Serverless computing for next-generation application development

Serverless computing is a cloud computing model that abstracts server management, allowing developers to focus solely on writing code without concerns about the underlying infrastructure. This paradigm shift is transforming application development by reducing time to market, lowering costs, and enhancing scalability. In serverless computing, functions are event-driven and automatically scale in response to events such as data changes or user requests. Despite its advantages, serverless computing presents several research challenges, including managing state for ephemeral functions, mitigating cold start delays, optimizing function composition, debugging, efficient auto-scaling, resource management, and ensuring security and compliance. This special issue focused on addressing these challenges by promoting research on innovative solutions and exploring the potential of serverless computing in new application domains.