Benefits and Drawbacks of Serverless Databases – ITPro Today

You've heard of serverless computing, which lets you deploy applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. But did you know that you can also take a serverless approach to databases?

If not, read on for a look at how serverless databases work, why they are becoming popular, and which serverless database options dominate the market at present.

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A serverless database is a database that lets you store, manage, and analyze data without having to manage the underlying host infrastructure.

In other words, when you use a serverless database, you just load your data and run queries on it as you wish. You don't need to worry about ensuring that there is enough storage space to accommodate your data. You may also not need to figure out how to structure or partition the data to ensure optimal analytics operations. These tasks are handled for you by the database provider.

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To be clear, serverless databases have underlying infrastructure. But that infrastructure is managed by someone else namely, the vendor of the serverless database platform rather than users. So, from the user's perspective, the server essentially doesn't exist.

The same is true of serverless computing, which also eliminates the need for users to manage the underlying infrastructure when deploying applications. Indeed, the serverless database concept was inspired by the serverless computing trend, which was popularized by the launch of AWS Lambda in 2014.

That said, it's important not to confuse serverless databases with serverless computing. They are different types of solutions focused on solving different problems. Serverless compute platforms let you deploy applications; they are not designed for data storage or analytics. Likewise, a serverless database can't host your app. It can just host your data and support analytics operations.

Compared with conventional databases, which require users to set up and administer host infrastructure, serverless databases provide several core benefits:

On the other hand, serverless databases have some potential downsides:

As the serverless database concept grows in popularity, an increasing number of vendors are offering serverless database solutions. Popular platforms include:

Serverless databases aren't right for every data analytics use case. But if your data storage and analytics requirements scale up and down frequently and/or you don't want the hassle of managing your own database infrastructure, serverless databases offer a database solution that will be simpler, and possibly also more cost-effective, than conventional database platforms.

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Benefits and Drawbacks of Serverless Databases - ITPro Today