Serverless functions are extremely good at what they do and provide planet-scale computing power for your applications. The one thing where serverless functions fall short is when it comes to state management. When missing state management abilities building up complex flows in your data processing will prove to be quite daunting, and most often than not will require you to provide custom mechanisms for enabling you to communicate between your functions. I am here to explain the challenges and what we can do to tackle them in a way that is extensible and suitable for production environments.

2. …a race of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings
once built themselves a gigantic supercomputer called
Deep Thought to calculate once and for all the Answer
to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and
Everything…

3. For seven and a half million years, Deep Thought
computed and calculated, and in the end announced
that the answer was in fact Forty-two

4. …and so another, even bigger, computer had to be
built to find out what the actual question was.

5. And this computer, which was called the Earth, was
so large that it was frequently mistaken for a planet….
Sadly, however, just before the critical moment of
readout, the Earth was unexpectedly demolished by
the Vogons to make way – so they claimed – for a
new hyperspace bypass, and so all hope of discovering
a meaning for life was lost for ever.

6. Persisting
State
Long-running
operations
Short-lived
functions

7. Functions
must be
stateless
Functions don’t
call other
functions
Single
responsibility
principle

10. Generate
Code
Codes Queue Verify
Code

12. DATA SHIPPING
ARCHITECTURE

13. “This is a recurring architectural
anti-pattern among system
designers, which database
aficionados seem to need to point
out each generation

14. DON’T PANIC

18. Logical Disaggregation
Physical Colocation

23. Create Tag
Upload Images
Train Model

25. ST-Safeness
Programming Model
Parallel Execution Support
State Management
Software packaging and repositories
Architecture
Overhead
Billing Model

26. ST-Safeness
Programming Model
Parallel Execution Support
State Management
Software packaging and repositories
Architecture
Overhead
Billing Model

27. Azure Durable
Functions

28. Programming Model
Workflows as
code
Abstractions Reflective API

29. Architecture
Reactive Core
Event
Sourcing
Deterministic
code

30. State management

31. ⚙ Orchestrator function
⚡ Activity Function #1
⚡ Activity Function #2
State
⚙ Nested Orchestrator
State

32. ⚙ Orchestrator function
⚡ Activity Function #1
⚡ Activity Function #2
State
⚙ Nested Orchestrator
State
⚙ Client function
📨

33. Get Breeds
Train Model
Breed Breeds[]
Create Tag
Upload Image

34. “My Universe is my eyes and
my ears. Anything else is
hearsay.

37. “if human beings don’t keep
exercising their lips, their
brains start working.