely on the individual functions in your application code.
Services such as AWS Lambda and Microsoft Azure Functions take care of all the physical hardware, virtual machine operating system, and web server software management. You only need to worry about your code.

The biggest benefit by far is that you only need to worry about your code and nothing else.
The low maintenance is a result of not having any servers to manage.
You don’t need to actively ensure that your server is running properly, or that you have the right security updates on it. You deal with your own application code and nothing else.

Serverless VS. Kubernetes : Who Wins?

Serverless architectures, at the moment, are compared to Kubernetes simply because they allow for scaling without complexities.
That’s where the similarities end, however, and containers and serverless are two different games altogether. As things stand today,
a choice between Kubernetes and serverless options doesn’t really make sense, for a number of reasons.

Now with regard to successfully deploying software, choosing between the two greatly depends on what needs to be accomplished.
To quickly recap the benefits of each, serverless is a great option if, for instance, you’re running a brand-new application and are starting small.
Since you only pay for the time during which the server is executing your action, you save a lot of money.

A mentioned before, serverless scales up and down automatically based on demand, so you don’t have to have servers running as a backup all the time in case of a spike in usage.
Additionally, since all the hardware and plumbing is essentially hidden, you don’t need to have any experience with infrastructure to be able to code and deploy software, making it easier to hire people to work for you.

This is because while both may have the same ultimate goal, both are at very different stages of their “life-cycle” right now and are still being developed in terms of production readiness.









Tags: Dockers Kubernetes Serverless Cloud