Serverless computing is emerging as a key component of hybrid computing strategies, experiencing significant growth and offering various benefits such as reduced costs and increased scalability. The trend indicates that by 2023, a substantial portion of artificial intelligence workloads will utilize serverless architectures, necessitating a cultural shift towards DevOps. Despite its advantages, serverless computing comes with limitations such as state tracking challenges and potential latency issues, requiring careful planning and skill development for successful implementation.

1. Tapping into the new trend in cloud architecture
SERVERLESS
COMPUTING

2. 1 Serverless Computing
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
Serverless computing should be
considered as part of a hybrid computing
strategy.
1. High Growth Rate
2. Differentiated Benefits
3. Differentiated Use cases
4. Manageable Limitations

3. 2 Serverless Computing
TRENDS TO
SERVERLESS
Event driven middleware that abstracts the need
to manage your own hardware infrastructure.
ArtificialIntelligence
Workloads
0
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
As an example, by 2023,
expect 70% of artificial intelligence
workloads with application
containers or serverless
programming model, necessitating
a DevOps culture.
70%
Worldwide Serverless Platform
Services Revenue by Submarket, 2015-
2017 ($M)
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
High Growth in recent years
Between 2015 and 2017 saw a
68% CAGR in platform
providers revenue
High Growth Rate projected for upcoming years
CAGR expected to slow to
36% by 2023
Still could be a $4.7B
market for cloud platform
providers.

4. 3 Serverless Computing
BENEFITS OF SERVERLESS
ARCHITECTURE
A serverless architecture is the basis for a cloud native architecture.
On-premises hardware management abstracting the infrastructure to the
cloud where greater benefits to the enterprise operations can be realized.
1 Serverless applications cost less
25% less than traditional applications, with rapid
development and automated operations
2 Near zero downtime
Operations activity automated
3 Operations capability increases
Resources can be scaled up and down
4 Reduced lead times
Infrastructures technical concerns abstracted
5 Resiliency and service monitoring and logging

5. 4 Serverless Computing
WINNING WITH SERVERLESS
The strength of a serverless approach may best be realized given 4
characteristics to enterprise environments.
03
Stateless and
ephemeral processes
Addresses:
• Instantaneous cold
start times
04
Changing business
requirements
Addresses:
• Highly dynamic
nature of the market
• Variable growth of
the company
01
Asynchronous and
concurrent
Addresses:
• Huge volume of
transactions
• network speed and
function processing
efficiency not
consistently
available
02
Infrequent or
sporadic demand
Addresses:
• Large unpredictable
scaling
requirements
• Need for elastic and
adjustable compute
and memory
requirements

6. 5 Serverless Computing
Telecom
A media and network provider
company needs to reduce
customer care costs yet provide
better customer service by offering
consumer driven device
management capabilities.
Serverless architecture ensures that
events happening on home
gateways can support easy
management for homeowners and
appropriate alerts can be sent when
unauthorized connections are
attempted. From their handheld
phone or tablet, homeowners can
manage their network settings such
as the wireless network name and
their children’s time on the internet.
Smart Home Products
An enterprise technology product
company provides intelligent
products to allow families to control
smart home devices and provide
easier access to information, music
and video from the internet. When a
user makes a request using natural
language, smart home devices send
http requests to the cloud. When the
request is received functions are
triggered to unpack the data,
translate voice commands, engage
with machine learning and respond to
the users with a natural language
experience or fulfill with a change to
their home environment, such as
turning on a light or playing music.
USE CASE
EXAMPLES

7. 6 Serverless Computing
SERVERLESS ESSENTIAL
COMPONENTS
API
GATEWAY
Example outcomes:
• Notifications
created
• Photo shared
Analytics
generated
• Mobile
application
DATA
STORAGE
Details stored
EVENTS
TRIGGERED
Example triggers:
• Photo taken
• Order placed
• Comment
posted
• Setting changed
FUNCTIONS
Event details
together with other
system settings
and information are
processed

8. 7 Serverless Computing
MANAGE
LIMITATIONS
STATE
Tracking state may
require additional effort
and interaction of other
components
LATENCY
Http API can be slower in
performance compared
to other transports
COLD START
Time will be needed to
start a new container if an
appropriate container
does not exist

9. 8 Serverless Computing
READY TO GO
SERVERLESS
Areas of consideration when preparing to go serverless.
03
Serverless
skills
Existing staff will
need training or
Leverage outside
talent who is well-
versed in
serverless
development
04
Platform
components
from providers
For anything that’s
not related to
business logic
05
Cultural
shift
Restructuring
organization and
culture to enable
radically simple
applications that
are the hallmark
of serverless
01
Reference
architecture
Fosters
consistency
across all your
applications.
Increases talent
mobility
02
Support
DevOps
Focuses on
continuous
evolution that will
be needed
Existing staff will
need training or
Leverage outside
talent who is
well-versed in
serverless
development
For anything that’s
not related to
business logic
Restructuring
organization and
culture to enable
radically simple
applications that
are the hallmark
of serverless
Fosters
consistency
across all your
applications.
Increases talent
mobility
Focuses on
continuous
evolution that will
be needed

10. 9 Serverless Computing
ABOUT ACCENTURE
Accenture is a leading global professional services company,
providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy,
consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining
unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40
industries and all business functions—underpinned by the
world’s largest delivery network—Accenture works at the
intersection of business and technology to help clients improve
their performance and create sustainable value for their
stakeholders. With 449,000 people serving clients in more than
120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way
the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.
ACCENTURE SERVICES APPROACH
Our mission is to help our clients be successful in their business
transformation by using the advantages that new technology brings and by
helping them apply and implement these.
System Design. We draw on extensive serverless architecture and delivery
experience to design innovative systems of differentiation.
Delivery & Deployment. Accenture provides technology, architecture and
engineering leadership; serving as lead SMEs on Accenture’s most
innovative custom software projects.
Cloud Native Approach. Build on Platform-specific serverless technologies
to gain speed, agility, flexibility, elasticity, and intelligently reduce cost.
Lean Engineering. DevOps at the core to speed up the feedback cycle
and enable experimentation; Lean Delivery principles applied to drive
waste from the delivery processes.
AUTHORS
Mark Baerenstecher
mark.baerenstecher@accenture.com
Harry Leshner
harry.leshner@accenture.com
Johnny Cheng
johnny.c.cheng@accenture.com
REFERENCES
Accenture, Matt Lancaster, “Going serverless?”, March, 2017
Accenture, Miha Kralj, “Can serverless computing benefit your business?” July, 2018 IDC, Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker, April 2019
Gartner, “Evolution of Virtualization: VMs, Containers, Serverless — Which to Use When?”, September, 2019
Gartner, “Top Emerging Trends in Cloud-Native Infrastructure”, May, 2019