What is a Serverless Database: A Comprehensive Guide
A serverless database is a fully managed database-as-a-service (DBaaS) that allocates and scales compute and storage resources automatically and elastically with demand.
What is a Serverless Database?
Serverless databases defined
A serverless database allows developers to fully focus on architecting and building applications, while outsourcing operations like provisioning, managing, and scaling resources needed to run those applications to cloud providers.
Servers are still needed in serverless, but developers don't need to worry about their management. Serverless databases use a pay-as-you-go pricing model. Instead of paying for servers and their capacity, customers only pay for the resources their applications use, such as function execution time, persistent storage space, or number of read and write operations.
Let's look at the defining characteristics of a serverless database:
| Characteristic | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Cloud-hosted | A serverless database is a cloud-based database service accessed via APIs. For example, Astra DB runs on multiple cloud platforms, including AWS, GCP, and Azure, and supports APIs such as Stargate REST, GraphQL, and Document APIs. |
| Fully managed | The cloud service provider handles maintenance tasks such as backup and restore, security and encryption, monitoring, and performance tuning, Astra DB automatically manages data replication and handles server failures to ensure high availability. |
| Built-in autoscaling | Compute and storage resources are automatically scaled up or down based on demand. Astra DB can quickly scale during demand spikes and scale down when demand declines, optimizing both performance and cost. |
| Billed based on data usage | Billing is based on usage metrics, such as number of read/write requests and storage consumption, instead of the number or type of servers. Astra DB charges for data movement, storage, and read/write requests, ensuring customers only pay for what they use. |
A quick explanation of serverless architecture
Broadly, serverless is a cloud-native development and execution model that enables developers to run their own code or use third-party services without the need to manage servers or any other infrastructure units. Serverless architecture refers to applications that use either serverless functions, serverless backends, or both. For example, an application that relies on a serverless database, to store and retrieve data is said to have a serverless architecture.
Serverless offerings typically come in two flavors:
- Function-as-a-service (FaaS) enables the creation of serverless code or functions where the execution is triggered by events. FaaS examples include Amazon Web Services Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, and Microsoft Azure Functions.
- Backend-as-a-service (BaaS) adds functionality to an application using serverless, third-party services accessible via APIs. BaaS examples include a serverless database like DataStax Astra DB or a serverless data warehouse like Google BigQuery.
While serverless architecture may seem like a new term today, cloud-native applications are increasingly relying on serverless design to benefit from improved developer productivity, faster time to market, and lower operational costs. Serverless architecture is the next evolutionary step in cloud-native application development.
The main benefits of serverless databases
Serverless databases have a variety of benefits, including:
Higher productivity and simpler operations
With no infrastructure management, no capacity planning, and no manual scaling, operations are greatly simplified. Developers can spend the time saved on application design, business logic, and coding. The result? Higher productivity and faster time to market.
Reduced operational costs
Serverless databases can significantly reduce operational costs. There is no need to pay for data centers, servers, networks, power, cooling, or human resources. Cloud service providers are able to accommodate multiple tenants sharing the same infrastructure and services, resulting in lower costs for each individual tenant. Furthermore, a serverless database user only pays for usage, such as space consumed and requests executed. As an example, Astra DB is able to use and share resources very efficiently, making it possible to reduce the total cost of ownership by 75 percent compared to a self-managed database.
Elasticity and autoscaling.
Automatic scaling, up and down with demand, is an exceptionally important feature of serverless databases. It reduces costs by scaling down when demand is low, and increases availability and throughput by scaling up when demand is high. Elasticity and autoscaling are at the core of any serverless database design.
Download our free whitepaper to learn more — Astra DB: Designing a Serverless Cloud-Native DBaaS
Popular serverless databases
Based on supported data models, serverless databases can be classified into two broad categories:
- Serverless relational databases, such as Amazon Aurora Serverless and Azure SQL Database Serverless.
- Serverless NoSQL databases, such as DataStax Astra DB, Google Firestore, Azure Cosmos DB, and Fauna DB.
Serverless relational databases use the relational data model and SQL to manage and query data. Amazon Aurora Serverless is perhaps the most well-known example of a serverless relational database.
Serverless NoSQL databases can be further divided into key-value, tabular, document, and graph databases. However, many serverless NoSQL databases support multiple models.
Disadvantages of building on a serverless database
Serverless databases inherit some disadvantages associated with managed cloud services. These include vendor lock-in, multi-tenancy, and data privacy concerns. Any serverless solution may naturally reduce control over configuration, monitoring, and debugging.
Some of these disadvantages can be mitigated. For example, DataStax Astra DB can run in multiple clouds, including AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. It's also based on open-source Apache Cassandra® and supports open-source Stargate APIs. So, vendor lock-in shouldn't be an issue. To mitigate multi-tenancy concerns, Astra DB uses shuffle sharding for performance and fault isolation. And, whether at rest or in motion, data is always encrypted and isolated for each individual tenant.
Industries adopting serverless databases
Any business that requires ultra-responsive apps and websites, easy and automatic scalability, and always-on availability can benefit from the adoption of serverless databases. That means they can help organizations in just about every industry. That's especially true for cloud-native companies or those that have made the move to the cloud.
