5 ms·

Wherein "serverless" basically means more computers in more places just doing different tasks.

iagooar 10y ago
Some people prefer to call it Function as a Service, which in most cases is closer to what it actually is. "serverless" does not refer to the absolute lack of servers - it refers to the fact that your CODE (applications and software in general) should not be AWARE of being executed on a physical or virtual machine. The platform should be as abstract as it gets. I always imagine it as coding on a piece of paper: in a way, my code should work and make "sense", even though we all know that a piece of paper won't execute any instructions. And this is part of the magic of "serverless" software: it imagines a perfect, abstract machine where it can run, forgetting about the complex, unreliable, physical machine underneath. It's an almost philosophical approach to writing software and getting it needs some time and thought. And needless to say, it does not solve ALL your problems, but it MIGHT solve SOME of your problems.
- stephenr 10y ago
  > it refers to the fact that your CODE (applications and software in general) should not be AWARE of being executed on a physical or virtual machine. With the exception of para-virtualised device drivers, what code is ever aware of being executed on physical or virtual machines?
  - windowsworkstoo 10y ago
    C'mon now, you know what was meant...
    - stephenr 10y ago
      No, I honestly don't, using that definition. AWS Lambda and similar services have literally nothing to do with hardware vs software. They're about running a function in response to an event on someone else's stack, almost like the `map` part of a `map-reduce`, if the input was considered to be distinct events/objects.
      - beambot 10y ago
        Or just RPC writ large.
- hueving 10y ago
  I don't think it has to do with the way the application is written at all. It's how it's deployed and managed.
Sanddancer 10y ago
Yep. It's good old fashioned webhosting. Drop your files in the amazon equivalent of ~/public-html/ . If it serves your needs, it's not a bad thing, but it's hardly revolutionary.
- michaelt 10y ago
  Is there any other service where I can run arbitrary code and be billed in increments of 100ms or less?
- pmontra 10y ago
  Webhosting usually have a flat monthly fee so maybe Lambda it's more like old fashioned mainframe timesharing, billed per resource usage. Not that I was there in its heydays but the two concepts seem very similar. A consequence is that you really want to terminate quickly and use little RAM. If your JS function terminates in 110 ms and get billed for two 100 ms units you might be tempted to switch to a faster language (or ASM what you can) to save half the bill. Webhosting doesn't have that dynamic.
- inopinatus 10y ago
  How do I setup "old fashioned webhosting" to respond at-least-once to events posted to a message queue? How do I get "old fashioned webhosting" to automatically scale-out and scale-in? How do I do all that and get per-100ms CPU-time billing?

Some people prefer to call it Function as a Service, which in most cases is closer to what it actually is. "serverless" does not refer to the absolute lack of servers - it refers to the fact that your CODE (applications and software in general) should not be AWARE of being executed on a physical or virtual machine. The platform should be as abstract as it gets. I always imagine it as coding on a piece of paper: in a way, my code should work and make "sense", even though we all know that a piece of paper won't execute any instructions. And this is part of the magic of "serverless" software: it imagines a perfect, abstract machine where it can run, forgetting about the complex, unreliable, physical machine underneath. It's an almost philosophical approach to writing software and getting it needs some time and thought. And needless to say, it does not solve ALL your problems, but it MIGHT solve SOME of your problems.

stephenr 10y ago
> it refers to the fact that your CODE (applications and software in general) should not be AWARE of being executed on a physical or virtual machine. With the exception of para-virtualised device drivers, what code is ever aware of being executed on physical or virtual machines?
- windowsworkstoo 10y ago
  C'mon now, you know what was meant...
  - stephenr 10y ago
    No, I honestly don't, using that definition. AWS Lambda and similar services have literally nothing to do with hardware vs software. They're about running a function in response to an event on someone else's stack, almost like the `map` part of a `map-reduce`, if the input was considered to be distinct events/objects.
    - beambot 10y ago
      Or just RPC writ large.
hueving 10y ago
I don't think it has to do with the way the application is written at all. It's how it's deployed and managed.

Sanddancer 10y ago

Yep. It's good old fashioned webhosting. Drop your files in the amazon equivalent of ~/public-html/ . If it serves your needs, it's not a bad thing, but it's hardly revolutionary.

michaelt 10y ago
Is there any other service where I can run arbitrary code and be billed in increments of 100ms or less?
pmontra 10y ago
Webhosting usually have a flat monthly fee so maybe Lambda it's more like old fashioned mainframe timesharing, billed per resource usage. Not that I was there in its heydays but the two concepts seem very similar. A consequence is that you really want to terminate quickly and use little RAM. If your JS function terminates in 110 ms and get billed for two 100 ms units you might be tempted to switch to a faster language (or ASM what you can) to save half the bill. Webhosting doesn't have that dynamic.
inopinatus 10y ago
How do I setup "old fashioned webhosting" to respond at-least-once to events posted to a message queue? How do I get "old fashioned webhosting" to automatically scale-out and scale-in? How do I do all that and get per-100ms CPU-time billing?