<p>I wrote a bit about this on my <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6505772730418233344" rel="nofollow noreferrer">LinkedIn post</a> which was based on the <a href="https://serverless.com/blog/when-why-not-use-serverless" rel="nofollow noreferrer">article</a> by <a href="https://serverless.com/author/andreapasswater/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Andrea Passwater</a>.</p>

<p>In brief, <strong>do not go serverless, if</strong></p>

<ol>
<li>You want complete control of the infrastructure and latest system patches</li>
<li>If your microservices are complex, and thus have some latency in starting up and computing output</li>
<li>You are not prepared for a heavy reliance on event-based architecture to monitor systems</li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-27T08:36:20.820Z
So PAAS layers like cloud foundry or aws lambda should not be used in above cases
overexchange
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-27T09:39:34.893Z
yes they shouldn't.
KatariaA
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-27T05:56:32.567Z
2019-02-27T05:56:32.567Z
KatariaA
<p>If your system doesnt have events which you want to handle or have something getting triggered then don't use lambda. I won't say that language should be a concern here since you can always rewrite that part into python or golang code. Lambda is difficult to handle for complex systems. Unless you are already using a web framework like rails or django which have their inbuilt way of handling routes, you do want to make use of aws lambda.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-01-02T13:59:41.253Z
2023-01-02T13:59:41.253Z
Ankur Kothari
<p>There is likely no general answer to this question, but some reasons to not consider Lambda (or other serverless platforms) include:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>App requires a language which is not available (C++, Haskell, Erlang, etc.)</p></li>
<li><p>Organization has existing substantial investment in containerized (or other) app development model, including developer knowledge, build and deployment pipelines</p></li>
<li><p>Portability is concern; i.e. the organization wants/needs to keep app in a state which is portable across platforms (AWS, Azure, various k8s implementations, and so on).</p></li>
<li><p>Cost. Do costs of running the Lambda function(s), as well as associated resources (API Gateway, VPC components) exceed budget? This is unlikely if the org. is already running in AWS, but can be a factor when compared against existing (and paid-off) on-premise resources.</p></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-28T02:26:45.257Z
2019-01-28T02:26:45.257Z
Dan1701
<p>With serverless computing using AWS lambda, Amazon(AWS) is taking the ownership of architecture, administration &amp; deployment aspect of AWS services(VPC/EC2/ELB/AScaling/Rtables/SGroups/etc...) for the application to run. </p>

<p>With this approach, AWS user losing control on designing an optimal VPC architecture that fine tunes with application</p>

<p>So, when not to think about serverless computing?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-27T05:24:08.153Z
Somehow related - PaaS vs FaaS in the Google Cloud Platform context: [When to choose App Engine over Cloud Functions?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/47057770/4495081) Some arguments are applicable in AWS, too.
Dan Cornilescu
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-31T06:25:05.873Z
Hi and welcome! Sounds like the answer offered by yourself could be like "in some cases lambda is not enough and you need to elaborate a more detailed solution for an individual case". But then why ask?
Ta Mu
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-31T08:17:02.117Z
perhaps the question title should be edited to be “when is it not appropriate to use serverless technology such as AWS Lambda?”
simbo1905
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-01-17T19:40:46.013Z
Check out this paper on the problems of Serverless http://cidrdb.org/cidr2019/papers/p119-hellerstein-cidr19.pdf
simbo1905
<amazon-web-services><cloud><aws-lambda>
When is it not appropriate to use serverless technology such as AWS Lambda?
overexchange
# When is it not appropriate to use serverless technology such as AWS Lambda?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-12-31)

With serverless computing using AWS lambda, Amazon(AWS) is taking the ownership of architecture, administration & deployment aspect of AWS services(VPC/EC2/ELB/AScaling/Rtables/SGroups/etc...) for the application to run.

With this approach, AWS user losing control on designing an optimal VPC architecture that fine tunes with application

So, when not to think about serverless computing?

**Tags:** amazon-web-services, cloud, aws-lambda

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Hi and welcome! Sounds like the answer offered by yourself could be like "in some cases lambda is not enough and you need to elaborate a more detailed solution for an individual case". But then why ask?  
> **username_3**: perhaps the question title should be edited to be “when is it not appropriate to use serverless technology such as AWS Lambda?”  
> **username_3**: Check out this paper on the problems of Serverless http://cidrdb.org/cidr2019/papers/p119-hellerstein-cidr19.pdf  
> **username_1**: Somehow related - PaaS vs FaaS in the Google Cloud Platform context: [When to choose App Engine over Cloud Functions?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/47057770/4495081) Some arguments are applicable in AWS, too.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2019-01-28. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

There is likely no general answer to this question, but some reasons to not consider Lambda (or other serverless platforms) include:

* App requires a language which is not available (C++, Haskell, Erlang, etc.)
* Organization has existing substantial investment in containerized (or other) app development model, including developer knowledge, build and deployment pipelines
* Portability is concern; i.e. the organization wants/needs to keep app in a state which is portable across platforms (AWS, Azure, various k8s implementations, and so on).
* Cost. Do costs of running the Lambda function(s), as well as associated resources (API Gateway, VPC components) exceed budget? This is unlikely if the org. is already running in AWS, but can be a factor when compared against existing (and paid-off) on-premise resources.


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2019-02-27. Score: 3

I wrote a bit about this on my [LinkedIn post](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6505772730418233344) which was based on the [article](https://serverless.com/blog/when-why-not-use-serverless) by [Andrea Passwater](https://serverless.com/author/andreapasswater/).

In brief, **do not go serverless, if**

1. You want complete control of the infrastructure and latest system patches
2. If your microservices are complex, and thus have some latency in starting up and computing output
3. You are not prepared for a heavy reliance on event-based architecture to monitor systems

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: So PAAS layers like cloud foundry or aws lambda should not be used in above cases  
> **username_4**: yes they shouldn't.  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2023-01-02. Score: 1

If your system doesnt have events which you want to handle or have something getting triggered then don't use lambda. I won't say that language should be a concern here since you can always rewrite that part into python or golang code. Lambda is difficult to handle for complex systems. Unless you are already using a web framework like rails or django which have their inbuilt way of handling routes, you do want to make use of aws lambda.


---

