This document discusses serverless computing and Function as a Service (FaaS). It defines FaaS and compares it to PaaS, listing some key differences like FaaS using functions as the unit of computation and being job-oriented without provisioning. It lists several popular FaaS providers like AWS Lambda and provides examples of using FaaS for different use cases like Alexa skills and AWS IoT. It also discusses the serverless.com platform for developing and deploying serverless applications and functions. Finally, it notes some pros and cons of FaaS, like its lean development but potential challenges with debugging.

1. 27.03.2017
Serverless Computing / FaaS

2. About me
Co-Founder and CTO
Voice and chat user interfaces in combination with
AI to boost productivity at the workplace.
botconnect.io
Senior Analyst in Residence
Observing the technology industry and its impact on business and
society to deliver insight and foresight.
crisp-research.com

3. What is FaaS?
Trigger Function Integration
… in the cloud*
* for discussion of serverless computing on premise see Hausenblas: Serverless Ops

4. FaaS vs PaaS
• unit of computation
is a function
• job oriented
• no provisioning
• transparent
autoscaling
• low latency*
* 10 - 100 ms for Javascript and Python, >10s for JVM under certain conditions

5. FaaS providers
• Amazon AWS Lambda
• Microsoft Azure Functions
• Google Cloud Functions
• IBM Bluemix OpenWhisk
• Iron Functions*
• Galactic Fog Gestalt Framework*
* Open Source

6. Differences in offerings
• triggers
• programming languages
• pricing
• cloud / on-premise

7. How to use
example: AWS Lambda
• create lambda function
• choose template
• choose trigger
• configure function
• implement function

8. Use Case Alexa
• templates:
alexa skills
templates
• trigger: alexa
skills kit
• function:
handling
intents

9. Use Case AWS IoT
• templates: IoT templates
• trigger: AWS IoT
• function: handling MQTT message

10. Use Case API Gateway
• templates: api
gateway / microservice
templates
• trigger: API gateway
• function: handling http
requests
Other services
User
HTTP requests
Integration requests
API Gateway
Lambda

11. serverless.com
Source: serverless.com

12. serverless.com
• serverless CLI
• credentials (e. g. .aws/credentials)
• serverless.yml (service)
• handler.js (function)

13. serverless.com / workflow
serverless create
serverless deploy
serverless remove
Source: serverless.com

14. Serverless.com / functions
Source: serverless.com

15. Serverless.com / events
Source: serverless.com

16. Serverless.com / very simple example
serverless.yml
handler.js
aws api gateway

17. Conclusions
• „serverless" is a confusing name
• FaaS is still in an early stage
• not the right approach for every
problem
• pros: development / deployment /
operations / scaling / lean & fast
• cons: debugging / monitoring

18. Resources
• https://martinfowler.com/
articles/serverless.html
• http://www.oreilly.com/
webops-perf/free/
serverless-ops.csp

19. thank you
moritz.strube@mac.com
@mostwi