Disadvantages of Serverless Architecture

Serverless Architecture

Currently, the hype is all about serverless architecture.

There are several talks about the advantages of serverless architecture over client-based computing, and the excitement does not seem to die easily.

With the numerous benefits offered by the serverless architecture, several materials have been published related to it.

While many benefits are offered by the serverless architecture, it does not mean it’s all white and stain-free.

There are disadvantages to this architecture which is considered to be an innovative technology.

Servers and their Functions

Since most of the servers here are integrated and do not have a central server, it is difficult to port this architecture.

As of now, many services are working on an integrated basis as one all-purpose service is better to handle the functions effectively.

In the case of serverless architecture, integration becomes difficult.

While the function-as-a-service factor works well in the case of cloud servers, it will not apply properly in terms of portability when the integration of the primary services is applied.

Since most of the offering that comes with the serverless architecture is restricted to the owner of the architecture, it does not allow all the special features to be ported elsewhere.

Most of the structures and the nesting will still lie with the vendor and can not be transported.

The specific features will lie with the cloud providers.

While here the function-as-a-service comes in as an advantage, it will still not provide consistency and it will also restrict the choices in terms of platforms.

The applications cannot be transported without the rewriting of all the functions which is not ready for production.

This will lead to an increase in the runtime.

This lack of flexibility offers limited transfer among functions when compared to the server-based applications which offer way higher flexibility.

Issues with troubleshooting

While the serverless application continues to grow due to its popularity, the complications continue to grow along with it.

This is because of the way it’s designed to function.

In the case of serverless architecture, the applications are broken down into smaller modules.

This brings in new complications as the smaller modules grow large in number and become difficult to monitor or trace back.

The process of finding out the entire chain of the module right from the origin to the destination will be critical and will require specific tools.

In case an issue happens here the process of reversing it will require the use of a log trace.

The usual debugger will not work here, which leads to complications in the debugging too.

The problem extends to the testing phase too. In the process of local testing, the serverless limitations have to be replicated locally.

This will be difficult when there is a need for the parallel serverless stack to be moved to a separate account.

The Limitations in the technology

While some limitations involving the serverless architecture make it better in terms of design, it does come with a lot of boundaries.

One such issue happens with the execution time which gets prolonged to even fifteen minutes at times.

While there is no support for the stateful applications, there is no local storage also.

This leads to the limitation in the local testing options.

Additionally, it makes the tools limited to management and development and even at times for deployment.

Since the local limitations are in place, it applies a certain limit for the security factor as the security for portable features is not present.

Apart from this the invocation payload size also comes with the issue of limits.

Shifting Issues

While it is easy to say to shift to the new technology, it is not easy in the real-life scenario.

There are many costs and time involved in the process of shifting to serverless architecture.

In many companies, the approval of the shift will alone take a huge amount of time after crossing various levels of authority.

The present infrastructure will have to be upgraded or changed to support the new architecture.

The people in the organization should be willing for this as it requires the corresponding mindset.

While there is plenty of training given for this it still does not limit the money and time which is a cost in the process.