The term "Serverless" is overloaded in the technology world and it is becoming harder to know exactly what is and is not serverless.  What makes the term even harder is the way Cloud providers change how they use the term so we end up with no clear indication as to what truly is and is not "Serverless".  To help clear this up, we went over to *ChatGPT* and asked them.

## What ChatGPT Says

> What does "Serverless" really mean?

The term "Serverless" in the world of tech refers to a cloud computing model where a third-party provider manages the infrastructure and automatically allocates computing resources such as servers, storage, and databases, based on the application's needs. The name "Serverless" comes from the idea that developers do not need to worry about the underlying servers on which their code runs.

In a serverless architecture, the cloud provider dynamically provisions resources as needed, and developers only pay for the actual usage of these resources, typically in small increments of time. This model enables developers to focus on writing code and building applications, without the need to manage the underlying infrastructure, which can be time-consuming and expensive.

Serverless architectures are typically event-driven, where the code is triggered by specific events or requests, such as user requests or file uploads. This allows for highly scalable and efficient applications that can easily handle varying levels of demand.

Overall, the serverless model enables faster development, lower costs, and greater scalability for applications, making it an increasingly popular choice for many businesses and developers.

## What We Think

We think Serverless should "Scale to Zero" and be paid for via a Pay-per-use model.  A truly serverless solution will hide all infrastructure decisions and consumers are not required to think about how the service runs, it just does and is.  If there is no traffic, there is no cost is the fundamental core of what Serverless truly means to us and is how we think of the term "Serverless".

There has been a lot of community discussion around what is Serverless, here are some additional links to help round out what it is and isn't, don't just take our word for it.

- MomentoHQ Blog - [Fighting off faux-serverless bandits with the true definition of serverless](https://www.gomomento.com/blog/fighting-off-fake-serverless-bandits-with-the-true-definition-of-serverless)

- ["Stop Calling Everything Serverless" - Jeremy Daly @ Serverless Days](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuWiB3vNiHc)

What is Serverless?

Serverless is all about using Managed services and not worrying about how and where the code runs, simplifying a whole load of problems.  Managed Services come with many configuration options, which is the key to controlling how they behave - knowing how these options work is super-important.  Fortunately, you don't need to understand ALL the options - but you do need to explore the main configuration options or "dials" to get your solution off to the best start!  Often we get so wrapped up in solving the problem we run off and start building.  When you do this, everything works perfectly in development. Still, as soon as you go live and volumes grow, problems start appearing. Often, this is due to misconfiguration or lack of understanding of how the service behaves.

Designing your system for zero failure is impossible in the cloud, and you need to change your focus. You need to acknowledge that you have no control over the availability or reliability of the services you use to build your solution. Instead, you need to architect for recovery. Designing for failure and architecting for recovery are fundamental design principles you need to embrace for building serverless systems. Use tests of different use cases for each service you want to use to learn how it works and how to ensure your solutions are successful. Once you get comfortable with this concept, you are well on your way to success in the cloud.

> Know Your services, know how they will fail, and know how to recover!

The AWS Standard Simple Queue Service (SQS) is a good example.  It is a good Event Driven Architecture component for many use cases.  To build with SQS, you need to know how to configure the **Visibility Timeout**, which determines the time delay from a message being sent to a receiver (e.g. AWS Lambda) and the message becoming available for processing a second or subsequent time.  If you set this value too low, the same message will be processed multiple times, which may cause problems if your processing code or downstream consumers are not idempotent (able to process duplicate messages without causing side effects).  The following diagram shows how this timer works in the lifecycle of an SQS message with SQS pollers that read from the queue.

![AWS SQS Message Visibility Timeout Pictogram](/strands/fundamentals/know-your-services/sqs-visibility-timeout-diagram.png)

If you set the **Visibility Timeout** too small, your messages will be processed more than once.  The correct value for this configuration item depends on the processing time you expect for the message receiver. If you are interacting with a downstream service, you will need to take into consideration the latency of that destination.  Latency is the most important metric to understand when building Serverless solutions. It is the One that causes unexpected problems. Typically
you set the value to the maximum processing time for your message.

With Serverless you trade infrastructure and operational complexity with service configuration. From this example you can see how important it is to understand how to configure the services you use, and  why you need to Know Your services!


Know Your Services!


![Open AI Logo](/strands/fundamentals/getting-started-with-aws-serverless/open-ai.png)

To build a solution with AWS Serverless technology, you will need to learn about the following:

AWS Lambda: This is the core service for building serverless applications on AWS. With AWS Lambda, you can run code without provisioning or managing servers.

Amazon API Gateway: This service allows you to create, deploy, and manage APIs for your serverless applications.

AWS Event Sources: These are services that can trigger your AWS Lambda functions, such as changes to a file in Amazon S3, updates to a DynamoDB table, or a message in an SQS queue.

AWS CloudFormation: This service allows you to describe and provision your serverless infrastructure using templates written in YAML or JSON.

AWS Step Functions: This service allows you to coordinate multiple AWS services into serverless workflows.

To learn about these services and how to use them to build a solution, you can start by visiting the AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM) website which provides a simplified way of defining the architecture of your serverless applications and resources required for them.

You can also take the AWS Serverless Application Developer course on AWS Training and Certification. This course covers the basics of building serverless applications on AWS, including an overview of the AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, and AWS Event Sources.

Additionally, the AWS Developer Center provides a variety of resources such as tutorials, documentation, and sample code to help you learn how to build serverless applications on AWS.

In addition to that, AWS provides a free tier for some of its services which allows you to test and experiment with them without incurring any charges.

## What Do We Think?

We think ChatGPT did okay and cannot disagree with what it has laid out and suggested.  We are going to make sure to focus on these elements for articles as a priority so we can help accelerate you all in learning about AWS Serverless!

In the meantime, here are some links to the resources ChatGPT references to help you get started:

- [Getting Started with SAM Cli](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/serverless-application-model/latest/developerguide/serverless-getting-started.html)
- [AWS Certified - Developer Associate](https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-developer-associate/)
- [Developer Learning Plan](https://explore.skillbuilder.aws/learn/public/learning_plan/view/84/developer-learning-plan?la=cta&cta=topbanner)
- [AWS Developer Center](https://aws.amazon.com/developer/)
- [Signup for an AWS Account](https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup#/start/email)


What does ChatGPT say about Getting Started with AWS Serverless?

Articles covering Serverless Fundamentals - Learn what you need to get going quickly!

What is Serverless?

Know Your Services!

What does ChatGPT say about Getting Started with AWS Serverless?

About Serverless DNA