Serverless: When It Helps and When It Hurts

Introduction

Serverless computing has become a buzzword in cloud architecture. But like any tool, it has sweet spots and sharp edges. After building and maintaining several serverless applications, I've learned where it shines and where it creates headaches. This article shares those lessons.

When Serverless Helps

1. Event-Driven Workloads

Serverless excels when your code runs in response to events: file uploads, database changes, HTTP requests. The pay-per-execution model means you don't pay for idle time.