Cloud Functions
Event-driven functions (now Cloud Run functions).
Problem it solves: Spiky or infrequent workloads waste always-on capacity.
Where it sits: Triggered by HTTP, queues or storage events.
When to use
- Spiky, short tasks; glue code.
When not to use
- Latency-critical paths sensitive to cold starts; long-running jobs.
Failure modes
- Cold starts add latency.
- Concurrency limits throttle bursts.
Metrics to watch
- Invocations/s
- Cold-start rate
- Throttles
Alternatives
- Stateless worker on a queue
Configuration in Labs (illustrative defaults)
- Instances (count) = 20 — Identical copies behind this logical component. Capacity scales linearly in this model.
- Capacity per instance (req/s) = 100 — Maximum requests one instance completes per second before it saturates.
- Base service time (ms) = 40 — Processing time per request at zero load. Queueing adds to this as utilisation rises.
Vendor examples (pattern only): Google Cloud managed service. Simulated as a generic “Serverless function”.