What are the use cases for serverless architectures and what kinds of architectures and patterns are useful? We’re often asked these questions and queried about use cases as people learn about a serverless approach to designing systems. We find that it’s helpful to look at how others have applied this technology and what kinds of use cases, designs, and architectures they’ve produced.
This chapter gives you a solid introduction to where serverless architectures are a good fit and how to think about the design of serverless systems. The rest of the book focuses on real-world use cases and goes deep into a number of serverless architectures that we’ve found particularly fascinating.
Serverless technologies and architectures can be used to build entire systems, create isolated components, or implement specific granular tasks. The scope for use of serverless design is broad, and one of its advantages is that it’s possible to use it for small as well as large tasks alike. We’ve designed serverless systems that power web and mobile applications for tens of thousands of users, and we’ve built simple systems to solve specific minute problems.