Domain 4 of 6 · Chapter 3 of 6

Serverless Computing

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Included in this chapter:

  • What serverless means and why it matters
  • The three products and the unit each one deploys
  • Choosing between them and against the alternatives
  • Exam-pattern recognition

Google Cloud serverless products by deployment unit, trigger, and use case

Decision axisCloud FunctionsApp EngineCloud Run
Unit you deployA single-purpose functionA whole application (PaaS)A container
Typical triggerAn event (HTTP, Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage, Firestore)HTTP requests to the applicationHTTP requests or events (Pub/Sub, Eventarc)
Language / runtimeSupported language runtimesSupported language runtimes (Standard); any via container (Flexible)Any language or framework, packaged as a container
Scales to zeroYesYes (Standard); no, min 1 instance (Flexible)Yes
Best fitEvent-driven glue, lightweight single tasksDeploying a complete web app / mobile backendWeb apps, APIs, microservices needing runtime freedom

Decision tree

Need OS control or aKubernetes cluster?YesNot serverless:Compute Engine or GKENoUnit is a single functionreacting to one event?YesCloud Functionsevent-driven glueNoUnit is a whole app in asupported language?Yes (full app)App Enginemanaged platform (PaaS)No (container)Cloud Runany language, in a containerAll three are serverless: no infrastructure to manage, autoscale to zero, pay for use.Decide by the unit you deploy: a function, a whole application, or a container.
Cheat sheet

Cheat sheet

  • Serverless means you ship code and Google runs the servers
  • The three serverless properties: no infrastructure, scale-to-zero, pay-for-use
  • Choose the serverless product by the unit you deploy
  • Cloud Functions runs a single-purpose function triggered by an event
  • Cloud Run runs any container, serverlessly
  • App Engine is platform-as-a-service for whole applications
  • App Engine Standard scales to zero; Flexible keeps a minimum instance
  • Cloud Run's container unit means any language or framework
  • Serverless is the wrong fit when you need control of the machine
  • Serverless compute runs application logic, not databases
  • Cloud Functions is event-driven glue between services
  • Cloud Run is the default for web apps, APIs, and microservices
  • Serverless makes teams ship faster and pay only for use
  • Cloud Build is the serverless CI/CD that builds container images with no infrastructure to manage

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References

  1. Cloud Functions overview
  2. App Engine environments (Standard vs Flexible)
  3. What is Cloud Run
  4. Compute Engine documentation
  5. Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) overview