Serverless: Past, Present and Future

What if you never had to manage a server again? This talk explores the evolution of serverless, from FaaS to Kubernetes and beyond.

#1about 6 minutes

Defining serverless and its historical context

Serverless is an execution model where a third party manages workloads and billing is based on actual usage, with a history dating back to services like AWS S3.

#2about 4 minutes

Exploring the serverless ecosystem on Alibaba Cloud

Serverless extends beyond functions to include compute, storage, databases, messaging, and analytics services on Alibaba Cloud.

#3about 4 minutes

Practical use cases for serverless architectures

Serverless architectures are well-suited for scenarios like batch processing, image resizing, IoT data ingestion, and API development.

#4about 10 minutes

Building a serverless web app with Terraform

A step-by-step guide shows how to define and deploy a web application using Terraform to manage Function Compute, Table Store, and API Gateway.

#5about 2 minutes

Exploring the Function Compute development environment

The Alibaba Cloud UI provides a web-based editor and supports various runtimes like Python and Node.js, including custom container options.

#6about 8 minutes

Navigating the common challenges of serverless functions

Key challenges in serverless development include state management, local testing and debugging, and mitigating the impact of cold starts.

#7about 3 minutes

Best practices for effective serverless development

Adopt best practices like keeping artifacts small, using infrastructure as code, and leveraging local development tools like the Visual Studio Code plugin.

#8about 8 minutes

Serverless beyond functions with workflows and Kubernetes

Serverless concepts extend to complex workflows for transactional processes and frameworks like OpenWhisk for running functions on Kubernetes.

#9about 6 minutes

Future trends and predictions for serverless technology

The future of serverless points toward more control over underlying hardware, better local tooling, and a blurring of lines between PaaS, DBaaS, and SaaS offerings.

#10about 3 minutes

How Alibaba Cloud differentiates from other cloud providers

Alibaba Cloud's key differentiator is its unified account management for global regions, including mainland China, which simplifies multi-region deployments.

#11about 2 minutes

Managing cold starts with reserved function instances

Reserved instances for Function Compute keep a specified number of functions always running to eliminate cold start latency for critical workloads.

#12about 4 minutes

Explaining the serverless pay-as-you-go cost model

With a pay-as-you-go model, serverless functions only incur costs when they are actively running, making them highly cost-efficient for intermittent tasks.