What is the difference between serverless and containerization?

Serverless refers to a cloud model where you run code without managing the underlying servers. Containerization refers to packaging an application into containers that you deploy on servers or clusters. The difference lies in management: with serverless, you deploy functions and the platform auto-scales and operates them; with containers, you have more control and must manage the container runtime environment yourself.

When should I use serverless instead of containers?

Use serverless when speed of development and minimal ops overhead are top priorities, and when your workload fits certain patterns. Serverless is great for event-driven tasks, APIs with unpredictable load, or services that don’t need to run 24/7. It’s also a good choice if you want to avoid provisioning and managing servers entirely.

Are containers or serverless better for scalability?

Both can achieve massive scalability, but in different ways. Serverless has built-in scalability, so the cloud provider will automatically spin up more function instances to handle load increases, without any intervention from you. Containers can also scale very well, but typically you’ll configure an orchestrator to add more container instances or nodes based on metrics.

What are the business risks of choosing the wrong architecture?

If you opt for serverless and your application runs continuously under heavy load, you may encounter higher costs than expected or encounter service limits that impede functionality. It could also become difficult to manage hundreds of functions if your app isn’t naturally event-driven, leading to maintenance headaches and debugging challenges.

Can I use both serverless and containers in the same application?

Absolutely. Many applications benefit from a mix of both. A hybrid approach is commonly used in cloud architectures. For instance, you might run your core web application or database in containers, but utilize serverless functions for ancillary tasks such as processing background jobs, handling webhooks, or generating on-demand reports.