4 ms·

"functions as a service"? Is it what it sounds like? Why?

by hasenj 9y ago

alexellisuk 9y ago
Can you explain what you mean? If you'd like more intro information checkout - https://blog.alexellis.io/introducing-functions-as-a-service/ https://blog.alexellis.io/introducing-functions-as-a-service...
- hasenj 9y ago
  I still don't see anything that explicitly distinguish it from "left-pad api" [0] For example: > A serverless function is a small, discrete and reusable chunk of code that: > ... > executes in a few seconds .. Why would you want a function execution to take several seconds? I must be missing something .. [0]: http://left-pad.io/ http://left-pad.io/
  - jhgb 9y ago
    Probably if the function execution time is too small, the overhead isn't worth it? And if it's too large, there's too little granularity? I guess it's the same ideas that guide "ordinary" programming styles, only adjusted to the timings of large networks (milliseconds instead of microseconds).
  - alexellisuk 9y ago
    You've just cherry-picked a generic industry description of FaaS functions. "Executes within a few seconds as a rule" - otherwise you're not really building an event-driven API, but something else. You can run the code for however long you like and even invoke via async. Left pad adds whitespace to a string? Don't see the connection
    - hasenj 9y ago
      I don't know. I don't think I cherry-picked. The concept sounded ridiculous to me, so I asked for clarification. The article provided for me (which was supposed to introduce the concept to people who haven't heard of it) only seemed to confirm my suspicions. I _must_ be missing something. I mean I probably will still think the idea is unsound, but at least I want to really understand the thinking behind it better before I solidify my negative impression.
0xfffafaCrash 9y ago
Here's an example of how Netflix makes use of FaaS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU25CIRPIJo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU25CIRPIJo
- hasenj 9y ago
  Ha! "New Abstraction Layer", presented as a good thing, 0:42
notyourday 9y ago
You don't know about leftpad? It must be deployed in a highly available serverless environment.
- alexellisuk 9y ago
  Leftpad on OpenFaaS - https://github.com/faas-and-furious/faas-leftpad https://github.com/faas-and-furious/faas-leftpad
lostcolony 9y ago
Well, I'm not as convinced as to the 'why' in one's own private cloud (though if you're large enough to have a true separation of concerns, and a dedicated team to administering your cloud, fair enough), but for a public cloud, the ability to fire off a small snippet of code and pay nearly nothing for it, and do very little to make it production worthy is really beneficial. It allows you to write rules like "every time I do X, execute this bit of code", without having to spin up servers or capacity plan for it; that's left to the cloud provider to do. It also allows you to build 'Serverless' style applications, by even making your incoming client calls just execute FaaS to figure out how to act and respond. Altogether the benefits are the application developer doesn't have to worry about the VM security, scaling, etc. They just write their code, and it scales transparently, on VMs managed by the cloud administrator. For an immediately obvious use case, if you're in a cloud already, you can execute a FaaS as a cron job. Then, you don't have to worry about "where do I execute this" (is it sharing a VM? Does it get its own VM?), with the associated tradeoffs; you just point the cloud's cron scheduler to the function, and you're done.
michaelbuckbee 9y ago
If the term SAAS wasn't already so taken, I suspect that the generalized term would be 'Scripts As A Service' instead of FAAS (which might slot into your brain differently). In the same way you might write a number of small utility scripts piping data between each other for various purposes, you can do the same with FAAS. You just also get the benefit of not having to manage infrastructure, crazy amounts of scale, etc.
- jhgb 9y ago
  Why do I get the impression that it resembles Alan Kay's ideas on how the Internet should have looked like, only in a more heavyweight/baroque incarnation?

"functions as a service"? Is it what it sounds like? Why?

by hasenj 9y ago

"functions as a service"? Is it what it sounds like? Why?

Can you explain what you mean? If you'd like more intro information checkout - https://blog.alexellis.io/introducing-functions-as-a-service/ https://blog.alexellis.io/introducing-functions-as-a-service...

hasenj 9y ago
I still don't see anything that explicitly distinguish it from "left-pad api" [0] For example: > A serverless function is a small, discrete and reusable chunk of code that: > ... > executes in a few seconds .. Why would you want a function execution to take several seconds? I must be missing something .. [0]: http://left-pad.io/ http://left-pad.io/
- jhgb 9y ago
  Probably if the function execution time is too small, the overhead isn't worth it? And if it's too large, there's too little granularity? I guess it's the same ideas that guide "ordinary" programming styles, only adjusted to the timings of large networks (milliseconds instead of microseconds).
- alexellisuk 9y ago
  You've just cherry-picked a generic industry description of FaaS functions. "Executes within a few seconds as a rule" - otherwise you're not really building an event-driven API, but something else. You can run the code for however long you like and even invoke via async. Left pad adds whitespace to a string? Don't see the connection
  - hasenj 9y ago
    I don't know. I don't think I cherry-picked. The concept sounded ridiculous to me, so I asked for clarification. The article provided for me (which was supposed to introduce the concept to people who haven't heard of it) only seemed to confirm my suspicions. I _must_ be missing something. I mean I probably will still think the idea is unsound, but at least I want to really understand the thinking behind it better before I solidify my negative impression.

0xfffafaCrash 9y ago

Here's an example of how Netflix makes use of FaaS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU25CIRPIJo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU25CIRPIJo

hasenj 9y ago
Ha! "New Abstraction Layer", presented as a good thing, 0:42

notyourday 9y ago

You don't know about leftpad? It must be deployed in a highly available serverless environment.

alexellisuk 9y ago
Leftpad on OpenFaaS - https://github.com/faas-and-furious/faas-leftpad https://github.com/faas-and-furious/faas-leftpad

lostcolony 9y ago

Well, I'm not as convinced as to the 'why' in one's own private cloud (though if you're large enough to have a true separation of concerns, and a dedicated team to administering your cloud, fair enough), but for a public cloud, the ability to fire off a small snippet of code and pay nearly nothing for it, and do very little to make it production worthy is really beneficial. It allows you to write rules like "every time I do X, execute this bit of code", without having to spin up servers or capacity plan for it; that's left to the cloud provider to do. It also allows you to build 'Serverless' style applications, by even making your incoming client calls just execute FaaS to figure out how to act and respond. Altogether the benefits are the application developer doesn't have to worry about the VM security, scaling, etc. They just write their code, and it scales transparently, on VMs managed by the cloud administrator. For an immediately obvious use case, if you're in a cloud already, you can execute a FaaS as a cron job. Then, you don't have to worry about "where do I execute this" (is it sharing a VM? Does it get its own VM?), with the associated tradeoffs; you just point the cloud's cron scheduler to the function, and you're done.

michaelbuckbee 9y ago

If the term SAAS wasn't already so taken, I suspect that the generalized term would be 'Scripts As A Service' instead of FAAS (which might slot into your brain differently). In the same way you might write a number of small utility scripts piping data between each other for various purposes, you can do the same with FAAS. You just also get the benefit of not having to manage infrastructure, crazy amounts of scale, etc.

jhgb 9y ago
Why do I get the impression that it resembles Alan Kay's ideas on how the Internet should have looked like, only in a more heavyweight/baroque incarnation?