Introduction to Serverless Architecture

@JarredOlson

http://getstepitup.com

http://www.jarredolson.com/speaking/serverless/index.html

Bad Software Architecture

• Inability to scale

• Slow performance

• Increased time to deliver features

• Loss of income

http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkepes/2015/06/03/30-of-servers-are-sitting-comatose-according-to-research/

#3b3df47f2c2e

What is serverless?

What is serverless?

• Backend as a Service (BaaS)

• Function as a Service (FaaS)

Backend as a Service (BaaS)

3rd party services with simple APIs to handle common backend features. For example,

authentication and authorization, push notifications, storage, etc.

Backend as a Service (BaaS)

https://aws.amazon.com/s3/

Backend as a Service (BaaS)

https://auth0.com/

Backend as a Service (BaaS)

https://firebase.google.com/

Client (browser)

Application Server

Save File

Client (browser)

Get Auth

Save File

Facebook

S3

Application Server

BaaS Demo

Backend as a Service (BaaS)

• Why reinvent the wheel?

• Startups and New projects

• Cost analysis

–Mike Roberts

“Stateless compute containers that are event-triggered, (last a short time), and fully managed

by a 3rd party…”

Function as a Service (FaaS)

http://martinfowler.com/articles/serverless.html

Isn’t that just ‘the cloud’?

No

The Cloud

• Decide on Operating System

• Install tools that install tools: yum, apt-get

• Install tools: tomcat, apache, nginx, java, php, ruby…

• Have an upgrade plan for tools

• Have an upgrade plan for the OS

• Be responsible for security patches

So how is FaaS different?

Function as a Service (FaaS)

• Stateless

• Event-triggered

• Last a short time

• Fully managed by a 3rd party

Function

Event

FaaS

• Upload code

• Runtime (Java, Python, Node.js)

• Define the entry point

• Memory

Trigger

Function

Trigger

Trigger

Trigger

Event

Event

Event

FaaS Demo

Cost

$0.00001667 (1/60,000 th of a cent) for every GB/s used.

$0.20 for every 1 million requests

Serverless Architecture Pros

• Can save money

• Provides horizontal scalability

• Focus on your business

When should I use a Serverless Architecture?

• Microservices

• Processing items in a queue

• Traffic is highly inconsistent or unknown

• Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

• Developing IoT

Serverless Architecture Cons

• Vendor specific

• Testing

• Lack of tooling

When should I not use a Serverless Architecture?

• Don’t go looking for a problem to fit a solution

• If it’s going to cause problems downstream

• Stateful operations, Workflows

Closing Thoughts

Thank You!

• http://martinfowler.com/articles/serverless.html

• https://d0.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/AWS_Serverless_Multi-Tier_Architectures.pdf

• https://www.manning.com/books/serverless-architectures-on-aws

• https://aws.amazon.com/developers/getting-started/browser/