Serverless systems: When to use and when to avoid

Serverless compute platforms have revolutionized deployment speeds. The ability to run code without provisioning servers is incredibly powerful. However, serverless is not a silver bullet. Under constant high workloads, serverless costs can exceed traditional container systems, and cold starts can degrade latency.

We use a hybrid deployment checklist to choose the right infrastructure strategy. For event-driven tasks, background queues, and sporadic APIs, serverless functions are ideal. For long-running WebSocket connections, database-heavy operations, and continuous traffic, we utilize containerized microservices managed via lightweight orchestrators.

Our hybrid architecture combines the best of both worlds: we deploy containers for core services to keep costs low and predictable, while scaling edge-routing and serverless functions to handle traffic bursts, ensuring maximum performance at a highly optimized budget.