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Netlify raises $30M to replace webservers with Application Delivery Network

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Re: Netlify raises $30M to replace webservers with Application Delivery Network

#11

Post by hamandcheese »

jypepin wrote: post #3

Ok, I'm a web dev and I hate having to deal with web servers, configs, CI, etc. The idea sounds great, but I can't understand how this works from this post. Can someone explain how this works exactly? Are they basically offering a way to prebuild apps to static assets and host them on CDNs? How do server-side only things will happen then?

Their main offering is 0 config static hosting. They also added a CI service to build your frontend for you and then deploy it.

Then they have myriad other value added features, one of which is cloud functions. You can use that for your server side requirements, or you can use your own server.

It’s not what they do that’s special, it’s how easy/magical they make the process (as well as the very generous free tier).

Re: Netlify raises $30M to replace webservers with Application Delivery Network

#12

Post by hamandcheese »

ballsyballsman wrote: post #8

This is just marketing pitch. Could someone paste some technical architecture on how this is done? Also how you manage applications and data across different jurisdictions and countries?

It’s static hosting + CDN + ergonomic tooling.

Re: Netlify raises $30M to replace webservers with Application Delivery Network

#13

Post by kolanos »

jypepin wrote: post #3

Ok, I'm a web dev and I hate having to deal with web servers, configs, CI, etc. The idea sounds great, but I can't understand how this works from this post. Can someone explain how this works exactly? Are they basically offering a way to prebuild apps to static assets and host them on CDNs? How do server-side only things will happen then?

> Are they basically offering a way to prebuild apps to static assets and host them on CDNs?

Yes. Pretty much. They're a more dev friendly CloudFront. Supports deploying from a git repo out-of-the-box, where there's a separate service for this with CloudFront. More expensive than CloudFront, though.

> How do server-side only things will happen then?

This isn't the main problem they're solving. They expect that you'll have an API somewhere to talk to. But they do have a "functions" feature, which is based on AWS Lambda, so you could use that for things that would otherwise fall under server-side. They also have a simple "forms" feature for basic data collection.

Re: Netlify raises $30M to replace webservers with Application Delivery Network

#14

Post by hamandcheese »

pjc50 wrote: post #9
jypepin wrote: post #3

Ok, I'm a web dev and I hate having to deal with web servers, configs, CI, etc. The idea sounds great, but I can't understand how this works from this post. Can someone explain how this works exactly? Are they basically offering a way to prebuild apps to static assets and host them on CDNs? How do server-side only things will happen then?

This looks a lot like github pages, but with some additional infrastructure? Where does the backend go?

The same place the backend goes when you use GitHub pages.

Re: Netlify raises $30M to replace webservers with Application Delivery Network

#15

Post by pixelmonkey »

May not be widely known, but a startup named Divshot launched what feels to me now like an identical service to Netlify, just a few years earlier. Existed ~2012-2015. They were acquired by Google and their product was converted into Firebase Hosting. I haven't tried it, though:

https://firebase.google.com/docs/hosting/

Re: Netlify raises $30M to replace webservers with Application Delivery Network

#16

Post by ipsun4 »

oddevan wrote: post #10
lowry wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither of you explained in layman terms what they actually do.

They're a static site web host. You deploy using git, and they handle pulling your site from git and deploying it to a CDN. If you're using a static site engine like Hugo or Jekyll, they'll build the site for you as well. I think what people are excited about is deploying a JavaScript-based frontend (probably written in React or Vue.js) using Netlify, so the client-side code is quickly distributed and accessible.

Building Javascript-based frontends are already compiling to static assets, which Netlify could already host. JAMstack is about having the javascript front-end call APIs on the backend. This is about creating an environment for all the back-end functions to be in one place, possibly with the front-end deployment. Not sure how it is going to be implemented though.

Re: Netlify raises $30M to replace webservers with Application Delivery Network

#17

Post by unstuckdev »

jypepin wrote: post #3

Ok, I'm a web dev and I hate having to deal with web servers, configs, CI, etc. The idea sounds great, but I can't understand how this works from this post. Can someone explain how this works exactly? Are they basically offering a way to prebuild apps to static assets and host them on CDNs? How do server-side only things will happen then?

It's basically the subset of AWS concerned with delivering web pages to browsers in a friendly package.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_delivery_network

You can keep a static site with something like Hugo in a git repo and have Netlify automatically build it and make it available on changes. You can also just toss an HTML and CSS file in (like I do on https://unstuckdev.com/) and their robots put it up.

You can do more with it, and that's what costs money, but it takes a small but tedious hurdle out of putting some HTML on the web.

Re: Netlify raises $30M to replace webservers with Application Delivery Network

#18

Post by tiborsaas »

jypepin wrote: post #3

Ok, I'm a web dev and I hate having to deal with web servers, configs, CI, etc. The idea sounds great, but I can't understand how this works from this post. Can someone explain how this works exactly? Are they basically offering a way to prebuild apps to static assets and host them on CDNs? How do server-side only things will happen then?

It's because most of it is marketing speak. I suppose they don't want to call it a better GitHub pages with awesome UX, but rather invent a new category term. In the tech sector if it sticks then it's pure gold.

I've set up a landing page recently and it was flawless on Netlify. You provide a Git repo, connect it to their CI then give some build commands and they will handle the rest.

They still host it on regular servers obviously, but you don't have to do anything to manage it. They have a DNS server which is also pretty neat.

Re: Netlify raises $30M to replace webservers with Application Delivery Network

#19

Post by brianfryer »

pixelmonkey wrote: post #15

May not be widely known, but a startup named Divshot launched what feels to me now like an identical service to Netlify, just a few years earlier. Existed ~2012-2015. They were acquired by Google and their product was converted into Firebase Hosting. I haven't tried it, though: https://firebase.google.com/docs/hosting/

I loved using Divshot, and was sad when their service was shuttered.

I’ve been using Netlify ever since, though, and have launched 20+ web projects in the past 18 months. Easily my favorite hosting solution I’ve ever used.

Re: Netlify raises $30M to replace webservers with Application Delivery Network

#20

Post by [deleted] »

lowry wrote: post #5
benmanns wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I've switched out my complicated GitHub+S3+CloudFront+Cloudflare for static hosting to Netlify. Netlify also handles some of the stuff you don't even think about - e.g. partial deploy failure. With my past scripts I might push `index.html`, lose network, error out, etc, and not push the updated `assets/blah.css`. They also have Functions https://www.netlify.com/features/functions/ for dynamic content, but I h…

Neither of you explained in layman terms what they actually do.

[deleted]
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