Execution of Long-Duration Multi-Cloud Serverless Functions Using Selective Migration-Based Approach

Abstract

A relatively new paradigm for the Cloud-based software deployment is serverless computing. By adopting stateless loosely-coupled functions, the system can obtain many compositions for several purposes. Contrarily to monolithic approach, serverless computing facilitates the evolution of the applications, since the functions may be independently scheduled for reconstitution. Nevertheless, serverless computing dictates that function execution should be within a short duration (five minutes max in most Cloud platforms), after which the function is abruptly ended even if it has not completed its task. This leads to prevent functions requiring longer time from being adopted as Serverless functions. This paper deals with this drawback. It proposes a migration-based approach that promotes the execution of long-duration serverless functions: each running function that reaches the maximum time limit is repeatedly transferred to another cloud platform where it is carried on. At each migration step, the destination cloud is selected regarding the most relevant criteria.