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Discussion on: Explain Serverless Like I'm Five

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Meghan (she/her)

Say you want to make a fresh homemade loaf of bread. You can get all the ingredients together and you can definitely eat your bread, but you're a wee little five year old and can't use the oven because it's unfortunately it's too complicated and dangerous even for a smart kid like you. Good thing though, you're not alone. You ask your parent for some help to take your bread bowl and put it in the over for you. And when it's done they take it out and give it to you to eat and enjoy. 🍞😊

Say you want to make a hip new web application. You can get all the functions together make a nice UI and you can definitely test and use your app, but you're a wee little front end developer and don't want to worry about running your own server because it's unfortunately it's too complicated and dangerous even for a smart dev like you (os updates, security, patches, networking, architectures, environment compatibility). Good thing though, you're not alone. You ask your local serverless provider (Amazon AWS, Google GCP, Microsoft Azure, Heroku, etc) for some help to take your deploy your app and put it in on the server out on the internet. And when it's done they give a URL and give it to you to use and enjoy. 🍞😊