Serverless in production refers to the deployment and use of serverless architecture in a live, production environment. In this context, serverless refers to a cloud computing paradigm where the cloud provider manages the infrastructure and allocates resources as needed to run and scale applications and services.

In a serverless production environment, applications and services are broken down into individual functions triggered by events, such as API requests or changes in data. These functions are executed in response to these events and the cloud provider is responsible for managing the underlying infrastructure, including servers, storage and network resources.

In this article, I’ll describe some of the key use cases of serverless in production and provide important best practices DevOps teams can use to run serverless in production safely and effectively.

Use Cases of Serverless in Production

Serverless technology has emerged as a popular choice for delivering various applications and services in production. Here is a brief overview of serverless in production for four use cases.

Microservices

In a microservices architecture, an application is divided into small, independent services that can be developed, deployed and scaled separately. Serverless allows each microservice to be deployed as a separate function, triggering the function only when needed and scaling it automatically based on demand. This results in a cost-effective and flexible solution for microservices, as the user only pays for the exact amount of computing resources used by each function.

IoT Devices

Internet of things (IoT) devices generate large amounts of data, which need to be processed and analyzed in real-time. Serverless functions can process IoT data as it is generated, allowing for real-time analytics and decision-making. With serverless, the processing and analysis can be scaled dynamically, handling spikes in data volume without the need for infrastructure management.

Multimedia Processing

Multimedia processing tasks, such as image and video compression, often require significant computing resources. With serverless, these tasks can be performed as functions triggered by events such as the upload of a new image or video. The serverless functions can scale automatically to handle large amounts of data, reducing the costs associated with infrastructure management and increasing efficiency.

This function-as-a-service (FaaS) is often used for storing and processing user inputs and other data types. For example, FaaS can be used to execute specific processes according to the category of media uploaded by the user. It’s easier to build these services because the developer can write one function that is applied to multiple processing tasks. 

APIs for Mobile and Web Applications

APIs are an essential component of many web and mobile applications, providing access to the underlying data and services. Serverless functions can build and deploy APIs, providing a cost-effective and scalable solution. The functions can be triggered by incoming API requests and automatically scaled based on demand, allowing for fast and reliable API access for users. 

FaaS is especially useful for RESTful applications and event-driven architectures. Containers are also useful for performing processes like API calls, but serverless functions are best suited for highly fluctuating volumes of traffic.

Best Practices for Running Serverless in Production

1. Monitor the Serverless Environment

Serverless monitoring refers to the process of monitoring serverless applications and infrastructure, including serverless functions and event-driven computing services, without the need for dedicated servers or virtual machines. In a serverless architecture, computing resources are dynamically allocated and managed by the cloud provider, so there is no need for organizations to manage and maintain their own servers.

Serverless monitoring involves monitoring various aspects of serverless applications and infrastructure, including function execution, resource utilization and performance metrics. The goal of serverless monitoring is to identify and resolve issues that may impact the performance and reliability of serverless applications and to optimize resource utilization for cost efficiency.

By implementing serverless monitoring, organizations can ensure that their serverless applications and infrastructure are performing optimally and that they can quickly identify and resolve any issues that may arise. This helps to improve the reliability and cost-effectiveness of serverless computing and enables organizations to take full advantage of the benefits of serverless architecture.

2. Implement Authentication

Serverless authentication refers to the process of authenticating users and applications in a serverless architecture, where computing resources are dynamically allocated and managed by the cloud provider. In a serverless authentication model, authentication is managed through cloud-based services and APIs without the need for dedicated servers or virtual machines.

By implementing serverless authentication, organizations can ensure that their serverless applications and services are secure and that users are only able to access the resources that they are authorized to access. This helps to improve the security of serverless applications and services and reduce the risk of security breaches.

3. Ensure Security with API Gateways

API gateways provide a centralized point of control and security for incoming API traffic. API gateways allow for the implementation of authentication and authorization mechanisms, such as OAuth, to control access to serverless functions. This ensures that only authorized users and clients can access the functions, reducing the risk of unauthorized access.

