- What is a server? => hardware or software that can run code.
- Full control over the server.
- Great if you need a lot of control over the environment, need to install runtimes & applications.
- What is serverless? => Worry about servers less.
- You don't have much control over the environment.
- No need to install the right software.
- No need to keep everything updated and secured.
- It scales out when demand is high, and scales back in when demand is low.
- How I use it:
- Functions are ideal as 'glue code' to connect other services.
- For a financial services organization we are monitoring transactions to detect fraud.
- Created a Twitter bot that checks GitHub repositories and tweets when there are new releases related to Azure Functions.
- Quick to have a small piece of code running locally and in the cloud.
- Focus on code/ functionality and don't have to worry about server infrastructure and configuration.
- Cost effective. Most cloud providers have a free tier so you don't pay anything.
- You can make small increments in complexity to learn more.
- Doesn't work well for things that require long computation time. Image processing, video rendering.
- It requires a different way to think about applications. Functions fit well in event driven architectures but less so in batch processing.
- For conference & meetup organizers: have some speaker slots available for people new to the industry.
- Open circle vs closed circle.
- Be kind to one another.