Ivan Dwyer | Business Development | Iron.io

ivan@iron.io | @fortyfivan

Handling Asynchronous Workloads in OpenShift with Iron.ioEvent-Driven Computing for the Modern Cloud Era

Agenda

➔ The Modern Cloud

➔ Event-Driven Computing

➔ Where Iron.io Fits

➔ Live Demo

➔ Iron.io and OpenShift

The Modern CloudEmpowering developers to do what they do best

Evolution

Server VM Container

Monolith N-Tiered Microservices

Major Release Software Updates Continuous Delivery

DIY Software Defined API-Driven

Unit of Scale

Application Architecture

Deployment Model

Async Workloads

The Modern Cloud Stack

IaaSOn-demand compute, storage, and networking

resources

PaaSApplication configuration, management, and

deployment

SaaSAPIs and services to build and extend

applications

➔ Developers want to innovate

➔ Developers want abstraction

➔ Developers want self-service

➔ Developers want freedom

➔ Developers want consistency

➔ Developers want to write code!

Developer Empowerment

The modern cloud provides developers everything needed to build, deploy, and scale applications.

But what about the workloads that happen in the background?

“GitHub is 50% background work”

Event-Driven ComputingReacting to the changes in the world

Making a Distinction

Applications Tasks

Hosted

Load Balanced

Elastic

Orchestrated

Realtime

Ephemeral

Queued

Concurrent

Choreographed

Asynchronous

Identify the Right Pieces

➔ Outside of user response loop

➔ 3rd party service API calls

➔ Long running processes

➔ Transaction Processing

➔ Scale-out / burst processing

➔ Scheduled jobs

IndependentSingle Responsibility

StatelessInterchangeable

Loosely CoupledAsynchronous

Email & Notifications Multimedia Encoding Transactions Web Crawling

Data Transfer Data Crunching 3rd Party API Calls Scheduled Jobs

Common Tasks

Event-Driven Workflows

Webhook Callback

API Call Stream

Transaction Schedule

Queue Queue

Database AnalyticsSystem

API App UI

Notification Log

Event Trigger Task Execution Results Delivered

New Goals

➔ Build highly scalable and reactive backend systems

➔ Respond to events and changing environments automatically

➔ Run processes at scale without managing infrastructure

➔ Distribute workloads without configuration management

➔ Collect, deliver, and transform data seamlessly

➔ Integrate components into a unified platform

The Challenge

➔ Building functionality for async concurrency is extremely complex

➔ More moving parts means more components to keep track of and configure properly

➔ Loosely coupled services means steps must be taken to keep data consistent

➔ Distributed services creates more API traffic and communication layers

➔ Keeping applications and task workloads in sync is challenging

Building and maintaining a reliable environment for handling asynchronous workloads within distributed

applications is extremely challenging.

There is a need for a task-centric platform to handle the inner working of these workloads, while remaining tightly

integrated with the app-centric platform.

This is what Iron.io aims to solve.

Where Iron.io Fits?Event-Driven Computing for the Modern Cloud Era

What We DoWe build technology to power asynchronous workloads at scale

for distributed applications of all kinds

Decouple Components

Treat your applications as a collection of microservices that scale up and down

independently.

Respond to Events

Trigger workloads on-demand based on events that happen in the lifecycle of your

systems and applications.

Choreograph Workflows

Chain together previously complex process flows with ease by setting endpoints and

triggers.

Message Queue Job Scheduler Task Environment

How It Works

Build Upload Run Scale

➔ Build lightweight tasks

➔ Use any language

➔ Containerize with Docker

➔ Commit to a repo

➔ Package as a container

➔ Upload to Iron.io

➔ Set event triggers

➔ Create schedules

➔ Queue tasks on-demand

➔ Set concurrency levels

➔ Scales automatically

➔ No provisioning needed

Iron.io Concepts

➔ Workers: The task code and our unit of containerized compute.

➔ Runners: The runtime agent that spins up containers for workload processing.