API gateways can also manage incoming API traffic, such as rate limiting and request filtering, to prevent overloading the serverless functions and protect against denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. They perform real-time threat detection, identifying and blocking malicious traffic before it reaches the serverless functions. This includes protection against other common attacks such as cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection.

Finally, an API gateway can enforce encryption for incoming and outgoing API traffic, ensuring that sensitive data is protected in transit. 

4. Assign Appropriate Roles to Functions

With serverless, there can be many resources that must be handled, making management potentially complex. Creating minimal suitable roles for each function makes management easier, enhances security and reduces the attack surface of the serverless architecture. This approach means that the least privilege principle is applied, where a function only has the minimum permissions required to perform its intended task. It reduces the risk of unauthorized access to other parts of the infrastructure, such as sensitive data or other functions.

The right roles ensure that functions are isolated from each other and run in their own security context. This helps to prevent the spread of any security incidents, as well as ensure that the compromise of one function does not affect the security of the rest of the system.

5. Ensure Dependencies are Secure

It is common for serverless functions to have dependencies from various repositories like Maven and PyPI. These dependencies may contain known vulnerabilities which can be exploited by attackers. Securing application dependencies is important to prevent security incidents and ensure the reliability and availability of the serverless architecture.  

This involves tracking and managing the dependencies used in the serverless applications. This helps to ensure that dependencies are used in a consistent and controlled manner, reducing the risk of conflicts or compatibility issues. By regularly monitoring and updating dependencies, organizations can ensure that their serverless architecture is secure and reliable.

6. Sanitize Inputs to Prevent Injection Attacks

Serverless applications often use data inputs from users or events. This data enables functions such as data streaming, but the user-supplied data can also pose security risks. Sanitizing event inputs helps to prevent injection attacks—these occur when an attacker injects malicious code or data into a serverless function through the event inputs. 

By sanitizing inputs, organizations can remove or modify potentially malicious inputs, preventing the attacker from injecting malicious code into the function. One important form of sanitization is input validation—validating that the inputs conform to a specific format or type, such as checking that a string is a valid email address. This helps to prevent attackers from injecting malicious code into the function by ensuring that the inputs are in the expected format.

Sanitizing data is only one aspect of a defense-in-depth security strategy, which involves implementing multiple security controls to protect against attacks. It is also important to enable data escaping for SQL and noSQL databases. Likewise, the data provided by events shouldn’t be used to evaluate code at runtime or spawn system processes. 

7. Secure Data in Transit

Securing and verifying data in transit helps to prevent data breaches and ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and privacy of data transmitted between different parts of the serverless architecture. Here are some guidelines for securing and verifying data in transit:

• Use HTTPS: This is a secure protocol for transmitting data over the internet. By using HTTPS, organizations can ensure that data transmitted between different parts of their serverless architecture is encrypted, preventing unauthorized access to sensitive data.
• Implement SSL certificate verification: Verify the identity of the certificate owner and the authenticity of the certificate. This helps to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, where an attacker intercepts and alters data transmitted between the server and the client.
• Enable signed requests: These involve adding a digital signature to a request, which is then verified by the recipient. This helps to prevent tampering with data in transit and ensures the integrity of the data.

Conclusion

In conclusion, running serverless in production requires careful planning and execution to ensure the security and reliability of the architecture. By following the best practices described here, DevOps teams can reduce the risk of security incidents and ensure the reliability and availability of their serverless architecture. These include:

• Monitoring the serverless environment
• Implementing authentication
• Deploying API gateways
• Creating minimal suitable roles for each function
• Securing application dependencies
• Sanitizing event inputs
• Securing and verifying data in transit 

Additionally, regularly monitoring and updating dependencies and implementing a defense-in-depth security strategy can help organizations ensure the security and reliability of their serverless architecture over time.