How do enterprises choose the right cloud application development platform?
Question: Which cloud platform is the best choice for application development? Answer: It depends on PaaS or AWS Lambda.
Cloud application
If you don't want to maintain your own application infrastructure and you are focusing on the cloud application development platform, you may face the dilemma of using a platform as a service option (such as Heroku or Cloud Foundry), such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) Lambda serverless platform. But what is the difference between the two options? Let's take a look.
Basic unit of calculation: For PaaS, the basic unit of calculation is the application itself. You still need to configure instances, although the maintenance of these instances is the responsibility of the PaaS platform; For Lambda, the basic operation unit is a function or task. Some examples run in the background, but as application developers, they are invisible.
Duration: In the world of cloud application development platform, PaaS is suitable for long running applications, regardless of whether the task is running or not. Lambda is used for short-term tasks and is determined to end at the end of the task.
Required metadata: With PaaS and Code, you need to specify other metadata, such as language, framework and runtime requirements. Without a server, the required metadata is simpler. For example, for AWS Lambda, you only need to specify the identity and access management role, the required RAM and timeout interval. For the cloud application development platform, no server is simpler, and PaaS provides more control and flexibility on the infrastructure.
Public access through RESTful API: PaaS application code is exposed through REST endpoints or web pages. Lambda features can only be accessed from trusted sources, but not from the public Internet.
Pricing mode: With PaaS, you can pay for computing resources or instances used by applications. With Lambda, you only need to pay for successful functions or tasks performed in the application. If your application has unpredictable or short-term workloads, it may be a big save.
The conclusion is that
PaaS is similar to a serverless platform. They abstract the underlying infrastructure and let you manage the code of applications. But they work in different ways. If your application has been running for a long time, you need to control some infrastructure and want to adopt a more consistent spending model, you can choose PaaS as the cloud application development platform. If you are willing to pay for each task because you have a short occasional task and want to manage the infrastructure completely without obstacles, you can choose AWS Lambda server as the cloud application development platform.
