CODEWITHSUNDEEP
firebasefirebase-realtime-databasevirtual-machinegoogle-cloud-functionscold-start
Janaka Chathuranga
Janaka Chathuranga

Reputation: 1840

An Alternative for Firebase functions ? Is it okay to run them on a VM?

I am using firebase functions for an Uberlike product. I can't get expected performance. Specially it takes a long time to load data from realtime-db. Up to 2-3 seconds for a read. It's may be due to called start, which is discussed here. => Why is Cloud Functions for Firebase taking 25 seconds?

So I decided to move the functionality of these functions to a VM instance. Using firebase onWrite and admin SDK, a similar functionality can be achieved on a virtual machine.

Is it okay to do so? Will I get any scalability issue?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1170

Answers (1)

Frank van Puffelen
Frank van Puffelen

Reputation: 599081

It is definitely possible to run similar code on your own hardware/VM. In fact that is how many of Firebase's own back-end processes ran, before Cloud Functions was available.

What you'll miss is the auto-scaling of Cloud Functions though. Your machine/VM will always be running, and has a limited capacity (how much it can handle). Unlike Firebase, it has a fixed capacity.

Cloud Functions on the other hand, scaled down to 0 when there are no request, and scales up to meet demand as needed. Whether that is needed for your use-case, only you can determine.

Upvotes: 3

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