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Build a Serverless Web Applicaion

aws.amazon.com

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Re: Build a Serverless Web Applicaion

#51

Post by techno_modus »

jondubois wrote: post #36

Amazon Lambda is like Microsoft Windows was in its early stages. It's a fast-growing, closed/proprietary system for running apps. I wouldn't be surprised if it achieves a near-monopoly for a while... But I think that eventually more flexible open source solutions will take over. Open platforms like Docker and Kubernetes will likely replace Lambda just as Linux replaced Windows on the server-side.

> Open platforms like Docker and Kubernetes will likely replace Lambda

I am not sure if Docker/Kubernetes are comparable with Lambda. But currently there are some attempts to develop an open source alternative to Lambda and other proprietary FaaS (Function as a Service) platforms like OpenWhisk for Cloud Foundry: http://openwhisk.org/

Re: Build a Serverless Web Applicaion

#53

Post by gamesbrainiac »

isuckatcoding wrote: post #4

Sorry what's new about this? Aren't all the pieces existing AWS services? They've just put it in a nice graphic with the architecture drawn out. Not saying I don't like the architecture (actually think it's quite useful for many scenarios). Not sold on using DynamoDB (I'd rather use a traditional SQL store).

I really agree with you on this one, my acquaintances that have actually used this, use it for running bulk jobs that are triggered by S3 changes.

Re: Build a Serverless Web Applicaion

#54

Post by _pmf_ »

jondubois wrote: post #36

Amazon Lambda is like Microsoft Windows was in its early stages. It's a fast-growing, closed/proprietary system for running apps. I wouldn't be surprised if it achieves a near-monopoly for a while... But I think that eventually more flexible open source solutions will take over. Open platforms like Docker and Kubernetes will likely replace Lambda just as Linux replaced Windows on the server-side.

> I wouldn't be surprised if it achieves a near-monopoly for a while.

I wonder why Google is so passive in this regard; sometimes I think they have an aversion to honest money and real products.

Re: Build a Serverless Web Applicaion

#55

Post by mnm1 »

defen wrote: post #44
jedberg wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The "interesting" part is how to secure user credentials to login to the RDS instance, and manage connection pools etc, but it's not that difficult You can run your RDS instances and your Lambda's in the same private VPC. It doesn't secure your credentials per se, but it does prevent anyone else from accessing your database with Lambda.

The "problem" with putting Lambdas into a private VPC is that then you need to do NAT, which means permanent infrastructure (NAT gateways, failover, scaling...). It can be done but there are more headaches than with a pure serverless solution. Unless things have changed since the last time I looked at this stuff.

You just need a private subnet, not a whole separate VPC. You still need NAT to get outbound access, but instead of running a random EC2 instance for the NAT, AWS now has a NAT you can deploy with a click or API call. You still pay for it, but it's at least much easier to set up and there's no maintenance. I assume they have redundancy and failover and such built in also.

Re: Build a Serverless Web Applicaion

#56

Post by melvinram »

Sephr wrote: post #41

Is anyone else slightly peeved by the popularity of this misnomer? If you are paying for servers , your app isn't serverless . Real serverless to me means decentralized p2p and offline apps. I also consider p2p-routed apps with centralized control serverless as long as they continue to function in a read-only state when the control server is down.

It's called serverless because, for all intents and purposes, you don't know or control:

* how many real or virtual servers are running your code.

* how the servers were provisioned or setup.

* how to access the servers (either via SSH or programmatically), either than through predefined APIs.

* what happens when the servers break.

* what causes the servers to disappear.

* etc.

The "server" concept has been abstracted out of the equation and you're no longer required to think in terms of servers. (there is one exception: RAM usage is still something you need to predict for AWS Lambda.)

Instead, you're thinking in terms of limitations and usage of the service.

With the above said, serverless has a bit of journey to make. The toolchain is growing and the workflow of local development, testing and deployment is still a work in progress. I feel like it's a great time to jump in because there is a lot of exciting work to do and a good foundation to build on top of.

Re: Build a Serverless Web Applicaion

#58

Post by l5870uoo9y »

xahrepap wrote: post #2

I am a believer in "Serverless" and that it will play a primary role in a large portion of developers' lives... in the future My experience with servless is that while this may be true at a certain level: > No server management I feel like in Amazon's current toolset, you are MORE aware of "servers" than you ever have been before. It's just abstracted into a different layer (cloudformations, etc). The boilerplate for…

I think the ease at which a VPS is configured (and scaled) is underrated. I mean you can literally install your tech stack with a few commands that you can copy-paste into the terminal and upgrade it with a few clicks.

Plus working with a command line just seems more "right" than clicking around in AWS backend.

Re: Build a Serverless Web Applicaion

#59

Post by kagx »

Sephr wrote: post #41

Is anyone else slightly peeved by the popularity of this misnomer? If you are paying for servers , your app isn't serverless . Real serverless to me means decentralized p2p and offline apps. I also consider p2p-routed apps with centralized control serverless as long as they continue to function in a read-only state when the control server is down.

Serverless term is a little bit confusing at the beginning, but it is the same thing as saying that WiFi is wireless.

Re: Build a Serverless Web Applicaion

#60

Post by vidarh »

keithwhor wrote: post #6
williamle8300 wrote: post #5

Amazon wants to control markets by leading in with "convenience" factor but they will sheist you. Buy stuff from Amazon... but for Pete's sake don't make them a core project dependency for your software projects. You only have yourself to blame when they start ratcheting up their prices.

AWS is the system architecture of the web, full-stop. Well, a system architecture, alongside Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Avoid them at your own peril and detriment to your ability to execute as a business. With the exception of a few masochists, we don't write software in machine code anymore. Same will be said for cloud infrastructure (actually, it's already there). Breathe and accept the future, focus on buil…

If you're a startup and use AWS, and face a competitor that isn't, chance is you're going to be blowing money on infrastructure 2-3 times faster than your competitor. For some companies that won't matter - if e.g. your hosting cost is dwarfed by your development cost - and then it may be worthwhile to pick them.

For others, e.g. if bandwidth is a large part of your cost, picking them will mean your competitors who go with other providers will be able to sell well below your cost and still have a healthy margin.

Avoiding them (and Google Cloud and Azure) is often essential if you want to survive.

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