The SPEC-RG Reference Architecture for FaaS: From Microservices and Containers to Serverless Platforms

Abstract

Microservices, containers, and serverless computing belong to a trend toward applications composed of many small, self-contained, and automatically managed components. Core to serverless computing, function-as-a-service (FaaS) platforms employ state-of-the-art container technology and microservices-based architectures to enable users to manage complex applications without the need for system-level expertise. Victim of its own success, and partially due to proprietary technology, currently the community has a limited overview of these platforms. To address this, we propose a reference architecture and ecosystem for FaaS platforms. Based on a year-long survey of real-world platforms conducted within the SPEC-RG Cloud Group, we highlight specific components and identify common operational patterns.