This document discusses serverless apps and computing. It begins by defining serverless computing as a cloud execution model where machine resources are allocated on demand by the cloud provider, removing the need for customers to manage servers themselves. It then outlines the benefits of the serverless model for student founders, including low costs since apps are only charged when in use (as opposed to monthly server fees) and the ability to easily try out projects without ongoing hosting fees. Various serverless technologies like AWS Lambda and Netlify Functions are also introduced.
6. What is Serverless Computing?
“Serverless computing is a
cloud computing execution
model in which the cloud
provider allocates machine
resources on demand,
taking care of the servers
on behalf of their
customers.” - Wikipedia
7. What is Serverless Computing?
Instead, let’s do this:
● Serverless = developers need not worry about
servers!
● Let’s define Serverless Computing (or simply
Serverless) by the problems that it solves.
● Let’s define Serverless Computing against
alternatives.
Good?
8. Ji Pyeong the Student Founder
Strengths
● Time
● Energy
● Brains
● Desire to
win
Weaknesses
● Lack of
money
● Lack of
connections
12. Chicken and Egg Problem
Need to upload
to server to earn
money
Need to earn
money to upload
to server
????
13. Success vs. Failure
Failure
● Nobody visits
● Nobody buys
● ₱0 Income
● Expense > Income
Success
● Money coming in
● ₱+ Income
● Income >> Expense
● Party!!!
14. Ideal Scenario
On Failure
● Nobody visits
● Nobody buys
● ₱0 Income
● ₱0 on server
● Try again!
● Addition to
Portfolio
On Success
● Became viral
● Money coming in
● ₱+ Income
● ₱+ on server
● Party!!!
17. Physical Servers
Development Server:
2nd hand PC AMD ATHLON
(Shopee) - ₱8,500
Production Grade Server:
Dell PowerEdge T30 Entry Level
Mini Tower Server Intel Xeon
E3-1225 (Asianic) - ₱45,900
PLDT Asenso Fibr Plan - ₱2,099
18. Physical Servers
On Failure
● Nobody visits
● Nobody buys
● ₱0 Income
● ₱45,900 on server
● ₱- on electricity &
internet
● Reuse server for next
project
● Cannot turn off for
portfolio
On Success
● Became viral
● ₱+ Income
● ₱45,900 on server
● ₱- on electricity &
internet
● Hard, takes time to
upgrade
● Headaches (!!!)
19. Physical Server Headaches
● Overheating (needs aircon)
● Must ensure constant electricity
● Regular backups
● Software Updates
● Must ensure that volumes have
enough space
● Must ensure that internet is
available
● Must diagnose and replace
failing components
● Etc...
24. Hosting
On Failure
● Nobody visits
● Nobody buys
● ₱0 Income
● ₱430/month on server
● Cannot turn off for
portfolio
On Success
● Became viral
● ₱+ Income
● ₱430/month on server
● Hard, takes time to
upgrade
● Will go down if
traffic > capacity (!!!)
25. Hosting - On Success
Small Machine
Big
Machine
Files
27. Cloud
Cloud computing allows you to increase or
decrease computing power and storage by a
click of a button. (vertical scaling)
dual-core quad-core 8-core 16-core
28. Cloud
Cloud computing allows also allows you to
create and destroy clones of the same server
indefinite number of times (horizontal scaling)
29. Cloud
On Failure
● Nobody visits
● Nobody buys
● ₱0 Income
● ₱923.52/month on
server (t3.small AP)
● You need at least 1
server to keep it running
● Cannot turn off for
portfolio
On Success
● Became viral
● ₱+ Income
● ₱(923.52 x N)/month on
server
● Very easy to upgrade!
● Very easy to
downgrade!
33. Serverless
On Failure
● Nobody visits
● Nobody buys
● ₱0 Income
● ₱0 on server
● Try again!
● Addition to
Portfolio
On Success
● Became viral
● Money coming in
● ₱+ Income
● ₱+ on server
● Party!!!
Why?
Who wants to start their own IT-based business
Show of hands via chat
This presentation is especially for you
For non-entrepreneurs, learning Serverless Computing is still valuable in your IT career
How old are you? 20 - 21?
