Mega Mergers: Cloud-Native with Containers and WebAssembly

WebAssembly (Wasm) changes everything; Wasm in the browser was just the tip of the iceberg. The impact of Wasm on the server side (and in the cloud) will be way more significant and will change how we craft cloud-native architectures. Thorsten Hans will explain and demonstrate how to design and implement distributed architectures using containers and Wasm. Join this session to see what is possible today, to make yourself comfortable with Wasm in the backend, and get an impression of what „Cloud-Native vNext“ will look like.

Transcript

1. Mega Mergers Thorsten Hans @ThorstenHans Cloud-Native Consultant Cloud-Native with Containers and WebAssembly
2. Consultant @ Thinktecture #Azure #Containers #CloudNative #Wasm thorsten.hans@thinktecture.com thinktecture.com thorsten-hans.com @ThorstenHans Microsoft MVP | Docker Captain Thorsten Hans
3. • Intro • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin • Patterns & Practices • Conclusion Agenda
4. • Intro • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin • Patterns & Practices • Conclusion Agenda
5. WebAssembly will change the way we architecture distributed systems in the future
6. Why?
7. • Cloud-vendor interest: • They can put more apps on a compute resource as today • Wasm and WASI give them a strict security and isolation model • Wasm workloads are way smaller than everything else • They can scale to zero due to super-fast bootstrapping Intro Why will Wasm have such a big impact?
8. • Developer interest: • They can use any language that compiles to wasm32_wasi • They can ship just the app • They can reduce cloud spendings • Same workloads will be cheaper because they consume less resources and execute faster Intro Why will Wasm have such a big impact?
9. Wasm on the server relates to containers in the same way containers related to virtual machines 10+ years ago
10. • Intro • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin • Patterns & Practices • Conclusion Agenda
11. • Intro • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin • Patterns & Practices • Conclusion Agenda
12. Fermyon Spin is: • A serverless runtime build using Wasm, WASI, and the WebAssembly Component Model (leveraging wasmtime internally) • A collection of SDKs for many popular languages • A super focussed developer tooling Intro Let’s get everybody on track! 🦀
13. With Spin we can build • Reactive applications that respect to the key pillars of Wasm • Fast: Near-native speed • Lightweight: Super small distributable units (Wasm Modules) • Secure: Sandboxed execution environment Intro Let’s get everybody on track!
14. Let’s meet Fermyon Spin Walk through the demo application Demo
15. • Spin provides triggers that the runtime uses to invoke our code • The runtime instantiates our Wasm Module and invokes our code • Currently, Spin provides the following triggers • HTTP • Publish / Subscribe Let’s meet Fermyon Spin Triggers & Outputs
16. Outputs allow our code to interact with the surrounding world • Databases (SQLite, MySQL & PostgreSQL) • Key-Value Storage (SQLite, Redis) • Publish / Subscribe (Redis Channels) • Outbound HTTP Let’s meet Fermyon Spin Triggers & Outputs
17. • Considering Fermyon Spin, try to spot reactive parts of your application • Check if necessary libraries are available for the wasm32_wasi platform • Deploy Fermyon Platform to your infrastructure of trust Intro How to adopt Wasm on the server / in the cloud
19. • Intro • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin • Patterns & Practices • Conclusion Agenda
20. • Intro • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin • Patterns & Practices • Conclusion Agenda
21. When building HTTP-based applications with Spin we must • specify a route on which Spin should invoke our code • Implement code for handling different HTTP request types Although Spin SDK is tiny, it simplifies building full-fledged HTTP APIs Patterns & Practices
22. Routing capabilities in HTTP-based Spin applications Demo
23. Regardless of whether we must invoke backend APIs or 3rd party endpoints, Outbound HTTP is an easy to grasp, yet important capability provided by the Spin SDK. Patterns & Practices Outbound HTTP
24. Outbound HTTP leveraging the Spin SDK Demo
25. Configurability is mission-critical when building software that is executed in different environments. Spin apps are no exception here. We must use proper mechanisms to deal with sensitive and non-sensitive configuration data. Patterns & Practices Configuration Management
26. • The Spin Manifest spin.toml is the center of gravity. All configuration aspects are defined here. • We use variables to specify non-sensitive configuration data • For sensitive configuration data, we can use HashiCorp Vault • We link HashiCorp Vault to our app using a runtime-config file Patterns & Practices Configuration Management
27. Configuration data for Spin apps Demo
28. • Publish is achieved using the Spin SDK • Constructing messages is up to us, which means we can modernize (read: replace containers) with ease, using cloudevents or by mimicking existing messages • When subscribing to messages, we must implement filters on our own Patterns & Practices Publish / Subscribe
29. Publish / Subscribe in distributed apps with Spin Demo
30. • Intro • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin • Patterns & Practices • Conclusion Agenda
31. • Intro • Let’s meet Fermyon Spin • Patterns & Practices • Conclusion Agenda
32. • With Spin, Fermyon demonstrates how WebAssembly will change the way we build software for the next wave of cloud-computing • We’re able to combine best from both worlds, Containers and WebAssembly to build distributed architectures for the upcoming years • Available Spin SDKs and plain WAGI support makes it super easy to get started (using any language that compiles to Wasm) Conclusion
33. • Hyperscalers want Wasm to drive hardware utilization, lift smaller application packages, get proper isolation and security in place and scale horizontally to and from 0 without facing the dilemma of cold-start times (Looking at you, Azure Functions *scnr*). • Application developers on the otherside had to tacklequite some pitfalls to adopt Wasm (SDKs., dev tooling, etc) • From my point of view, Fermyon is able to close the gap and drive Wasm adoption on the server and in the cloud to whole new level Conclusion
34. Thanks for your attention @ThorstenHans @Thinktecture