Why Choose Kubernetes Over Serverless?

Managing infrastructure stinks, doesn’t it?

Serverless tech fighting Kubernetes over DevX and Cloud Agnosticism

To Server or Not To Server

Applications built using “serverless” technologies are all the rage these days.

Azure Functions, Google Cloud Serverless, AWS Lambda and I’m sure there are equivalents on all the other cloud providers (DigitalOcean calls them Functions too!)

The main appeal with a serverless setup is that you pay as you use it. You aren’t paying for dedicated VMs unless your serverless functions are getting called, so you can save costs when you don’t use them, and scale up and down pretty easily. It seems like a no brainer to move away from running your own server and/or VMs and shift to running in a serverless architecture, doesn’t it?

The Drawbacks to Serverless

I really have only seen two major things that impede the adoption of serverless at the companies I’ve worked at. They are:

• Development Experience
• Lack of Cloud Agnosticism

For both of these points I’ve felt the serverless technology I’ve worked with most (AWS Lambda) has a handful of deal breakers. Let’s get into why each is lacking for serverless, and why something like Kubernetes is a better fit.