Serverless Architecture vs. Monolithic Architecture: What’s the Difference?
There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the state and future of serverless computing, mainly sparked by one of the AWS employees who posted a thread on X.com. Here are my thoughts on this matter:
The decline in Serverless Production and Hype
Yes, there’s indeed been a decline in the production focus around serverless, which began almost a decade ago. AWS, for example, has wrapped serverless offerings along with containers under a modernization umbrella rather than concentrating on serverless alone. The structure of the serverless development team at AWS has changed, and we see fewer conferences dedicated solely to serverless than we did a couple of years ago.
Serverless as a Mainstream Technology
However, this shift is typical for many technologies. We no longer discuss basic infrastructure setups because they have become mainstream and widely understood. Similarly, serverless has reached a point where it is a recognized and often-used technology. The skill set for serverless is now standard, and the technology itself has been democratized.
Adoption in Enterprises and SMEs
On the bright side, many enterprises and SMEs actively adopt serverless technologies. Significant companies are integrating serverless components like AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB into their systems. Job descriptions frequently include serverless skills, even if they mention Kubernetes and containers. Serverless is often coupled with other modern technologies to form comprehensive solutions.
Emerging Serverless Products
Additionally, there’s a rise in new companies and products positioning themselves as serverless. We see serverless offerings from various database providers (e.g., Pinecone, NeonDB, SurrealDB), streaming services (e.g., Redpanda), and even traditionally server-based services like Elasticache. New innovations like “durable lambdas” that run indefinitely without timeouts are also being discussed.
Future Outlook
While the hype around serverless might be declining, the adoption and innovation in this space suggest it is still alive. Enterprises are modernizing with serverless, and startups are leveraging it to build scalable solutions. This phase might be part of a technology’s natural lifecycle, where it becomes integrated into the mainstream rather than being a buzzword. Only time will tell if serverless will continue to evolve or be overshadowed by the next big thing.
As the CEO of AntStack, serverless plays a significant role in enterprise modernization and startup innovation. It’s an exciting time, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this technology continues to shape the future of computing.
