| "Server" can mean many things. A few (obvious) meanings: * A role in the client-server model. One machine makes requests and asks for info or things to be done, and the other end executes the request. * The physical (or virtual) machine that runs the processes that fulfill the server role * A class of "serious" machines that do important stuff somewhere not directly facing the end user (desktop or mobile device). * A unit of administration: the thing you log in with ssh, install/update software, rotate logs, organize user accounts on, create groups, handle file permissions, craft backup scripts, cron jobs, handle disk space, and generally care about filesystem health etc etc etc As you correctly pointed out, the "serverless" buzzword clearly talks about code that has to run on some machine, which is not your desktop or mobile device, so it's still about the client-server model and it's still running in servers, which ultimately have ti be administered by somebody somehow. The "less" suffix in the buzzword means that that person is not you. You don't have to manage the server. It's hard to find a better word. Sysadminless? NoPet? JustRunIt? FocusOnMyCode? All names have their drawbacks. My main qualm with serverless is not that there are servers involved, but that it's not clear what is serverless and what it's not. For example, is kubernetes a serverless platform? As a user if it (not an admin) you don't need to worry about any of the good old sysadmin chores, i.e. you don't manage the actual servers where your code runs. Otoh generally when people talk about serverless they don't talk about abstractions like kubernetes but usually about going on step further in the abstaction ladder and imagine a world that's not only "serverless" but "processless", where you don't build software and deploy it somewhere but where you write some "functions" and map of them to some endpoint and the system takes care of figuring out how to build, deploy and manage the full lifecycle. |