Self Hosted FaaS
As Function as a Service becomes more and more popular as a cloud service (Lambda, Google Cloud Functions…), there is still not very much traction for in-house deployments. For a good reason, as the biggest advantage in cloud FaaS is to pay based on demand, but there are still other advantages which make it worth considering:
- Easy deployment, just publish every new version of the function and the platform will take care of it’s deployment
- Project Structure, as it promotes Functional programming and completely separates components on the finest granularity
- Scalability, by offering more resources for high demand functions, in the detriment of low demand ones
I will go over a few platforms which I found to be the best for self hosted FaaS.
OpenWhisk
OpenWhisk is the most popular self hosted FaaS platform, having great support and an active community. It can run on Kubernetes, Mesos or Docker Compose and has many integrations and supported programming languages.
OpenFaaS
OpenFaaS is an alternative to OpenWhisk which uses Docker and Kubernetes to achieve a serverless infrastructure. An advantage is that you can also run existing Docker images (lets say microservices for example) in this platform, without extra adaptations.
AWS Firecracker
Amazon Firecracker is not quite a FaaS per se, it is a virtualisation tool that is use by AWS Lambda. It specialises on starting very fast and small microVM, where the compute of the function will take place.
Choosing this platform will require additional handling of scheduling, distribution, vm managing. But it will give more flexibility depending on the use (for example keeping a function container alive for a longer period of time).
Serverless Framework
Serverless is not a FaaS platform, but a framework which will facilitate deployment, structure and flexibility. The framework is available for all cloud or self hosted FaaS providers, making it easier to switch between them.
Conclusion
These are the most popular self hosted FaaS providers (and also mentioned a few cloud managed ones). Just say hi on AngelList, LinkedIn or mail if you have questions about them.
