WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Christian Weyer Thinktecture AG Martina Kraus Kraus Consulting IT Thorsten Hans Thinktecture AG

WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Intro 2

WebAssembly (Wasm) is a § secure § fast § portable stack-based execution environment (virtual machine) used for running applications. WebAssembly Past, Present, Future What is WebAssembly? 3 Intro

Server Server WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Platforms: Past, present, future 4 Past Present Future Web Web Web Cloud Cloud Microcontroller Extensibility Extensibility Bare metal Edge Intro

WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Past Martina Kraus 5

§ The browser evolved to a smart client application platform § Browser APIs (File System Access, Clipboard API..) § Runs on almost every platform § Handling updates is much more easier (and very cheap) § A new version will be downloaded from the server WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Why should I care about the web? 6 Past | Present | Future

§ Fast, efficient, and portable § Low-level bytecode for the web § Uses existing browser sandbox features § Use native code to run inside the browser, in a secure environment § No plugins needed § Standards and specifications through W3C WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Why WebAssembly in the browser? 7 Past | Present | Future

“WebAssembly is designed to complement JavaScript, not replace it” WebAssembly Past, Present, Future WebAssembly in the browser 8 Past | Present | Future

1. Migrate your native desktop app to the web 2. Speed up your web application WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Scenarios for WebAssembly in the browser 9 Past | Present | Future

WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Migrating your desktop app to the web 10 Past | Present | Future

§ Video editing § 3D rendering § Video games § Music streaming § Encryption § Image recognition/ processing § Running simulations WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Good for performance-intensive use cases 11 Past | Present | Future

Angular SPA with Rust image processing lib WebAssembly Past, Present, Future DEMO 12 Past | Present | Future

WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Present Thorsten Hans 13

§ Resource utilization § With same compute power, more applications could be executed § Speed § Wasm modules are bootstrapped in no-time and fast at runtime § Security § Wasm modules are isolated and every module has dedicated permissions § Size § Compared to other distributables (containers | VMs), Wasm is super small WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Why WebAssembly on the server? 14 Past | Present | Future

§ WASI (WebAssembly System Interface) provides system calls to Wasm programs § WASI is platform-agnostic: run Wasm applications on any WASI- compliant platform § WASI is designed to provide only essential system calls that Wasm applications needs to run (again contributes to speed) WebAssembly Past, Present, Future WASI 15 Past | Present | Future

§ Provide necessary infrastructure for executing Wasm applications leveraging APIs specified and provided by WASI § Handle system calls made by Wasm modules and delegates them to the underlying platform, e.g.: § File access § Network access § Environment variables § Notable WASI runtimes § wasmtime § wasmer § WebAssembly Micro Runtime (WAMR) WebAssembly Past, Present, Future WASI runtimes 16 Past | Present | Future

§ No infrastructure management § Speed of Wasm allows scale-down to 0 (ZERO) § No impact on request performance § Notable Serverless Wasm platforms today § Fermyon § Fermyon Cloud § Spin § Microsoft is experimenting in Azure § (currently in AKS - and yes, that’s not serverless, yet 😁) WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Serverless Wasm 17 Past | Present | Future

CRUD HTTP API with Rust – Fermyon Spin WebAssembly Past, Present, Future DEMO 18 Past | Present | Future

WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Future Christian Weyer 19

1. Extensibility as a powerful use case 2. .NET as a player in the Wasm world WebAssembly Past, Present, Future What’s next for WebAssembly & for us? 20 Past | Present | Future

§ Plugins for everyone, by everyone, everywhere § Leverage secure Wasm sandbox § Write plugins in any code § Use plugins in any code § E.g. Extism § Plugins written in any language § Hosts written in any language § Common application interfaces § Provide value-add services & features without need for dedicated language / platform SDKs § E.g. SpiderLightning § Abstract away distributed application capabilities, such as state management, pub/sub, event driven programming WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Secure extensibility 21 Past | Present | Future

Extensibility with Extism WebAssembly Past, Present, Future DEMO 22 Past | Present | Future

§ .NET’s current Wasm support builds on Mono § .NET-compiled Wasm & JS interop (since .NET 7.0) § Take your C# / .NET code into the browser and integrate it with any JS code running in the browser, e.g. JS SPAs § Blazor WebAssembly (since .NET Core 3.1) § Build C#- / .NET-based SPAs with Razor components § Compiles to .NET assemblies § Executes on a .NET runtime compiled to Wasm § AOT mode enables ahead-of-time compilation WebAssembly Past, Present, Future .NET & Wasm - browser 23 Past | Present | Future

§ .NET originally has not been made for Wasm & WASI § Especially regarding size, runtime, garbage collection § .NET WASI SDK § Experimental for now § Currently evolved & stabilized towards .NET 8 release § .NET NativeAOT-LLVM § NativeAOT can make .NET binaries smaller & faster § Future Wasm support will be based on NativeAOT, in addition to Mono § Very experimental today WebAssembly Past, Present, Future .NET & Wasm – beyond the browser 24 Past | Present | Future

§ Dreaming of an Azure Functions successor – Wasm-/WASI-based § Today: Third party Spin .NET SDK § Experimental for now (of course!) WebAssembly Past, Present, Future .NET & Wasm – serverless 25 Past | Present | Future

.NET WASI SDK Sneak peak of future NativeAOT Wasm support WebAssembly Past, Present, Future DEMO 26 Past | Present | Future

WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Wrap-Up 27

§ Secure “write once, run anywhere” may come true § A lot of things are still moving, though § Specifications & standards § Technologies § Developer tooling § Make yourself familiar with WebAssembly’s possibilities today! WebAssembly Past, Present, Future WebAssembly is and will be a big thing 🙌 28 Wrap-Up Server Future Web Cloud Microcontroller Extensibility Bare metal Edge

WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Thank you! 29

WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Links 30

§ WASI § https://wasi.dev/ § Fermyon Spin § https://www.fermyon.com/spin § .NET WASI SDK § https://github.com/dotnet/dotnet-wasi-sdk § Extism § https://github.com/extism/extism § SpiderLightning § https://github.com/deislabs/spiderlightning § Spec, Standards § https://github.com/WebAssembly/proposals § https://webassembly.org/roadmap/ § https://github.com/WebAssembly/WASI/blob/main/Proposals.md WebAssembly Past, Present, Future Links 31