Cloud-native applications are heading towards a world of microservices, with application logic encapsulated in small projects. Responding to events generated by humans and machines is emerging as an element of these architectures. Save a document and a PDF copy is prepared for you, upload an image and a thumbnail is built in the background, send a video and it gets tagged automagically. This session will look at how event-based services allow developers to focus on the application logic while the services hide the complexity of the infrastructure and handle auto-scaling transparently.

1. Codemotion Amsterdam 2016
IBM Bluemix OpenWhisk
The Future of Cloud Programming:
Wiring a Microservices Application Architecture to Respond to Events
Dr. Andreas Nauerz, Technical Product Manager | @AndreasNauerz

2. Please Note:
2
• IBM’s statements regarding its plans, directions, and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice at IBM’s sole
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Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve results similar to those stated here.

3. Agenda
• OpenWhisk in a nutshell
• Meet Dave & his team
• Learn about...
– …what OpenWhisk is and how it works
– …the value of OpenWhisk and how it compares to traditional models
– …what makes OpenWhisk so unique
• Learn about some usage scenarios
• Learn about the OpenWhisk programming model
• Live demo
• Summary & Questions
3

4. OpenWhisk in a nutshell
„Event-action platform to execute code in response to events“

5. OpenWhisk in a nutshell
Serverless deployment & operations model
We hide infrastructural and operational complexity allowing you to focus on coding:
You provide code – we execute it!
Optimal utilization, fair pricing at any scale
We provide you exactly with the resources you need – neither less nor more - and charge
you only for code really being executed
Flexible programming model & powerful tooling
We support multiple languages (incl. Swift) and even the execution of custom logic via
docker containers plus tools to declaratively chain your code snippets
Open & open ecosysten
Open to run anywhere to avoid any kind of vendor lock-in and to accelerate the
development of a powerful ecosystem

6. Meet Dave & his team
• Dave is lead architect of an online photo community and marketplace
– Operate a platform to…
• … share and sell photos
• … edit and categorize photos via manual tagging
6

7. Meet Dave & his team
• To remain competitive, Dave and his team need to continously add
innovative features
– Idea
• Provide a mobile app that allows to automatically sharpen, noise-reduce and
semantically analyze photos being uploaded
7

8. Meet Dave & his team
• Dave & his team start to collect requirements…
– Want to focus on developing value-adding code instead of low-
level infrastructural & operational details

9. Meet Dave & his team
• Dave & his team start to collect requirements…
– Want a flexible programming environment and model in order to
develop services in small & agile teams whereas each team can stick to
the technology it knows and loves instead of going for a one size fits it
all approach

10. Meet Dave & his team
• Dave & his team start to collect requirements…
– Need access to an open ecosystem of building blocks from
multiple domains and vendors to easily integrate existing
technologies to avoid reinventing the wheel over and over again

11. Meet Dave & his team
• Dave & his team start to collect requirements…
– Want to be able to compose powerful solutions by connecting and
even chaining these building blocks rather than continously
changing code

12. Meet Dave & his team
• Dave & his team start to collect requirements…
– Want to share and reuse created compositions (and other entities)
instead of causing redundancy

13. Meet Dave & his team
• Dave & his team start to collect requirements…
– Want to be able to outsource compute intensive tasks to a
powerful cloud platform

14. Meet Dave & his team
• Dave & his team start to collect requirements…
– Want to be charged for code executed instead of paying for
resources idling around

15. Meet Dave & his team
• Dave & his team start to collect requirements…
– Want to go with an open solution driven by a community to remain
flexible instead of vendor locked-in

16. OpenWhisk: Another way to build apps…
Build your apps, your way.
Use a combination of the most prominent open-source compute
technologies to power your apps. Then, let Bluemix handle the rest.
Ease of getting started Full stack Control
OpenWhisk
Event-driven apps,
deployed in a serverless
environment.
Instant Runtimes
App-centric runtime
environments based on
Cloud Foundry.
IBM Containers
Portable and consistent
delivery of your app
without having to manage
an OS.
Virtual Machines
Get the most flexibility
and control over your
environment with VMs.

