Develop Serverless apps with Wasm Workers Server

In this talk, we will explore how WebAssembly brings new benefits to the Serverless architecture and how to develop and run applications following this model with the Wasm Workers Server Open-Source project. You will learn how to create your first serverless application as Wasm modules!

This architecture is not new. It allows you to focus on the business logic of your applications. You develop the functions that process users’ requests and return a result. These independent units compose services. Then, frameworks and providers connect these pieces so users can access them.

WebAssembly is a natural fit for this model. The small binary format simplifies the distribution process. The ability to compile multiple languages into Wasm opens the possibility to mix and match them in the same project. The sandboxing and capability-based model ensures the functions are isolated without the cold start of other solutions like VMs and containers.

Wasm Workers Server is an Open-Source project to develop applications following this model. It simplifies how to create and run serverless applications in different languages. All the functions, or workers, run inside the WebAssembly sandbox.

Transcript

1. Confidential │ © VMware, Inc.
   Develop Serverless
   Apps with Wasm
   Workers Server
   Create worker-based apps on
   top of WebAssembly
   Angel M Miguel & Rafael Fernández
   Wasm Labs / VMware OCTO
   

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2. 👋 Hello
   Angel M Miguel
   Staff Engineer
   @_angelmm
   angel.kiwi
   Rafael Fernández
   Staff Engineer
   @ereslibre
   ereslibre.es
   Wasm Labs @ VMware OCTO
   “We create and contribute to projects that showcase the possibilities of
   WebAssembly, and help developers adopt this new and exciting technology”
   @vmwwasm wasmlabs.dev
   

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3. Confidential │ © VMware, Inc. 3
   Serverless and
   WebAssembly
   

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4. Serverless and Wasm
   Bringing the Wasm benefits to serverless
   Serverless is a popular cloud
   computing model that
   abstracts developers from the
   underlying infrastructure.
   Your service is composed by
   individual units called functions
   or workers.
   

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5. Serverless and Wasm
   Adopting WebAssembly
   Developers
   Focus on writing the code.
   Reuse existing knowledge to
   develop the workers.
   

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6. “How do I get started?”
   WebAssembly introduces a new set of concepts and tooling
   

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7. “
   Wasm Workers Server
   Serverless ❤ WebAssembly
   We want developers to be productive
   quickly while creating apps that fully
   benefit from WebAssembly
   

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8. Wasm Workers Server
   Serverless ❤ WebAssembly
   Wasm Workers Server is an open-
   source project for developing and
   running serverless apps on
   WebAssembly.
   It exposes workers as an HTTP API,
   receiving requests and returning
   responses.
   

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9. Wasm Workers Server
   Get started in less than 5 minutes
   1. Download wws
   2. Create a file (.wasm / .js)
   3. Run wws
   4. Open your browser
   

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10. Wasm Workers Server
    How does it work?
    

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11. Serverless maps
    Protomaps on Wasm Workers Server
    “Protomaps is a
    serverless system for
    planet-scale maps”
    https://protomaps.com/
    It’s an alternative to hosted map services.
    

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12. Confidential │ © VMware, Inc. 12
    Everyone,
    Everywhere
    

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13. “Documenting and improving
    interoperability of web platform APIs
    across runtimes (especially non-browser
    ones)”
    Platforms
    WinterCG conventions
    WinterCG
    

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14. Languages
    Supporting multiple languages
    Wasm Language Runtimes is an OSS project that
    provides popular language runtimes (Ruby, Python, …)
    precompiled to WebAssembly.
    

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15. Wasm Workers Server
    Ensure everyone is productive
    “I'm glad Ruby
    wasn't left behind
    this time”
    Yukihiro Matz,
    Ruby’s “daddy”
    

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16. Wasm Labs
    No app gets left behind
    with WebAssembly
    “
    Wasm Workers Server
    Ensure everyone is productive
    

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17. Confidential │ © VMware, Inc. 17
    Next steps
    

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18. Wasm Workers Server
    Try it!
    https://workers.wasmlabs.dev/quickstart
    https://workers.wasmlabs.dev/examples
    @vmwwasm wasmlabs.dev
    

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19. Wasm Workers Server
    What’s next?
    • Support new languages
    • Provide workers with new features
    • Fetch
    • Persistance
    • Component-model
    

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20. Wasm Workers Server
    Serverless ecosystem
    https://developer.fermyon.com/spin/
    https://wasmcloud.com/
    https://suborbital.dev/
    https://scale.sh/
    

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21. Thank You
    Confidential │ © VMware, Inc.
    https://wasmlabs.dev
    

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