Have you heard of “serverless” computing? How about, “no code” solutions?
Lately, the art of selling “new things” by telling folks they’re “the opposite of the old standard” has really gotten popular, especially in tech. It’s “disrupting,” it’s “changing the way we do business!” Spoiler alert: There is no such thing as “serverless” and there’s no such thing as a “no code.” There’s always a server, there’s always code. Computers are still computers, and you still have to pay. I can hear some of you yelling back at me already, but please, don’t overlook what I’m about to say just because you read about it in a business or tech magazine (do people still read magazines?) I’m going to explain what the terms actually mean for the folks who aren’t up to speed on all this, and I’m going to support my above statements with facts.
So-called “serverless computing” is a bit of old-news these days, but “no code” solutions are “so hot right now” and likely going to get more popular until the market realizes… It’s not a panacea. Serverless means “you’re renting a server.” There’s more detail to it than that, but boiled down to the core – it’s renting a server. That server might not “exist” unless it’s being used, and you don’t have to manage a dedicated server to make things work in this model, hence the “serverless” claim, but.. there’s still a computer with programming that’s waiting to start doing something and eventually stop doing that thing. That’s a server. It’s just not your server, it’s likely Amazon’s or Microsoft’s, or some other major computing platform. It’s serverless in the same way a person who lives out of hotels 99% of the time is homeless.
“No Code” solutions are code generators. There’s still code – believe me there’s lots of code! It’s just that you may not have to write as much of it. The idea behind these products is to make it easier for non-coders to get things done that formerly required years of coding experience. It’s based on a lot of “dragging and dropping” and “templates.” While I can actually write code, I’ve actually grown to like the Divi builder for WordPress, and I’m finding Webflow to be very useful – so don’t think I’m here to say you shouldn’t make use of these tools or technologies. What I want to make clear is that switching to “serverless” and “no code” does not shield you from the fact that there’s still a server, still code required to make things run, and that server and/or code can fail. Pretending the servers and code aren’t there doesn’t make them go away.
Setting up a cloud computing system with on-demand services that are only billed for the time the code is running… that still requires configuration, and that configuration can be done wrong. Do some looking around and you’ll find examples of folks who accidentally left their compute instance running and got huge bills for it. You’ll also find that when there’s a Major Outage… entire products can vanish. It’s happened to Meta, it’s happened to Google, it can happen to you. Running “serverless” doesn’t help when the datacenter is offline. A site put together with a builder might look great, and yet still need some custom coding done in order to make things work exactly the way you intended (in fact I haven’t built a Divi site yet that didn’t require at least “some” coding), not to mention that the code being generated could be poorly written, or even broken altogether.
Don’t be fooled by cute marketing buzzwords! There’s always a server, there’s always code. There’s always a chance things might break. Your business might be able to leverage these technologies that claim to do away with the servers and the code, but try to remember that’s not entirely true. Make choices for your business based on knowledge, not buzzwords.
If you’d like help increasing your knowledge of the technology you use every day, book a call with me! I’ve worked with CEOs and interns, PHDs, folks who hated school, and all sorts of folks in between. I can help you get a handle on the tech so you aren’t as swayed by fancy lingo, and you’ll be ready to have a conversation with experts when you need to. Rather than build you a site and using your lack of tech skills as a means to assert control over the situation for myself, I will make sure you know what you need to so you can make the most of the tech that powers your business.