I read Datadog’s “State of Serverless Report 2023” so you don’t have to, and compiled the key takeaways in a brief, and bite sized format. Scroll away!
1- On Serverless Adoption
First, we tip our hats to major cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure as serverless adoption has seen significant growth. If serverless was a romantic comedy, these three would be the lead actors.
Now, it definitely seems like AWS may have won the popularity contest, but let’s not count Azure and Google Cloud out of the game yet. These underdogs showed impressive grow`th rates of 6% and 7% respectively. Much like a wise old turtle, they are slow but steady.
2- managed container-based serverless adoption
The report then throws light on the rising popularity of fully managed, container-based serverless computation. And oh boy, Google Cloud is slaying! 😎
GCP’s Cloud Run, armed with handy container images, is using Max Verstappen-level drive to hit the greens of 66% of organizations. Meanwhile, AWS and Azure are chasing closely with their own container offerings.
3- Frontend development is leading the way
Frontend development and CDN platforms such as Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, and Fastly are like the new indie band that’s suddenly topping the charts and everyone wants a piece of their magic.
The cherry on top is that these platforms offer tightly integrated serverless capabilities, making it tempting for developers to whip up something amazing faster than you can say “latency.” In fact, 7% of organizations that are using serverless in major clouds have also been spotted at these cool kids’ gig.
So I’ll be keeping an eye on this emerging trend as they shake up the serverless scene, giving traditional cloud players like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure a run for their money.
4- Node.js and Python remain dominant
Speaking of languages, Node.js and Python continue to rule the roost among AWS Lambda developers, much to the chagrin of Java, Go, and Rust… And just when PHP thought it could sneak in, serverless containers was having none of it. That said, custom runtimes are seeing significant growth for the time being and might even surpass Java shortly
5- ☕️ Cold times for Java
Diving into performance, Java must have quite strong coffee because on AWS Lambda, it’s taking two (yes, two!) times as long as Python or Node.js for cold starts. This could explain its affinity towards higher memory allocations. Meanwhile, AWS is playing its part to keep Java warm with tools to combat cold starts.
6- Lambda use on ARM has doubled
The report also reveals some “ARM wrestling” going on, as the use of AWS Lambda on ARM-processors has doubled over the past year.
While it’s appetizing to jump on the ARM bandwagon right away for performance and cost benefits, early adopters should beware of limitations in regional and runtime availability
7- Terraform vs Serverless Framework
In the realm of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Terraform has become increasingly popular among larger organizations, while the Serverless Framework has been embraced by smaller teams due to its ease of use and scalability.
This is very expected. I have been, myself, a big – unapologetic – fan of Serverless Framework to get things started but came to realize its limitation as projects grow and get passed around teams
8- Organizations run Lambdas on VPCs
Finally, a majority of organizations prefer to keep their AWS Lambda functions cozy within Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs), thus opening up a debate on the shared responsibility model and weighing up trade-offs.
From the report: “There are risks and tradeoffs to consider when connecting Lambda functions to your account’s VPC. By not using the default AWS-monitored and secured VPC, your organization may be taking on a greater footprint of responsibility within the shared
responsibility model. Additionally, while AWS has made significant improvements to ENI
connection performance in recent years, there is still an additional cold start cost to VPCs.“
That’s enough rambling for today.
Stay nimble. Stay hungry. And remember: The cloud is the limit!
Serverlessly yours,
– iLyas
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