What type of architecture does Alibaba Cloud's Function Compute employ?

Alibaba Cloud's Function Compute employs a serverless architecture, which is a key feature that allows developers to focus on writing code without the complexity of managing the underlying infrastructure. In serverless architecture, the cloud provider automatically manages the execution and scaling of applications, enabling users to run their code in response to events without having to provision or maintain servers.

This model offers flexibility, as it allows users to execute functions in a highly scalable and event-driven environment. With serverless computing, resources are allocated and utilized as needed, leading to cost efficiency since users typically pay only for the compute time consumed.

Other architectures, such as microservices, monolithic, and distributed architectures, each have their specific use cases and characteristics. Microservices architecture breaks down applications into smaller, independently deployable services, but it still requires management of the service instances. Monolithic architecture refers to a single unified application that can be harder to scale and update. Distributed architecture involves multiple interconnected systems which can increase complexity in terms of coordination and management.

The choice of serverless architecture for Function Compute fundamentally reflects the goal of simplifying application deployment and scaling while enabling developers to concentrate on coding rather than infrastructure management.