17. OpenWhisk: How does it work?
}
11
Event Providers
OpenWhisk
Cloudant
Git
Weather
…
…
Data event occurs, e.g.
-Commit on a Git Repository
-CRUD operation on Cloudant
-….
Trigger execution
of associated
OpenWhisk action
22
…
JS Swift Docker …

18. OpenWhisk: How does it work?
OpenWhisk
JS Swift Docker …
Incoming HTTP request, e.g.
HTTP GET mynewcoolapp.com/customers
11 22 Invoke associated
OpenWhisk action
„getCustomers“
Browser
Mobile App
Web App
Variety of
languages
Variety of
languages

19. OpenWhisk: Comparison to traditional models
Swift
Application
Container VMCF
22
Polling
1b1b
Request
1a1a
• Traditional model
– Continous polling due to missing event
programming model
– Charged even when idling
– No auto-scaling
Process & idle

20. OpenWhisk: Comparison to traditional models
• OpenWhisk
– Introduces event programming model
– Charges only for what is used
– Auto-scales Pool of actions
Swift DockerJS
Trigger
11
Running
action
Running
action
Running
action
33
Deploy action within millisecs,
run it,
free up resources
OpenWhisk
Engine
22

21. Some usage Scenarios
OpenWhisk can help power
various mobile, web and IoT app
usecases by simplifying the
programming model of
orchestrating various services
using events without a dedicated
backend.
Digital app workloads Big Data/Analytics pipeline
Complex data pipeline for Big
Data/Analytics tasks can be scripted
using changes in data services or
streams for near real-time analytics
and feedback.
DevOps & infrastructure as code
OpenWhisk can be used to
automate DevOps pipeline based
on events triggered from
successful builds or completed
staging or a go-live event.
Micro-Services builder
OpenWhisk can be used to easily
build micro-services given the
footprint and programming model
desired by micro services

22. Programming model
• Services define the events they emit as triggers, and developers
associate the actions to handle the events via rules
• The developer only needs to care about implementing the desired
application logic - the system handles the rest
TT AA RR

23. Programming model
Trigger: „A class of events that can happen“TT

24. Programming model
Actions: „An event-handler, i.e. code that runs in response to an event“AA

25. Programming model
Actions: Multi-runtime support, e.g. JavaScriptAA
function main(msg) {
return { message: 'Hello, ' + msg.name + ' from ' + msg.place };
};

26. Programming model
Actions: Multi-runtime support, e.g. SwiftAA
func main(params:[String:Any]) -> [String:Any] {
var reply = [String:Any] ()
if let name = params[“name”] as? String {
print(“Hello (name)”)
reply[“msg”] = “Goodbye (name)”
}
return reply
}

27. Programming model
Actions: Multi-runtime support, e.g. Docker containersAA

28. Programming model
Actions: Can be chained to create sequences to increase flexibility and
foster reuse
AA
AA
AA := A1
A1 + A2
A2 + A3
A3
AB
AB := A2
A2 + A1
A1 + A3
A3
AC
AC := A3
A3 + A1
A1 + A2
A2

29. Programming model
Rules: „An association of a trigger and an action“RR
RR := TT AA

30. Programming model
Packages: „A shared collection of triggers and actions“PP
AA
AA read
write
TT changes AA translate AA forecast
AA post
TT topic
Open
Source AA myAction
TT myFeed
Yours
TT commit
Third
Party

31. Live demo

32. Summary
• OpenWhisk…
– allows you to focus on developing value-adding code
– provides you with a flexible programming model for small agile teams
– provides you with access to an open ecosystem of building blocks
– allows you to compose powerful solutions using modern abstraction
and chaining
– allows you to share and reuse what you have build
– allows you to outsource load & calculation intensive tasks
– only charges you for what you really use
– is available as open solution in which you can participate

33. Summary
• What else have we seen & learnt?
– Actions are executed, blocking or non-blocking, in response to events
– Actions can be in Node, Swift, or even Docker containers to execute
custom logic… and there is more to come
– Actions can even be chained to compose powerful solutions
– Out of the box support for event sources such as Cloudant and Github
as well as scheduled actions
– Tooling comprised of CLI, REST API, and iOS SDK
• What have we not seen? Complexity!

34. Join us today
• You want to try OpenWhisk on your own?
– Want to try out our IBM Bluemix OpenWhisk offering?
• Sign-up today at: https://new-console.ng.bluemix.net/openwhisk/
– Want to try out our open-source OpenWhisk offering?
• Visit: https://developer.ibm.com/openwhisk/

35. Questions?

36. Notices and Disclaimers
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38. Codemotion Amsterdam 2016
Thank You

39. Backup

40. Marchitecture
Trigger
Package
Feed
Package
Feed
Package
Feed
Package
Feed
REST
CLI iOS SDK
CRUD triggers, actions, and rules
Invoke actions
UI
Action
NodeJS
Action
Swift
Action
Docker
Rule
Rule
Rule
Action
NodeJS
Action
Docker
Service ecosytem
Bluemix services
3rd party services
Self-enabled services
Chain Chain Invoke