DigitalOcean launches serverless product for SMBs, startups

American cloud infrastructure provider DigitalOcean has announced a new serverless solution — DigitalOcean Functions — for startups and SMBs globally as well as in India. The new solution is a result of its acquisition of Nimbella last year, a Santa Clara-based cloud-native software stack in the serverless applications space.

“Serverless functions have been one of our most common customer requests,” said Gabe Monroy, Chief Product Officer of DigitalOcean. “That’s why we acquired Nimbella, a serverless platform in September 2021 to focus on seamless integration with our cloud,” he added.

Despite the proliferation of cloud computing in recent years, developers — particularly those in small businesses and startups — often complain about the considerable effort and cost involved in provisioning and scaling server infrastructure.

Monroy said, “DigitalOcean Functions will enable fast, scalable and cost-effective compute solutions that will allow small businesses and startups to build quickly, scale automatically, and save costs by eliminating the need to maintain and provision their own servers.”

DigitalOcean Functions will enable developers to build or expand their apps quickly without needing to manage the underlying infrastructure. Instead, applications will be able to scale automatically and instantly based on demand, making the solution ideal for unpredictable workloads.

According to IDC’s IaaSView buyer survey, 25% of cloud Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) buyers intend to utilise serverless functions in the next 12 months — one of the highest rates of planned adoption compared to other adjacent cloud services.   

“By adding native serverless tools and functions to its compute portfolio, companies like DigitalOcean can begin to capitalise on this growing demand from IaaS buyers,” said Andrew Smith, research manager, Cloud Infrastructure Services at IDC. 

DigitalOcean Functions is available now in all DigitalOcean data centre regions, the company said.