Is it possible to start a business while in college? YES!
What does Serverless Computing have to do with starting a tech business? Everything.
Problem: Jessie the Student Founder
Has Laptop, Internet Connection
Lives with Mom
20 pesos in pocket
BRAINS + TIME
Ideas
Founder with limited resources
Guerilla Tactics
App Development Route
Jessie thinks of an idea
Jessie programs the web app / mobile app
Jessie needs to show the world
What?
How?
Basic components of a Serverless App
Frontend - CDN
Logic - Lambda Functions
Persistence - Redis / Upstash
Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash
Sumakit ang ulo ko actually
Lean Product Development = Experiment
How can you make the experiments as cheap as possible?
We have to make failure as cheap as possibleFailure = Learning
Success = Double-down
3 MVP - Minimum viable product
Make the product with minimum features with minimum time spent to test a hypothesis
4. Presentation
People Lie
Will anyone buy your app?
Before we define what Serverless is, we must first define what a server is.
In a Client-Server architecture, we have a client who asks for something, and the server provides it
Web servers - website - HTML, CSS, JavaScript
Database servers - contain data
File servers - return files
The server’s primary role is to WAIT for incoming request from clients, and to respond appropriately.
On Failure
Failure = Learning
Fail as cheap as possible
Try again = starting over, or just modifying the app a little bit (Lean Terminology = Pivot)
On Success
Okay lang magbayad lalo na kung may pera
Who is playing DOTA here?
Super bano ko sa dota.
One lesson I learned - do not die. Run, hide if you can, but do not die.
Serverless is, ironically, a type of server
Again, a server is where you put your application for the world to see.
Evolution of server from the point of view of app developers.
Each “generation” of server tries to solve a problem that is plaguing the previous generation.
Will also evaluate the cost needed for our Student Founder
We will also explore the cost on what will happen if the app flops, and what will happen if the app goes viral
Tell story about Towa Intercon presentation
Natanggal yung CPU habang nag-on
Nagbus yung co-founder ko dala dala ang computer
Laptops are super expensive back then!
Tell story about Friendster Philippines
Napatid yung isang employee sa isang power cable, nag-down ang site!
Tell story about UP Diliman computerized registration system
One of the main problems of a physical server is the difficulty in adding or subtracting resources as the need arises.
Tell story of horror stories of maintaining computers in an internet cafe
Ayoko ng servers, I just want to make an app
There are companies that realized that server maintenance is too troublesome. So they setup their server farms, and just charge for hosting fee.
Shared Hosting - you are renting the machine with other tenants.
Dedicated Hosting - the whole machine is exclusively yours.
The biggest issue with hosting is that when your site becomes popular, it is very hard to “upgrade” your plan.
You may have to transfer manually all of your files to another server if you reached the machines capacity
Tell story of Jeff Bezos and Amazon Retail
Cloud computing allows you to increase or decrease computing power and storage by a click of a button.
For software developers like us, cloud computing is heaven!
How does AWS do this? I have no freaking idea.
Vertical scaling is the easiest, but not the most cost-effective way to scale.
The more powerful the
Cloud computing allows you to increase or decrease computing power and storage by a click of a button.
For software developers like us, cloud computing is heaven!
Billed per hour, but you need at least 1 server to keep it running
The reversed is true for the cloud: It can handle the success well, but it’s rather costly to maintain a failure for portfolio
Do you know angry birds?Rovio created Angry Birds
Do you know how many failed apps did they make before becoming successful? 51
This is why I think Serverless Computing and Serverless apps are perfect for Guerilla strategy
Static files - by definition they do not change.
I get rerouted to the closest CDN note to me.
CDN charges you for two things:* bandwidth - how often your site gets visited* storage - how big your files are
Static files - by definition they do not change.
I get rerouted to the closest CDN note to me.
CDN charges you for two things:* bandwidth - how often your site gets visited* storage - how big your files are
Charged per connection and per storage
Charged per connection and per storage
Bonus, paki-type sa chat kung saang game galing ito?