Si fa presto a dire serverless

Nome Speaker@twitter

\ Si fa presto a dire Serverless

Daniel Depaoli@dedaniel_xp

Alessio Coser@AlessioCoser


What we are going to talk about?

1. Introduction to Serverless2. Our Dev Experience3. Our Ops Experience


What is Serverless?


What is Serverless?


Function as a Service


What is a Function?

Custom code that’s run in an ephemeral context.


What is a Function?


● The code/application that we want to execute● The Service we provide to our users● Responds to events


What is a Function?

● Created only to run your code and then destroyed● Has no state or persistence● It’s still a server!



What is a Function?


Functions

Application

Runtime

Operating System

Virtualization

Hardware

IaaS

Customer Managed Unit of scale

Customer Managed

Abstract by vendor


Functions

Application

Runtime

Operating System

Virtualization

Hardware

Functions

Application

Runtime

Operating System

Virtualization

Hardware

IaaS PaaS


Customer Managed

Abstract by vendor


Functions

Application

Runtime

Operating System

Virtualization

Hardware

Functions

Application

Runtime

Operating System

Virtualization

Hardware

Functions

Application

Runtime

Operating System

Virtualization

Hardware

IaaS PaaS FaaS


Customer Managed

Abstract by vendor

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● No infrastructure maintenance● Built-in automatic scaling● Only pay for the execution time● No persistence, no state● Limited execution time● Fully integrated with cloud provider’s services

Si fa presto a dire Serverless

Main features


Cloud-Computing Providers

● Amazon AWS Lambda● Google Cloud Functions● Azure Functions


Runtimes● NODE.JS● JAVA ● PYTHON● More


\ Our Dev experience

Si fa presto a dire Serverless\

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\ Our Dev experiences

aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/photovogue

https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/photovogue/

https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/photovogue/

\ Our Dev experiences PhotoVogue

\

An online photography platform

● Allows upcoming photographers to showcase their work.

● Each picture that’s submitted is carefully reviewed by Vogue Italia’s editorial staff.

Our Dev experiences PhotoVogue

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● ~ 400,000 photos● ~ 130,000 photographers● ~ 3,000 uploaded images each day

An online photography platform


\ Our Dev experiences PhotoVogue

● Application that scales● No state or sessions● No long running scripts● Upload and resize of photos in parallel

How FaaS applies to the domain

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Upload and resize feature


FaaS

EVENT

S3UPLOAD

RESIZED IMAGES

AWS

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\ Benefits


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Zero downtime deployment


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> 1 deploy per day


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Autoscaling


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Average of~ 650 invocation/minute


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Maximum peaks> 1500 invocation/minute


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(as long as an entire AWS region does not crash)

[image]


No downtime

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\ Challenges


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Vendor lock-in


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Decouple business logic from the cloud platform


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Use a Framework like Serverless


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Dependencies


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Very common problem:You have two distinct functionalities, and

they share some of their code


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1st solution:Create a single function which responds

to two different events


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Easy to updateNo dependencies to manage

Big functionViolates Single Responsibility Principle


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2nd solution:Create two different functions with the

same code


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Common parts are easier to shareNo dependencies to manage

Deploy takes longerUnnecessary dependencies are also shared

Must deploy each function to update common code


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3rd solution:Create two different functions with an

external shared dependency (es: git, npm)


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No duplicated codeCan use different versions of dependency

Startup time increasesYou have to manage an external library


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4th solution:Create two different functions that will

invoke a third one (containing the shared behaviour)


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No duplicated codeCan use different versions of common function

Execution time increasesAdditional point of failure


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There isn’t a perfect solution



\ Our Ops experiences

Si fa presto a dire Serverless\

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\ Disaster Recovery and Testing

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A Disaster Recovery implementation

Our Ops experiences Disaster Recovery and Testing

\ Our Ops experiences Disaster Recovery and Testing

AWS does not provide a DR solution

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1. Backupa. Every night create VMs snapshotb. Move snapshots to another AWS region


Our implementation with FaaS

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2. Recoverya. Activate the new environment in alternative region with

lastest snapshots

3. Testa. Check services and send notification


Our implementation with FaaS


\ Interaction with infrastructure

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Sometimes we need to schedule a task

Our Ops experiences Interaction with infrastructure

\ Our Ops experiences Interaction with infrastructure

Load Balancer

Instance InstanceInstance task

Master

● Lambda direct SSH connection to instance● Triggering or doing particular tasks

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● Check Backup S3● Dump DB● Clean EFS● Etc.

Our Ops experiences Interaction with infrastructure

Some example:


\ Operations and monitoring

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Simulating user browsing session

Our Ops experiences Monitoring

\ Our Ops experiences Monitoring

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Integration with versioning system hosting service

Our Ops experiences CI/CD

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\ Benefits

Our Ops experiences Monitoring

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No third party tools

Our Ops experiences

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No instances for just one task

Our Ops experiences


Trigger one shot action

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Fully integrated with other AWS services

Our Ops experiences

Conclusions

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FaaS - when?Conclusions

● You need to simplify operational tasks● Your app needs to scale● Your domain logic is event based● You need to process a large quantity of

data

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● You want some form of control over the infrastructure

● You have to maintain some state into the app● Your functions take a long time to run

FaaS - when not?Conclusions


\ Thanks!

PS: We are hiring -> www.xpeppers.com/carriere


\ Questions?

PS: We are hiring -> www.xpeppers.com/carriere

www.xpeppers.com

/xpepperssrl@xpeppers

Presentations & Public Speaking

Si fa presto a dire serverless