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OpenLambda, a system for serverless computing

open-lambda.org

31–40 of 70 posts

Re: OpenLambda, a system for serverless computing

#31
post #27

So there's no servers, anywhere in this? You don't run it on a computer or anything? Clearly I'm being a smart ass, but pointing out that 'serverless' is an idiotic marketing term.

We've all got these peeves; the one that gets me is 'isomorphic'. But language evolves one annoying incorrectness at a time, and it's tedious and off-topic to vent about this every single time it comes up. (I'm not saying that to you personally but in response to all these subthreads.)

Re: OpenLambda, a system for serverless computing

#32
post #12
post #3

'Serverless' heh... oh man marketing is great. Just like if you have it in the cloud it's 'hardwareless' right?

I don't mind this name. We're OK with 'wireless' access to Internet, although it's pretty clear that the packets will hit a wire at some point. Wireless means I'm not pulling a cord along with my phone. 'serverless' similarly means my code is not listening on a socket, although the request does come from some socket, of course

"Serverless" is a stupid expression.

There is still a server, otherwise how do you call your functions from outside ? The most accurate description of "functions as service" is a simple pub sub architecture, some service listens to events, starts a container and execute some script/binary/whatever. In order to send events to the former service, you need a server anyway. Just because it's a different service doesn't make the stack "serverless". Whether it is on Amazon or Azure, you're still paying for the API gateway service. Here is your server.

We are at a point where some dubious marketing hurts development, because that marketing is completely inaccurate and misleading. Every single developer which engages into that misleading marketing should be called out publicly for his bullshit.

Re: OpenLambda, a system for serverless computing

#33

I think serverless is a very misleading name, because it does still need server infrastructure and server software. The serverless term will confuse non-technical people to think there's actually no server infrastructure or software needed.

Well, as you posted this after another post that addressed this criticism rather elegantly, I will repeat the relevant bit - " We're OK with 'wireless' access to Internet, although it's pretty clear that the packets will hit a wire at some point. Wireless means I'm not pulling a cord along with my phone. " Non-technical people may assume no server infrastructure. From the developer perspective -this is accurate-; the…

The problem with serverless is that it's seems to mean distributed.

So why not chose a more fitting name?

Re: OpenLambda, a system for serverless computing

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, as you posted this after another post that addressed this criticism rather elegantly, I will repeat the relevant bit - " We're OK with 'wireless' access to Internet, although it's pretty clear that the packets will hit a wire at some point. Wireless means I'm not pulling a cord along with my phone. " Non-technical people may assume no server infrastructure. From the developer perspective -this is accurate-; the…

The problem with serverless is that it's seems to mean distributed. So why not chose a more fitting name?

Like? The point of it is there are no servers to manage. That's the sell, that's the differentiator. Hence the name. But by all means, if you have a better term for it I'd love to hear it.

Re: OpenLambda, a system for serverless computing

#39

I think serverless is a very misleading name, because it does still need server infrastructure and server software. The serverless term will confuse non-technical people to think there's actually no server infrastructure or software needed.

On the contrary, neither of things are required. Most tellingly, Lambda itself was first released as an event-driven service; there was no endpoint to invoke in a client-server fashion.

Moreover, although function-as-a-service requires hardware to run on (duh), the need for server-grade compute infrastructure is obviated by the short execution times. You could run a FaaS-based offering on a massive array of smartphones.

So sure, if you build a FaaS platform you'll need a scheduler, but you won't need a server, not in the client-server sense and not in the hardware sense either.

So some marketing-oriented people will think that "serverless" is just a buzzword to mean you're not managing the OS & hardware, but there's actually a more positive reading of this term that undermines all the negativity.

Re: OpenLambda, a system for serverless computing

#40
post #38

Interesting. Will keep an eye on this. And for all those who disagree with "Serverless", come to Serverlessconf London (london.serverlessconf.io) and we can debate it there. In fact, would love to see everyone there!

> And for all those who disagree with "Serverless", come to Serverlessconf London (london.serverlessconf.io) and we can debate it there. In fact, would love to see everyone there!

Nobody disagree with anything but the marketing. "Serveless" is just an inaccurate description of what is actually going on. There is a server otherwise how do you communicate with the outside world? You need an API gateway to your pubsub architecture. Thus calling it "serverless" is misleading. Look we all know, buzzwords and marketing are here to sell, but when marketing is misleading it actually hurts the whole profession, leading to bad choices.

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