“The term serverless is still quite new in the technology community, and can be confusing to folks who see it without context or explanation. In particular, there still are servers, but someone else is managing them. It's definitely not code running in the ether. So it's less likely you'll see a Google use 'serverless' in a product name for at least a little while longer while the term gains adoption. In the meantime however, we definitely use 'serverless' to describe tools like Cloud Functions, BigQuery, App Engine and Firebase.”

"As-a-service' categories are at the heart of serverless tech.  The most relevant category with respect to analytics is Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS), a platform that links web and mobile applications to back end data storage and resources. BaaSs is meant to expose back end APIs to applications, while providing collaboration features such as user management, push notifications, and analytics.  A virtual program meant to hold a custom code is usually considered a Managed-Function-as-a- Service (or Function-as-a-Service).  It serves as a container platform from which a code can execute a task.

“Serverless tools can help marketers in two ways: First, for groups that are building technical solutions, serverless tools may result in teams being more efficient in both engineering staff (due to offloading many operations concerns to the cloud provider), and in cost (due to pay-per-use economics). Secondly, serverless tools like BigQuery remove a layer of technical complexity which can create opportunities for subject matter experts to write code or run queries without having to necessarily go through an IT staff member.”