This chapter has introduced serverless and Docker, the definition of serverless, and the definition of FaaS. We learned the benefits of serverless, when to use it, and when to avoid it. A serverless FaaS is a FaaS platform run by a vendor on a public cloud, while a FaaS may be required to run on a private, a hybrid, or an on-premises environment. This is where we can use Docker. Docker will help us build FaaS applications, and prepare container infrastructure to run container-based functions.

We previewed the demo project that will be built step by step in later chapters. We then quickly did hello world with all three leading FaaS platforms for Docker to demonstrate how easy it is to run FaaS platforms on our own Docker cluster.

In the next chapter, we will review the concepts of the container, and the technologies behind it. We will also introduce Docker and its workflow, then we will learn the concept of the Docker Swarm cluster and how to prepare it. And finally, we will discuss how Docker fits into the world of serverless.