I know the advantages of serverless, but doesn't zero infrastructure management lead to security or performance issues? How risk-free is it really for production use? Are there hidden constraints during scaling? What do you all look out for?
How reliable is serverless architecture really?
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One of the most common comparisons I make about serverless reliability is between it and traditional cloud servers (IaaS/PaaS). For example, when you set up and scale a server on AWS EC2, you have to manage everything related to it, whereas with serverless (say, Lambda + API Gateway), this is handled automatically. But this convenience comes with some "invisible" pitfalls: cold starts, maximum execution time limits per function (usually 15 minutes), or the serious headache of vendor lock-in.
Similarly, if we compare them in terms of performance, I see serverless as an "automatic manual transmission car": it consumes no resources when you're not using it, but responds instantly when you need it. On the other hand, a continuously running server (like a Docker container) incurs costs even when idle. However, if your application has constant and high traffic, costs can skyrocket under this model—akin to paying continuously for a high-traffic website. The most important things I pay attention to when using it in production are: pre-calculating potential chokepoints (such as third-party API limits), keeping monitoring tight, and breaking functions down into as many independent, small pieces as possible.