OpenFaas - Serverless Functions Made Simple

1. Zero to Serverless in 60s - Anywhere
Serverless Functions Made Simple
SIEMENS OSS @ BT SUMMIT
Brian Christner

2. Brian Christner
Brian@56K.Cloud / @idomyowntricks
Cloud Architect & Cloud Native
● Cloud Architect
● Background in Containers, Cloud, & Engineering
● Docker Captain
Brian Christner
Cloud Architect & Cloud Native
@idomyowntricks / brian@56K.Cloud
• Background in Cloud and Engineering
• CNCF Standards Advocate
• Avid Mountain Biker

3. What is Serverless?
MicroserviceMicroserviceMicroservice
Monolith
Microservice
Function
Serverless evolu*on

4. What are Functions?
Function
Short-lived
No state
Single-purpose
Unmanaged

5. Why not use Lambda?

6. OpenFaaS
DRIVING FACTORS

7. OpenFaaS
DRIVING FACTORS
FrameworksPlatformsLibraries
Scheduling & Orchestration Coordination & Service Discovery Service Management
Container Runtime Cloud-Native NetworkCloud-Native Storage Public
Serverless computing refers to a new model of cloud native computing,
enabled by architectures that do not require server management to
build and run applications. This landscape illustrates a finer-grained
deployment model where applications, bundled as one or more
functions, are uploaded to a platform and then executed, scaled, and
billed in response to the exact demand needed at the moment.
Security
Azure Functions
v2.0
Serverless Cloud Native Landscape Greyed logos are not open source
github.com/cncf/landscape
Hybrid Kubernetes-Native
Dashbird
TM
fx
Tools
See the serverless interactive landscape at s.cncf.io

8. “Alexa, how’s
the weather?”
{ “intent”:
“FindWeather” }
{ “speech”:
“It’s 70 degrees” }
Lambda
Function

9. “Alexa, how’s
the weather?”
{ “intent”:
“FindWeather” }
{ “speech”:
“It’s 70 degrees” }
+

10. How did OpenFaaS come about?
STORY SO FAR
• Created by Alex Ellis
• “Lambda but with containers for Alexa”
• Dockercon Cool Hacks - “push Docker beyond what it was designed to do”
• Since May 2017
• > 11k stars
• Production case-studies
• Full-time at VMware

11. OpenFaaS top contributors and influencers
You..
96 contributors
2k commits

12. Comes in one flavor: Cloud Native
API Gateway Function Watchdog
Prometheus Swarm Kubernetes
http://localhost:8080/function/<name>

13. Serverless Functions Made Simple
Portable
Developer-
First
Unsurprising UNIX-like
Operator-
Friendly
Community-
Centric
Open
Platform
Developer
Love
CLI & UI
Cloud Native

14. How do I write a function?
WRITE A HANDLER
def handler(req):
r = requests.get(req)
return str(r.status_code)
handler.py
requirements.txt
requests
$ faas new --lang python kubecon
Python
Template
Docker
Image
Container Registry

15. USE ANY LANGUAGE
• Generate with templates
• Write your own
• Use existing binary/Docker image
How do I write a function?

16. Synchronous invocation
IMMEDIATE RESULT
HTTP
Gateway Func: resizer
HTTP
200
Resize
Image
http://localhost:8080/function/<name>

17. Deferred execution or asynchronous invocation
DON’T BUILD IT YOURSELF
Gateway Func: resizer
HTTP
200
Resize
Image Queue
HTTP
200
http://localhost:8080/async-function/<name>

20. AS FUNCTIONS
• Should be a function
• A can call B Directly
• A can call B via gateway
• Async
• Director Pattern
• Helper library available
Chaining / Workflows

21. Use-case: Twitter bot
@COLORISEBOT

23. DEMO

24. Don’t take my word for it
USERS INTEGRATIONS

25. Explain it to your boss
• Build your platform
• Iterate faster
• Use any language
• Own your data
• Unlock your community
WITH OPENFAAS YOU CAN:

26. Case study: University of Washington
CROWD-SOURCING
Anisha Keshavan
Post-doc
Neuroinformatics
Machine-learning
Scikit-learn
https://test.medulina.com/#/

27. Case study: Citrix, UK
MASS AUTOMATION
Jason Leonard
Staff Engineer
• Custom UI
• RBAC
• Cron/triggers
• Docker Swarm

28. Case study: British Telecom (BT) Research
REUSABLE RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS
Joost Noppen
• Making software accessible
within R&I/company
• Optimisation algorithms
(resource allocation,
scheduling)
• Deployment pipeline
• Language agnostic Optimization of algorithms

29. Introducing OpenFaaS Cloud!
Workspace
stack.yml
alexa/handler.js
alexa/response.json
alexa/package.json
GitHub
git
push
alexellis
alexa
OpenFaaS-
Cloud
Package
Build
Deploy
https://alexellis.get-faas.com/alexa
JSON
GIT-BASED WORKFLOW

30. • Join the Slack Community
docs.openfaas.com/
community
• Take the workshop
github.com/openfaas/
workshop
• Become a contributor
Get involved

31. • Martin Fowler - https://martinfowler.com/articles/serverless.html
• FaaS – www.github.com/allexellis/faas
• https://veggiemonk.github.io/awesome-docker/
• http://lastweekinaws.com
Ressources

32. Thank you!
www.openfaas.com
Brian Christner
@idomyowntricks / brian@56K.Cloud