May 1, 2024
Updated July 8, 2025
12 minute read
Serverless applications are a cloud computing paradigm that enables developers to build and deploy applications without managing servers. With serverless, the cloud provider handles the infrastructure, scaling, and maintenance, allowing developers to focus on building and delivering their applications.
Benefits of Serverless Applications
Serverless applications offer several advantages over traditional server-based applications, including:
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Reduced infrastructure management: Serverless applications eliminate the need for developers to manage and maintain servers, which can save time and resources.
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Improved scalability: Serverless applications automatically scale based on demand, ensuring that applications can handle increased traffic without performance degradation.
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Reduced costs: Serverless applications are typically priced on a pay-as-you-go basis, which means that developers only pay for the resources they use.
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Increased agility: Serverless applications enable developers to deploy applications more quickly and easily, which can lead to faster time-to-market.
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Improved security: Serverless applications are hosted in secure cloud environments, which can help to protect applications from security threats.
Applications of Serverless Architectures
Serverless applications can be used to build a wide range of applications, including:
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Find a path to becoming a Serverless Applications. Learn more at:
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Reading list
We've selected 26 books
that we think will supplement your
learning. Use these to
develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a
deeper understanding of the topics covered in
Serverless Applications.
Provides a strong foundation in serverless architectures specifically on the AWS platform. It covers the principles of serverless design and explores real-world case studies. It's an excellent resource for those looking to gain a broad understanding of serverless concepts within the context of a major cloud provider.
A detailed guide to developing reliable, scalable, and cost-effective serverless architectures.
Security critical aspect of serverless applications. provides a hands-on guide to understanding and implementing security best practices across major cloud providers. It's essential for anyone building or managing serverless systems and useful reference tool.
Delves into architectural patterns specifically for serverless systems, covering event-driven microservices and micro frontends. It's aimed at software architects and experienced developers looking to understand how to design anti-fragile serverless applications. The second edition includes updated topics on security, observability, and multi-regional deployment.
Offers a practical, code-centric approach to building serverless applications using AWS Lambda and the Java programming language. It covers the development lifecycle, from programming and testing to deployment and monitoring. It's particularly useful for developers with existing Java skills transitioning to serverless.
A recipe-based guide focusing on serverless computing on Microsoft Azure. provides practical examples for building and deploying serverless applications using Azure Functions and integrating with other Azure services. It's a valuable reference for developers working within the Azure ecosystem.
Dives into the combination of event-driven architectures and serverless microservices on AWS. It's suitable for those looking to deepen their understanding of designing scalable and resilient systems using AWS serverless services in an event-driven manner.
While not exclusively about serverless, this book is fundamental for understanding the architectural style that pairs well with serverless computing: microservices. It provides a comprehensive overview of designing, building, and evolving microservice architectures. This is crucial prerequisite knowledge for anyone serious about serverless at scale.
Provides a hands-on approach to building event-driven serverless applications using AWS Lambda. It explores how to integrate Lambda with other AWS services to create responsive and scalable systems. It's a good resource for developers focusing on event-driven patterns on AWS.
Another excellent resource on microservices patterns, this book provides a catalog of patterns for building resilient, scalable, and maintainable microservices. Many of these patterns are directly applicable to serverless architectures, making it a valuable reference for designing complex serverless systems.
Event-driven architectures are highly complementary to serverless. provides a thorough exploration of building event-driven systems with microservices, offering foundational knowledge that is very applicable to serverless patterns. It's a good resource for deepening architectural understanding.
A comprehensive guide to using Node.js for building and deploying serverless applications.
For those interested in serverless on Kubernetes, this cookbook offers practical recipes for using Knative. It covers building, deploying, and managing serverless workloads on Kubernetes and OpenShift, including advanced eventing. It's a good resource for developers with a solid understanding of Kubernetes.
This guide focuses on building serverless applications using Google Cloud Run, a container-based serverless platform. It's a practical book for developers familiar with containers and looking to build serverless applications on Google Cloud. It covers building, deploying, and managing services on Cloud Run.
Focuses on Knative, providing a guide to using this platform for building and running serverless systems on Kubernetes. It covers launching, modifying, and monitoring event-based applications with Knative. It's a good resource for those specifically interested in the Knative ecosystem.
Focuses on building serverless applications on the Cloudflare platform, offering an alternative perspective to the major cloud providers. It covers practical aspects of building and deploying serverless applications using Cloudflare Workers. It's a good resource for exploring serverless options beyond AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
While covering a broader range of Google Cloud services, this cookbook includes practical recipes for utilizing Google Cloud's serverless offerings like Cloud Functions and Cloud Run. It's a helpful reference for developers working on Google Cloud Platform.
A practical guide to building and deploying serverless applications in various domains.
A practical guide to building serverless applications on AWS Lambda, one of the most popular serverless platforms.
Offers a different perspective on microservices, emphasizing principles that align well with serverless, such as event-driven architectures and decentralized data management. It can deepen the understanding of the underlying philosophies that make serverless effective.
DevOps principles are highly relevant to the successful adoption of serverless. This foundational book provides insights into creating a culture and practices that enable faster delivery, increased reliability, and improved security. While not serverless-specific, it offers essential context for professionals working with serverless in an organizational setting.
Though not specifically about serverless, this book widely respected resource for understanding the fundamental concepts behind modern distributed systems, including data systems. Serverless applications often interact with various data stores, making the principles in this book highly relevant for building robust serverless solutions. It's more of a valuable additional reading for a deeper computer science perspective.
A hands-on guide to building, deploying, and monitoring serverless functions on major cloud platforms.
For more information about how these books relate to this course, visit:
OpenCourser.com/topic/rhreof/serverless
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