Slides from the presentation at the July 2016 Sydney All Things API meet up. The session provided an overview of serverless architecture and the reasons for my interest in the Serverless Framework. Group event page: https://www.meetup.com/All-Things-API-REST-Cloud-Integrations-SaaS-Sydney-AU/events/232574534/

1. Going “serverless” in 2016
A high level introduction to serverless architecture and the Serverless framework
Twitter: @dkcwd

2. First a little background….

3. Serverless architecture is an approach
A “serverless” application architecture describes an approach where
you can build applications without directly managing servers or
containers.
The Serverless framework is a project which has been created to
make it easier to get started with developing and maintaining your
own applications which leverage a serverless approach.

4. No servers and configuration to manage?
When you adopt serverless programming paradigms you may not
need to maintain servers or containers.
Note: There is still some work to do in terms of configuration and
that’s one of the reasons why the Serverless framework exists.

5. Why should I care?
You might reduce your spend on infrastructure by avoiding charges
for idle servers (including container hosts) and increase the rate at
which your team can develop/deploy new features.
Subject to the usage policy of a given “Function as a Service”
provider, there may be significant benefits for you in terms of
scalability in addition to the points mentioned above.

6. So you’re talking about AWS Lambda?
At the AWS Summit in Sydney (April 2016) there was a lot of excitement
surrounding serverless programming paradigms using AWS Lambda.
Other vendors supporting “Function as a Service” offerings include:
§Azure Functions
§Google Cloud Functions
§IBM Open Whisk

7. Concerns about development effort
The examples shown at the AWS Summit were interesting however
there was something about having to leverage the AWS interface
through your browser which felt a little backwards and off-putting.
Serverless framework interested me because it felt like a missing link
to allow rapid development and maintenance of serverless
functionality.

8. Concerns about “vendor lock-in”?
While the use cases were compelling at the AWS Summit and there
was plenty of buzz around how to get started, there were plenty of
attendees concerned about the potential for issues related to
“vendor lock-in”.
That is another reason why the Serverless framework interested me.

9. Introducing Serverless framework

10. Introducing Serverless framework
The project exists at: https://github.com/serverless/serverless
The first commits to the project were made on April 21st, 2015
Working toward supporting major vendors reducing lock-in fear

11. Are there example projects?
Yes!
You can find out more here https://github.com/serverless
In particular check out: serverless-graphql-blog
Note: Elliot Spira created an excellent tutorial on creating a HipChat Connector
Check it out here: https://bitbucket.org/gorillastack/serverless-hipchat-connect

12. Can you show me a reference diagram?
Yes!
I’ll show you one for a single page JS application on the next slide.
The “serverless backend” is based on serverless-graphql
See: https://github.com/serverless/serverless-graphql

14. Do I have to build and deploy a frontend?
No!
Some of the started projects have a frontend component which you can deploy if you wish.
You may choose to use the framework just to focus on backend components.

15. What is the workflow like?
§ Vendor configuration before anything else
§ Initial project setup via CLI
§ Development
§ Local testing
§ Deployment of endpoints and functions via CLI
§ Rinse & Repeat

16. Vendor configuration
Assuming you start out with AWS….
Make sure you have a AWS account and create an IAM user for
working with your serverless projects via the Serverless framework.
You need your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key for the IAM user.

17. Hmmm I haven’t done that before….um
Don’t worry, here is an awesome tutorial to help you get started with all aspects
of working with the Serverless framework.
Get in there and have a go. Before you know it you’ll be working your way
around the command line interface deploying endpoints like a pro!
Check out: http://justserverless.com/blog/your-first-serverless-application/

18. A tip once you’re up and running
If you don’t already, consider using a tool like Postman to create
some tests for your API end points.
It can make it easy to create request collections and capture example
responses for use during development. If used effectively it can be a
leveraged as part of a lean integration test suite.

19. Create request collections with Postman
See: https://www.getpostman.com

20. From here
Remember Serverless framework is just one of many projects that are evolving.
With Serverless framework you can run applications locally without using AWS if
you want to experiment a little more before deploying.
See the plugins section on the Serverless framework README.md
https://github.com/serverless/serverless#plugins

21. From here
Check out the Sydney Serverless Meetup Group:
http://www.meetup.com/Sydney-Serverless-Meetup-Group/
Help build the community, Chris Dorringtonstarted a Slack channel recently so
come join us at https://letsgoserverless.stamplayapp.com/
Ask questions, meet others and share your experiences.

22. Enjoy and share what you do….
I’m on Twitter: @dkcwd
LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/daveclarkprofile