Architecture Guide
Serverless Architecture: When It Works (And When It Doesn't)
Serverless (Lambda, Cloud Functions) — no server management, pay per execution. Great for some workloads, wrong for others. Here's when it works and when it doesn't.
Quick Answer
Works: Event-driven (webhooks, file processing), sporadic traffic, background jobs. Doesn't work: Long-running, stateful, cold-start sensitive, high consistent traffic.
Table of Contents
Pros
- No server management
- Pay per execution — cheap for sporadic
- Auto-scale
- Event-driven — webhooks, S3, queues
Cons
- Cold starts — latency spike on first request
- Execution time limits (15 min AWS)
- Vendor lock-in
- Debugging distributed is harder
When to Use
Webhooks, file processing, scheduled jobs, API with sporadic traffic. Avoid for: main API with consistent traffic (cold starts hurt), long-running, stateful.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can we mix serverless and traditional?
Yes. API on containers, background jobs on Lambda. Hybrid is common.
Explore Further
Architecture Decision?
We'll recommend serverless vs traditional based on your needs.
Book Consultation