Ask HN: Have you shipped anything serious with a “serverless” architecture?

Post by tortilla » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 3:41 PM UTC

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 3:46 PM UTC

cagenut wrote: post #124

As an ops person this is a super interesting question, so its really kindof surreal to read dozens of replies wherein not a single one mentions throughput, tail latency, or error rate measurements.

Post by anothergoogler » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 3:50 PM UTC

_bxg1 wrote: post #160

CodeM0nkey wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard the analagy used that "Servers are to Serverless what wires are to wireless", the main point being that they're still there, but they're no longer something you manage or directly interact with. I'm also starting to see the term LaaS (Logic as a Service) used as an alternative to "Serverless" here and there.

I think the analogy falls apart because in the part of the system that's referred to as "wireless", there is literally no wire. The serverless comparison would be more like if they used a lot of zip ties and some well-placed rugs so you never saw the wires going directly to you computer and called that "wireless". LaaS sounds much more accurate/palatable.

Post by simplesleeper » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 3:58 PM UTC

tomspeak wrote: post #153

simplesleeper wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found functions apps have a slow startup time, but once they are going, they perform pretty fast. I think we currently don't have any functions in time-sensitive streams (they're rather new, so they are used for new features such as Oyster automated refunds, which can be applied a few days later if need be), so when I say we haven't had any performance issues with them, it has to be taken with a pinch of salt. I…

This is fascinating stuff — every time I use my oyster card I have wondered what it is doing behind the scenes. Do you know of any write ups about TFL's infrastructure/processes? Would love to read about it. I'd also like to buy whoever lead the TFL API's move from XML to JSON a coffee|beer!

Post by lucasgonze » Sat, Jun 23, 2018, 4:04 PM UTC

aequitas wrote: post #89

atmosx wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your setup, although appealing from an AWS ecosystem perspective, sounds like a bit expensive to me on a first reading. Of course everything depends on the specifics but Lambdas and DynamoDB are expensive at scale. I wonder how it compares cost-wise to a more traditional solution.

Indeed, I always get the feeling you need some sort of exit strategy to a traditional model for when your service starts lifting of. Never did the cost calculations though.