EUFUNDS

Functionizer – Support for Serverless Applications in a Multi-Cloud Environment

Project acronym:

E11990 – Functionizer

Programme:

Eurostars-2

Funded by:

The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR)

Duration:

1 June 2018 – 31 May 2021

Total project budget:

€901,975.75

Funding support for 7bulls.com:

1,598,420.28 PLN

Website:

https://h2020.melodic.cloud/functionizer/

CONTEXT AND CHALLENGE

Serverless computing was designed to simplify application development and operations by abstracting infrastructure management. In practice, however, most Function-as-a-Service platforms are tightly coupled to individual cloud providers, limiting portability and flexibility.

This single-cloud confinement makes it difficult for organizations to optimize execution based on cost, performance, latency, or availability, and increases the risk of vendor lock-in. As workloads evolve and cloud offerings change, serverless applications often lack mechanisms to move or adapt across providers without manual intervention.

Functionizer addresses this challenge by extending serverless execution beyond individual cloud platforms, enabling functions to operate across heterogeneous cloud environments in a coordinated and transparent way.

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See results and impact

Project objective

The objective of the Functionizer project was to enable execution and migration of serverless functions across multiple cloud providers without requiring changes to application code.

To achieve this, the project developed mechanisms for analysing functions and orchestrating their execution across clouds based on runtime and cost conditions.

Scope and approach

Functionizer was a research and development project running from 2018 to 2021, delivered by a small international consortium.

The project developed a provider-agnostic execution layer for serverless applications, enabling cross-cloud deployment and execution without coupling functions to a single cloud platform. Within the project, 7bulls.com designed and implemented the core orchestration and optimisation mechanisms for multi-cloud serverless execution.

Serverless execution workflow

Functionizer applies an automated workflow for multi-cloud serverless execution.

The process starts with analysing serverless functions and cloud environments to understand execution characteristics, resource requirements, and cost models. Based on this analysis, the system selects the most suitable cloud provider for each function invocation.

Functions can be deployed, migrated, and re-routed dynamically across clouds during runtime, allowing execution decisions to adapt continuously as workloads, pricing, or performance conditions change.

Technical focus

The Functionizer platform integrates:

analysis of serverless functions and execution profiles,
dynamic selection of cloud providers based on cost and performance criteria,
cross-cloud orchestration and deployment of serverless functions,
transparent migration and routing without application-level changes,
runtime optimisation adapting to workload and infrastructure conditions.

Together, these capabilities enable serverless applications to operate as portable, cloud-agnostic workloads across multiple providers.

Experimental Development

Application domains

Functionizer is applicable to domains where serverless computing is used and flexibility across providers is required, including:

cloud-native application backends,
event-driven and microservice-based systems,
workloads sensitive to cost, latency, or availability.

Target users

Functionizer is designed for:

organizations adopting serverless architectures across cloud platforms,
teams seeking to reduce vendor lock-in in Function-as-a-Service environments,
architects and operators managing dynamic, cost-sensitive cloud workloads.

Results and impact

Results and expected outcomes

The Functionizer project delivers a multi-cloud execution model that extends serverless computing beyond single-provider boundaries.

By enabling dynamic cloud selection and cross-cloud execution, the project demonstrates how serverless applications can achieve greater portability, resilience, and cost efficiency in heterogeneous cloud environments.

Consortium: 7bulls.com (Poland), Holisun SRL (Romania)

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