# What is Pi

## What is Pi?

> If you have questions about whether *Pi* is right for you, [contact Hyper Sales](mailto:contact@hyper.sh). If you have technical questions about Pi, use the [our forum](https://forum.hyper.sh), or contact us on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/hyper_sh).

*Pi* is a **Serverless Container Platform**. It is the simplest and fastest way to run containers in the cloud, bypassing all those infrastructure headaches, to let companies of all sizes embrace the value of containers immediately.

*Pi* is "Serverless" because there is no VM node, nor cluster in the system. To run containers, the only thing to do is to call Pi' RESTful API.

You might compare *Pi* with [Function-as-a-Service](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Function_as_a_service), with the difference that it runs Docker image, not function.

### *Pi* vs. FaaS

|                    | Pi                                          | FaaS          |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------- | ------------- |
| Artifact           | Docker Image                                | Source Code   |
| Supported Language | Anything (Code, Binary, Shell Script, etc.) | Limited       |
| API                | Kubernetes Pod API                          | AWS Specific  |
| Execution Instance | Container (Pod)                             | Function Call |

## Benefits

*Pi* gets out of the way where it matters, by making the processes of running containers as simple and fast as possible, so that companies can *run as many containers as as they want, at anytime, without preparing anything*.

* **INSTANT PROVISIONING** - In most cases, *Pi* takes only **3 seconds** to provision new containers from scratch. It is by far the fastest in the market.
* **NO CLUSTER TO MANAGE** - With Pi, you no longer need to provision, configure, and scale clusters of virtual machines to run containers. It lets you **focus on running workloads, no distraction of servers, nor distraction of clusters.**.
* **JUST-IN-TIME SCALING** - *Pi* allows applications to scale with **JIT** manner, thus eliminates the need to prepare extra capacity for peak.
* **COST EFFICIENT** - *Pi* uses a **Per Second** pricing model. Spin up 100 containers in 3 seconds, run 30s, shutdown in 1s, and only pay for 3+30+1=33s.
* **PERSISTENT DATA** – Run stateful workloads with Pi's persistent volume. Multiple replicas will be automatically created with each volume to protect your data from failures.
* **PRIVATE NETWORK Network (FREE)** - *Pi* creates default private network for each user. Your container traffic is safely isolated from the rest. And the best part is that all traffic is FREE!

## Features

*Pi* provides the following features:

* [**Pod**](https://hyperhq.gitbook.io/pi-docs/feature/pod) - atomic group of one or more containers.
* [**Rootfs**](https://hyperhq.gitbook.io/pi-docs/feature/rootfs) - temporary disk space for containers in the pod, available along with the pod lifecycle.
* [**Volume**](https://hyperhq.gitbook.io/pi-docs/feature/volume) - persistent storage for stateful workload, automatically replicated to protect your data from failures.
* [**Network**](https://hyperhq.gitbook.io/pi-docs/feature/network) - Layer-2 private network dedicated to your account to isolate your traffic from the rest customers.
* [**Service**](https://hyperhq.gitbook.io/pi-docs/feature/service) - Kubernetes abstraction to provide a network connection to one or more pods. For more detail see the background on [how services work](http://kubernetes.io/docs/user-guide/services).
* [**Floating IP**](https://github.com/hyperhq/docs.hyper.sh-pi/tree/57b9e9e5e7a5461dd5347ae2dbef97fc62ebd239/Feature/fip.md) - Static public IPv4 address to associate with your pod, making them accessible on the Internet.
* [**Secret**](https://hyperhq.gitbook.io/pi-docs/feature/secret) - Encrypted object that contains a small amount of sensitive data such as a password, a token, or a key.
* [**Region**](https://hyperhq.gitbook.io/pi-docs/feature/region-and-zone) - Separate geographic physical data centers, completely indepedent from one another.
* [**Availability Zones**](https://hyperhq.gitbook.io/pi-docs/feature/region-and-zone) - Isolated physical locations within a region, interconnected through low-latency links.