# Let's talk serverless (below are proposed discussion topics, but we don't have to limit ourselves to them) ## What is serverless? * App doesn't depend on a central server instance/database * For instance, something with just static files * Not worrying about provisioning server instances * Event-driven/only do work when there's work to be done/"pay as you go" ### Example technologies * Vercel/Netlify hosting * AWS Lambda functions * Google Cloud Run * Fastly edge/Cloudflare workers? ## Why use serverless? * Cost * offloading concerns to another service (i.e. - don't provision servers) * Fast deploy previews from a test/review branch * Sometimes you can use this without a corporate approval process for server costs (org politics/permissions) ### Some projects that people have used serverless for * Will used it at Mozilla (https://dictionary.telemetry.mozilla.org) * Static blog/single page React app hosting * A simple app for who's on holiday when ## Why not use serverless? * Harder to debug? * Slower response times? * Accidental event loop horror stories * Migration to server-based approach if you hit the limits might take more work ## Living without a traditional database * Localize state to edge, browser? * Is dropbox a serverless technology? * Joplin (a note taking app) uses Dropbox for sync ## Testing * How does testing work? ## Change management aws fargate, google cloud dataflow -> figure out compatible deployments, figure out how to drain traffic from one and route to another ## Authentication and identity ## Serverless functions ## other links cloudflare talk on "rise of edge compute": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuIbRuduoR4 cursor parking lot: [ ]