Two words for this week : "Serverless computing & serverless backup"
Serverless computing is an event-driven application design and deployment paradigm in which computing resources are provided as scalable cloud services. In traditional application deployments, the server's computing resources represent fixed and recurring costs, regardless of the amount of computing work that is actually being performed by the server. In a serverless computing deployment, the cloud customer only pays for service usage; there is never any cost associated with idle, down-time.
Serverless computing does not eliminate servers, but instead seeks to emphasize the idea that computing resource considerations can be moved into the background during the design process. The term is often associated with the NoOps movement and the concept may also be referred to as "function as a service (Faas)" or "runtime as a service (RaaS)."
One example of public cloud serverless computing is the AWS Lambda service. Developers can drop in code, create backend applications, create event handling routines and process data - all without worrying about servers, virtual machines (VMs), or the underlying compute resources needed to sustain an enormous volume of events because the actual hardware and infrastructure involved are all maintained by the provider. AWS Lambda can also interact with many other Amazon services, allowing developers to quickly create and manage complex enterprise-class applications with almost no consideration of the underlying servers.
"If executed correctly, a serverless architecture can save development teams time when pushing out new features and can scale nearly infinitely." - Chris Moyer
A serverless backup is a type of network-based backup that seeks to limit the role of production servers in backup procedures. The goal of serverless backup is to facilitate disk-to-tape or disk-to-disk backup without depleting server resources.
Ordinarily, the amount of time a production server can devote to processing requests from applications is limited by the amount of time it must reserve to backup data. Offloading backup procedures from production servers frees the servers up to process more data.
While all serverless backup systems enable disk-to-tape or disk-to-disk backup, vendors who provide this service may map the copy function slightly differently. For example, backup may be performed by an appliance, which can be an actual physical device or a software function in a larger storage management product.
A number of companies offer serverless backup products, including Arcserve with its Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP), Dell EMC and its NetWorker software and Veritas Technologies' NetBackup appliances. The CA and Veritas products are based on a process known as disk imaging. These applications use an intelligent agent to make a snapshot copy of pointers to the data. The snapshot copy consists of an image of the pointers, which indicate the location of the data, but is not yet a backup of the data itself. The actual backup still needs to happen, based on the snapshot. The intelligent agent and backup procedures communicate through the Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP).
The Dell EMC serverless backup function has become part of the NetWorker software, based on technology EMC received from its acquisition of Legato Systems in 2003. Proprietary software within the hardware platform is used to mark logical backup objects and to back up data on the list.
Another method of performing a serverless backup is via XCOPY, the extended copy function within SCSI. In this case, the server initiates and manages the backup, but is not involved in actually backing up the data. The SCSI XCOPY command simply tells the data to replicate from one device or location to another.
"Serverless backups offload the backup overhead from production servers while also helping to expedite the backup process." - Brien Posey
To continue your reading, see:
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An introduction to serverless backups
A serverless backup is a general term for a backup in which a production server is not involved (or is minimally involved) in the backup process. Taking production servers out of the backup process can increase backup efficiency. This tip outlines how serverless backups are performed today.
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Our site experts define serverless backup, explain the difference between LAN-free backups and serverless backups, and tell how to design a server-free backup architecture.
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The pros and cons of serverless architecture
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Serverless infrastructure calls for updated IT ops expertise
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When is serverless technology best for app modernization?
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Know when to implement serverless vs. containers
IT pros must be equipped to guide application deployments onto serverless vs. containers, or vice versa, for off-the-shelf apps, in-house projects and microservices.
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