Brief summary: After 2 centuries have passed since the first computer was made, the world of informatics has reached a different stage with cloud systems and more efficient use of resources and system management expertise. Sharing business logic has become easier than ever with Self-service functions, an application of cloud computing.
Cloud Computing and Applications (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and FaaS)
Calculation has been of vital importance to humanity since the beginning of history. It has paved the way for progress in many areas, from calculating the flood periods of rivers for agriculture to calculating the landing vectors of spacecraft. Computing tools have also evolved to meet different needs with the progress of human history, and the countries that lag behind in vehicle production have been left behind in the technological race. Cloud computing and applications are one of the areas of this vehicle race. Oxford dictionary defines Cloud Computing as the use of servers located in a network connected to the Internet for data storage, management and processing. Cloud computing methods provide efficient use of manpower and resources thanks to detailed resource sharing by entering abstraction layers that traditional hosting services do not.
Self-Service Infrastructure (IaaS), Self-Service Platform (PaaS), Self-Service Software (SaaS) and Self-Service Function (FaaS) are examples of Cloud computing products.
What is Self Service Function (FaaS)?
Self Service Function (Faas) can be explained as presenting the functions created by the developer to the user by simply uploading the codes, without worrying about infrastructure and server management. In this type of services, the developer makes basic adjustments such as memory, temporary disk space, and environmental variables of the environment in which the code runs. According to its own infrastructure, the service provider runs the environment that will run the user's code in a stateless container and makes the network settings of this container.
Advantages and Examples of Self-Service Function
As we mentioned above, Cloud computing applications focus on resource and workforce efficiency. While the solutions prevent wasted resources in the background, they also provide users with in-depth management capabilities as needed in the foreground.
Therefore, a developer using the Self-Service Function can offer his service to his users and easily charge for it, without the need for competencies such as network configuration, web server configuration, container management. Infrastructures run enough containers to carry the load by dynamically scaling if the number of requests increases. When the number of requests reaches its previous level, they destroy unnecessary containers. Since Self-Service Functions work as event driven, a server does not need to be constantly running. Optimized containers can run when an event arrives and be destroyed if not needed.
In addition, it enables the emergence of new software products faster with the easy integration of different functions.
Amazon Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, Azure Functions, OpenFaaS infrastructures are examples of Self-Service Functions services.
Turksat Smart Services
As Turksat, we can offer users a FaaS-like service with our Smart Service application that we have developed on our SatCloud infrastructure. After uploading the developer code to our system, the developer enters the catalogue and pricing information of his service. After this stage, the service is packaged by our system. Scaling and billing services are handled by our system. Those who want to use the published services subscribe to whatever they want from the service catalogue after opening an account. They integrate the service into their systems with the help of the user manual in the catalogue. They can track the number of uses and their invoices from the relevant interfaces. In this way, we enable developers to focus on developing functions and users to easily integrate these functions into their systems.
Umut ÇAKIR
Software developing expert
Informatics R&D Directorate