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IBM Cloud Functions

IBM Cloud Functions

Overview

What is IBM Cloud Functions?

IBM Cloud Functions is a PaaS platform based on Apache OpenWhisk. With it, developers write code (“actions”) that respond to external events. Actions are hosted, executed, and scaled on demand based on the number of events coming in. No servers…

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Recent Reviews

Not the worse IBM product

3 out of 10
June 01, 2021
Our IBM Cloud Functions [connects] various services by picking up JSON data from buckets at a certain time interval, modifying it, and …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

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Pricing

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Basic Cloud Functions Rate

$0.00017

Cloud
per second of execution

API Gateway Rate

Free

Cloud

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://console.bluemix.net/openwhisk/l…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Details

What is IBM Cloud Functions?

IBM Cloud Functions is a serverless programming platform based on Apache OpenWhisk. Developers use their favorite programming language to write code (“actions”) that responds to external events. Actions are hosted and executed in IBM Cloud, and scale on demand based on the number of events coming in. There are no servers or other infrastructure to provision and manage.

Actions respond to a variety of events. Typical events include periodic timers for batch job processing, HTTP-based API requests for implementing RESTful APIs using Functions, and responding to change events requests from IBM Cloud services like Cloudant and IBM Cloud Event Streams, and third-party events like Slack and GitHub state changes.

Because Cloud Functions is a serverless, event-driven platform, you don't need to explicitly provision servers. Developers working with chatbots, blockchain, AI, APIs, microservices, mobile, IoT, and many other apps can focus on writing app logic instead of worrying about auto-scaling, high availability, updates, and maintenance. Out of the box auto-scaling and load balancing means that you don't have to manually configure clusters, http plugins, and so on. IBM takes care of all of the hardware, networking, and software administration. All you have to do is provide the code.

Visit our Docs pages for pricing and support information.

IBM Cloud Functions Features

Additional Features

  • Supported: Elastic load balancing
  • Supported: Template library of pre-written functions encapsulating common use cases
  • Supported: Runtime build pack support for NodeJS, Python 2.7, Python 3, Swift, Ruby, Java, and executable programs written in Go, C++, shell script, etc.
  • Supported: “Bring Your Own Container” runtime support – users can provide a docker container image for their function action(s).

IBM Cloud Functions Integrations

  • GitHub
  • Any 3rd party service where they support a webhook/trigger API (e.g. slack
  • twilio)

IBM Cloud Functions Competitors

IBM Cloud Functions Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesUnited States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany
Supported LanguagesEnglish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portugese/Brazil, Spanish, Chinese simplified & traditional

Frequently Asked Questions

IBM Cloud Functions is a PaaS platform based on Apache OpenWhisk. With it, developers write code (“actions”) that respond to external events. Actions are hosted, executed, and scaled on demand based on the number of events coming in. No servers or infrastructure to provision and manage.

AWS Lambda and Azure Functions are common alternatives for IBM Cloud Functions.

The most common users of IBM Cloud Functions are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(57)

Reviews

(1-7 of 7)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
IBM Cloud Functions [is] not the worse product on the IBM cloud. I decided to write this review as I thought it would be balanced. I would still use functions to set up a serverless architecture where execution time is pretty quick and the code is relatively simple.
I wouldn't use IBM Cloud Functions for async calls obviously, as costs could be higher. The functions documentation is lacking in terms of CI/CD, and there are unexplainable errors occurring - like the network connection that I mentioned. So I wouldn't just rely on IBM Cloud Functions too much for the entire system, but make sure it's diversified.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
These functions are good if you are trying to diminish the overhead of API maintenance and support. Not too difficult to build and deploy. Good for doing model inference, or data validation. This is not good for doing tasks that take a long time. Not good for high compute and not good for things you are doing multiple times a minute.
Badheka, Amit | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IBM Cloud Functions are well suited for:
1. Lightweight micro-service development for cloud-based applications
2. Event-based data processing that requires dynamic scaling
3. Cost reductions where application does not require to use functions all the time
4. ICF is good where you need integration with many external service providers

ICF may not be a good solution where an application is not modularized in fine-grained services or functions.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Apache OpenWhisk has some limitations when it comes to scalability. Other platforms like Amazon Web Services might be better-suited for businesses looking to leverage schedules or sources to launch events, but IBM's Cloud Functions are still great for smaller companies looking for similar features at a more competitive price point.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Cloud functions are best for usage for infrequent or unpredicted events when you care about performance scalability and cost. Cloud functions are less appropriate when we running time depends on 3rd party and the functions might be waiting for a response for long periods, and are actually idling.
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