Microservices

The goal of cloud computing is to make running a business easier and more efficient, whether it’s a small start-up or a large enterprise. Every business is unique and has different needs. To meet those needs, cloud computing providers offer a wide range of services. Cloud compute services including Virtual Machines, Containers, App Service and Serverless computing offer application development and deployment approaches if applied correctly can save time and money. Each service provides benefits as well as tradeoffs against other options. IT needs to have a good understanding of these compute services.

Virtual Machines (VM) is an emulation of a physical computer, which offers more control that comes with maintenance overhead.

Containers provide a consistent, isolated execution environment for applications. They are similar to VMs except they don’t require a guest operating system. Instead, the application and all its dependencies is packaged into a “container” and then a standard runtime environment is used to execute the app. This allows the container to start up in just a few seconds, because there’s no OS to boot and initialize. You only need the app to launch.

Serverless computing lets you run application code without creating, configuring, or maintaining a server. Each approach is optimized for specific use case. The core idea is that your application is broken into separate functions that run when triggered by some action. This is ideal for automated tasks.