What is a Function as a Service (FaaS)?

Function as a Service (FaaS) is the core computing component of serverless architecture. It is a cloud service model where developers deploy individual functions — discrete units of code — and the cloud provider handles execution environment setup, scaling, and infrastructure management. Each function: is triggered by a specific event (HTTP request, queue message, database event), runs in its own isolated execution environment, executes and returns a result, and then the environment is torn down. Examples: AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, Azure Functions, Cloudflare Workers. FaaS contrasts with IaaS (you manage VMs), PaaS (you manage applications on managed infrastructure), and CaaS (you manage containers). FaaS is the most abstract — you manage only the code.