An investigation of the impact of language runtime on the performance and cost of serverless functions

David Jackson, Gary Clynch

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    Abstract

    Serverless, otherwise known as 'Function-As-A-Service' (FaaS), is a compelling evolution of cloud computing that is highly scalable and event-driven. Serverless applications are composed of multiple independent functions, each of which can be implemented in a range of programming languages. This paper seeks to understand the impact of the choice of language runtime on the performance and subsequent cost of serverless function execution. It presents the design and implementation of a new serverless performance testing framework created to analyse performance and cost metrics for both AWS Lambda and Azure Functions. For optimum performance and cost management of serverless applications, Python is the clear choice on AWS Lambda. C#.NET is the top performer and most economical option for Azure Functions. NodeJS on Azure Functions and.NET Core 2 on AWS should be avoided or at the very least, used carefully in order to avoid their potentially slow and costly start-up times.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProceedings - 11th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing Companion, UCC Companion 2018
    EditorsAlan Sill, Josef Spillner
    PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
    Pages154-160
    Number of pages7
    ISBN (Electronic)9781728103594
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2 Jul 2018
    Event11th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing Companion, UCC Companion 2018 - Zurich, Switzerland
    Duration: 17 Dec 201820 Dec 2018

    Publication series

    NameProceedings - 11th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing Companion, UCC Companion 2018

    Conference

    Conference11th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing Companion, UCC Companion 2018
    Country/TerritorySwitzerland
    CityZurich
    Period17/12/1820/12/18

    Keywords

    • Aws
    • Azure
    • Cloud
    • FaaS
    • Functions
    • Lambda
    • Performance
    • Serverless

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