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# System prepended metadata

title: Let's talk serverless

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# 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

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