➔ Stacks: Docker images that provide basic language and library dependencies.

➔ Queues: Method of dispatching workloads through a persistent message queue.

➔ Schedules: Regular occurring tasks much like cron jobs, but managed.

➔ Concurrency: Number of tasks run at the same time and our unit of scale.

➔ Clusters: Location and environment for runner deployment and workload processing.

Under the Hood: Features

API

Code History Dashboard Monitoring Task Queue Priorities Schedules Auto Retry Auth Encryption Audit Trail

Management Choreography Security

Under the Hood: Components

API

PriorityManager

TaskScheduler

Public Cloud

On-Premises

TaskQueues

CustomerCode

DockerImages

When To Use Iron.io

Microservices

Decouple application components as independently developed and deployed services that are choreographed by Iron.io.

Internet of Things

Choreograph machine generated workloads asynchronously with Iron.io’s reliable data transport and task-centric runtime.

Mobile Compute

Run a “serverless” backend that doesn’t interfere with the user experience by triggering workers to run in the background.

Hybrid Cloud

Offload individual workloads to Iron.io while maintaining secure in-house systems using the same APIs across all environments.

Why Choose Iron.io

“Serverless” EnvironmentPower large-scale workloads without

the need to provision and manage infrastructure.

No Ops NeededCreate complex workflows without

configuration scripts or complex async/concurrent code.

Workload ScalabilityScale effectively and efficiently at the

task level through lightweight and loosely coupled containers.

Developer FriendlyCloud-native API-driven feature set with

client libraries across all major languages.

Speed to MarketComprehensive environment that gets

up and running in minutes with seamless platform integrations.

Hybrid CapableDeploy the service and distribute

workloads to any cloud environment, public or private.

Case Study: Bleacher Report

1. Sports story breaks

2. Event trigger spins up thousands of tasks in IronWorker

3. Each concurrent task sends thousands of push notifications

Result: Bleacher Report can send millions of push notifications in under a minute

Case Study: Hotel Tonight

1. Scheduled IronWorker pulls data from a variety of sources

2. Data is pipelined into IronWorker for transformation

3. Data is pipelined to destination data warehouse

Result: Hotel Tonight has dozens of sources syncing 24/7

Case Study: Untappd

1. Mobile user “checks in” a beer

2. Background tasks are kicked off to run concurrently

3. App is refreshed with data results

Result: Untappd cut its event response time from 7 seconds to 500 milliseconds

“Speed of delivery is a constant focus for us. No longer worrying about infrastructure allows us to focus on

delivering new features and optimizing existing ones.”

“IronWorker’s modularity allows for persistent points along the lifetime of the pipeline. Each worker in the

pipeline is responsible for its own unit of work and has the ability to kick off the next task in the pipeline.”

“I like that I don't have to worry about whether to scale more servers. It's done automatically by Iron.io, which is

key for us and obviously why we love the platform."

Live DemoHello OpenShift

Iron.io and OpenShift

Iron.io Deployment Models

Public CloudElastic scalabilityNo MaintenanceRich feature set

DedicatedSecure gateway

Managed serviceHigh performance

.

On-PremisesMulti-site deploymentFlexible configuration

Safe and secure

OpenShift Online Integration

OpenShift Enterprise Integration➔ Docker service packaging

◆ Both IronMQ and IronWorker are packaged via container◆ IronMQ passed certification, IronWorker up next

➔ Kubernetes HA deployment◆ Each service can be deployed as pods◆ The task runtime can be deployed as pods

➔ Scale via replication controller◆ Simply add nodes for more service instances◆ Simply add nodes for more workload capacity

➔ Service broker API◆ SSO and service binding to applications◆ Supports multitenancy

"Vendors that embrace the concept of public and private PaaS are also in favor of hybrid PaaS models where

workloads can be directed to either public or private instances depending on how an enterprise sets

application policy. Hybrid models provide the most flexibility where the private and public PaaS components are the same or have been specifically designed to work

together.”

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