The document clarifies the concept of 'serverless' computing, defining its characteristics such as the absence of servers, scalability, and pay-per-use pricing. It also outlines who is effectively utilizing serverless technology, such as AWS Lambda and Microsoft Azure Functions, while highlighting common misconceptions and identifying what does not qualify as serverless. Additionally, it provides a checklist for validating serverless solutions and mentions potential serverless enablers within the ecosystem.

1. Let's set the record straight
on the term "serverless"
and what it’s not
Jeshan G. Babooa

2. What you’ll learn about

3. The problem
Source: http://www.commitstrip.com/en/2017/04/26/servers-there-are-no-servers-here

4. What “serverless”
is

5. What “serverless” is
A checklist
1. Does not a require a server
2. Ability to execute arbitrary logic
3. Ability to run large-scale applications
4. Pay only for when you use it

6. The serverless
manifesto

7. The serverless
manifesto
1. Functions are the unit of deployment and scaling
2. No machines, VMs, or containers visible in the programming model
3. Permanent storage lives elsewhere
4. Scales per request. Users cannot over- or under-provision capacity
5. Never pay for idle
6. Implicitly fault tolerant
7. BYOC: bring your own code
8. Metrics and logging are a universal right

8. Who’s doing
serverless right?

9. AWS Lambda

10. Microsoft Azure
Functions

11. Google Cloud
Functions

12. Who is doing
“sort-of” serverless

13. Iron Functions
Sort-of serverless

14. Auth0’s Webtask
Sort-of serverless

15. Auth0’s Webtask
Sort-of serverless
Problems with WebTask:
1. Soft-limit of 1 request per second: it doesn’t scale
2. The service is meant “for hobbyists”, not for something serious and
large scale.
3. They have unclear pricing. Their pricing page talks about everything
except pricing.
4. Nobody uses Webtask

16. What “serverless”
is definitely not

17. Not an API
API => serverless now? I don’t think so.

18. Great framework by the way. Check
them out: serverless.com
Not a framework

19. Red flags

20. Red flags
- Deploy it “on-premises”. How can it be serverless if you need to have servers to
begin with?
- Presence of “installation steps”. Having to install something completely misses
the point of serverless.
If their description contains phrases
like these:

21. Other non-serverless
offerings

22. Fn by Oracle
Not serverless

23. Fn by Oracle
Not serverless

24. OpenWhisk
Not serverless

25. Kubeless
Also not serverless

26. Serverless enablers

27. Serverless
enablers
https://youtu.be/AcGv3qUrRC4?t=30m16s

28. Serverless
enablers
They have the following capabilities:
1. Cloud logic layer: Lambda with API Gateway
2. Responsive data sources: DynamoDB which are their NoSQL offering
3. Orchestration and state management: Step-functions which allows for
long-running serverless designed in a workflow.
4. Application modelling framework: Framework like the Serverless Application
Model (SAM)
5. Developer ecosystem: Innovation happening from AWS but also partners. For
AWS: CodePipeline, CodeBuild and CloudFormation for CI/CD. Also X-Ray is now
available to debug and get insights in your serverless functions.
6. Integrations library: sell APIs on the AWS marketplace.
7. Security and access control: integration with IAM
8. Reliability and performance: support for Dead-letter queues for events that
weren’t processed even after retries.
9. Global scale: where you can run Lambda functions on AWS’s global CloudFront
network.

29. Serverless
definition checklist

30. Serverless
definition checklist
Does it satisfy the following?
1. Does not a require a server
2. Ability to execute arbitrary logic
3. Ability to run large-scale applications
4. Pay only when you use it
Any service out there that doesn’t satisfy all of the above
are not serverless.

31. If you want the written
guide, incl. links:
https://www.lambdatv.com/Let's-set-the-record-straight-on-the-term-serv
erless-and-what-it-s-not

32. Thanks for watching!
Jeshan G. Babooa
LambdaTV.com