A serverless application executing within a specific cloud platform uses network resources to communicate with external services. These applications, when initiating outgoing network connections, utilize specific internet protocol addresses to identify the source of the traffic. Understanding these addresses is critical for security, network configuration, and integration with other systems. For example, a serverless function accessing a database hosted on a different network will present traffic originating from a specific address or range of addresses.
Visibility and control over these egress points offers significant advantages. Identifying the source addresses allows for the implementation of network security rules, such as whitelisting, ensuring that only authorized functions can access sensitive resources. This also facilitates integration with third-party services that rely on IP address filtering for security or access control. Historically, managing egress addresses in serverless architectures presented challenges, but modern cloud platforms offer mechanisms to control and predict these values. This capability streamlines operations, simplifies security management, and enhances the overall reliability of serverless deployments.
