SERVERLESS DOES NOT MEAN BRAINLESS – PART 1

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Yann Tromeur

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an open letter to my dear IT admins Colleagues

By any means this article not endorsed by AMAZON Web Services, GOOGLE Cloud Platform or MICROSOFT Azure (but we wish).

Last night, I (gracefully) stumbled on this very simple hands-on introduction to LAMBDA:

https://aws.amazon.com/getting-started/serverless-web-app/

A short hour tutorial, to refresh my mind on what’s up at the moment and forgetting about the old fashion (yes) way: server, storage, hypervisor and Virtual machines before installing the services developers need.

Using the fictitious company Wild Rydes (better than contoso Ha!…), you will setup a web app allowing to dispatch Unicorns “à-la” Uber to your location.

My two-year old daughter was screaming with joy seeing the web page:

We are in for a treat…

I am not particularly into developing at the moment, I have been a Notes specialist a looong time ago I also develop small Microsoft Access database / Applications and did some C# / Web App as well as Microsoft SAL management. It has been Fifteen years since I definitely joined the obscure side of IT, network / server administrator, never to come back.

But this is not a career article! Let’s go back to my last night AWS experience.

I found particular joy in following rather clear explanations of this tutorial. Amazon is really good for communication, I also browsed more on their website on the side and well, they DO deliver guidance.

Amazon describes in five steps, using their cloud micro service solution, what you can do and use once you develop a smart website. The range covered are website repository (S3), user authentication and management (COGNITO), backend (LAMBDA / DYNAMODB) and API (API GATEWAY) setup are described and easily setup with easy steps.

Develop a smart website…

So if you are a server administrator, curious or providing support to a bunch of developers / database masters, this would basically explain you what your next tool is.

I would also recommend similar tech / tutorial so you are sure you checked all mainstream providers:

Google Cloud Platform :

https://medium.com/google-cloud/deploying-a-serverless-env-in-minutes-with-gcp-22008c42dfa4

MICROSOFT AZURE :

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/videos/get-started-with-azure-functions/

Those are not as fancy as dispatching ‘Uber’nicorns, but hey you have to be serious sometimes!

YES, that old fashion way is being (gently) erased progressively and I guess we are in for a treat.

Now, just bow in awe in presence of your new God / Master / Paradigm.

(Because)