Serverless databases also allow a shift in focus from IT infrastructure and maintenance to spending the saved time and resources crafting the best experiences, products, websites, and applications possible for customers. And, these days, extremely high customer expectations is a common trait across all organizations, whether they are B2B, B2C, or B2B2C.
So, it's no surprise that a wide range of companies are using serverless databases. Let's take a closer look at three industries where the technology is proving its value.
Financial services and banking
Financial institutions require responsive, secure systems to manage sensitive transactions and comply with strict regulations. Serverless databases enable these organizations to distribute and replicate data across geographically dispersed data centers, ensuring built-in availability, resilience, and scalability. This approach reduces costs by provisioning resources on demand, ensuring high availability and low latency and freeing development teams to focus on creating innovative, customer-centric products.Telecommunications
In the fast-paced telecommunications industry, constant connectivity is critical. With the web, mobile devices, social media, remote work, and video conferencing, we are all a click of a mouse or a tap of a screen away from one another. Serverless databases manage enormous volumes of real-time data exchanges and unpredictable traffic surges by automatically scaling resources as needed. This flexibility enhances network reliability and speed, enabling telecommunication companies to support real-time exchanges and sudden jumps in traffic, while also developing new offerings that add real value for customers and keep users connected around the clock.
E-commerce and retail
Customers expect speed and convenience when shopping on any device, whether it’s their computer, phone, or tablet. For e-commerce and retail companies, delivering a consistently fast and personalized shopping experience is essential, especially during high-traffic events like Black Friday. Serverless databases automatically adjust to handle massive demand spikes and integrate real-time analytics, powering recommendation engines and multichannel interactions. This reliability allows retailers to focus on improving the customer experience without the overhead of managing complex backend infrastructure.
Internet of Things (IoT)e
The Internet of Things (IoT) includes billions of physical devices connected to the internet, from vehicles and sensors to cameras and appliances, that generate vast amounts of data used for everything from weather tracking and inventory management to security monitoring. IoT applications demand reliable connectivity, real-time processing, and the flexibility to handle sudden spikes in device activity.
Serverless databases automatically scale to meet these fluctuating loads, ensuring uninterrupted data flow and efficient processing while reducing operational costs by offloading backend maintenance. This high availability and dynamic resource allocation enables organizations to invest in expanding their IoT ecosystems and leverage advanced analytics for smarter decision-making.
Can serverless databases help your team?
By removing operational responsibilities, serverless databases can help your team focus on your company's core competencies—areas where differentiation and advantages over your competition can be pursued—and on providing value to your customers. Serverless technology helps boost those advantages by providing a platform for agile and rapid development, automatic scaling, and always-on availability. And, since you only pay for what you use, it all comes at a lower price tag than a traditional IT infrastructure where your own physical servers and the skilled staff to run them is required. It's no wonder serverless databases are being adopted in a wide range of industries for a broad array of applications.
We hope this overview of serverless databases, along with top providers to keep an eye on and industries taking advantage of the technology, has been helpful.
Learn more about DataStax Astra DB serverless architecture
FAQs
1. What is a serverless database, and how does it work?
A serverless database is a database solution that eliminates the need for developers to manage database infrastructure, database servers, or database instances. Instead, a cloud service provider dynamically allocates database resources based on demand. This serverless architecture allows businesses to reduce operational overhead and focus on application performance rather than capacity planning or infrastructure management.
2. How does a serverless database differ from traditional databases?
The key differences between a serverless database and traditional databases lie in infrastructure management and resource consumption. A traditional database requires dedicated database servers and manual capacity planning, while a serverless database automatically scales compute resources and storage resources as needed. This eliminates the management burden, reducing costs and enabling faster development cycles.
3. What are the benefits of using a serverless database?
Serverless databases provide elastic scaling, high availability, and reduced database costs by allowing businesses to pay for the resources they actually use. Serverless technology improves application performance by dynamically allocating compute and storage resources. Since the underlying infrastructure is managed by the cloud provider, development teams can focus on business logic and building high-performance applications without worrying about database load or data centers. Astra DB, a fully managed serverless NoSQL database built on Apache Cassandra, delivers automated scaling, continuous availability, and real-time performance—making it ideal for modern, data-intensive applications that require global scale and low latency.
4. What are some popular serverless databases?
Popular serverless databases include Astra DB, Amazon Aurora Serverless, Google Firestore, and other serverless NoSQL databases like DynamoDB. These fully managed services leverage serverless computing to automatically scale based on demand while maintaining high performance and availability. Astra DB stands out by combining the resilience and scalability of Cassandra with the simplicity of a serverless experience, offering multi-cloud flexibility and real-time responsiveness.
5. How does a serverless database impact database costs?
A serverless database reduces costs by eliminating the need to provision physical servers or manage a full database stack. Instead of paying for idle capacity, businesses only pay for the resources they consume—such as storage, compute, and database operations. This consumption-based pricing model ensures cost efficiency and scalability without waste. Astra DB follows this same model, enabling teams to optimize database costs while still benefiting from enterprise-grade performance, automated scaling, and zero infrastructure overhead.
