Why might a company choose to use a serverless architecture?

A company might choose to use a serverless architecture primarily to focus on application development without the burden of managing infrastructure. Serverless computing allows developers to build and deploy applications without worrying about the underlying servers, allowing them to concentrate on writing code and enhancing functionality. This model abstracts away server management tasks such as provisioning, scaling, and maintenance, thus reducing operational overhead.

In a serverless environment, resources are automatically allocated as needed, which enables rapid scaling in response to demand without manual intervention. This not only accelerates the development lifecycle but also allows teams to innovate more freely, as they can deploy features and updates quickly without being hindered by infrastructure concerns.

The other options reflect scenarios that are counterproductive to the serverless paradigm. Manual management of server infrastructure contradicts the very essence of serverless architecture. Running all applications on-premises does not align with the elastic nature and scalability benefits commonly associated with serverless models, which typically leverage cloud environments. Additionally, increasing reliance on specific hardware contradicts the goal of a serverless architecture, which aims for flexibility and scalability by abstracting hardware concerns entirely.