The Python Podcast.__init__

The Python Podcast.__init__



The podcast about Python and the people who make it great


04 June 2019

Building A Business On Serverless Technology - E214

Rewind 10 seconds
1X
Skip 30 seconds ahead
0:00/0:00

Share on social media:


Summary

Serverless computing is a recent category of cloud service that provides new options for how we build and deploy applications. In this episode Raghu Murthy, founder of DataCoral, explains how he has built his entire business on these platforms. He explains how he approaches system architecture in a serverless world, the challenges that it introduces for local development and continuous integration, and how the landscape has grown and matured in recent years. If you are wondering how to incorporate serverless platforms in your projects then this is definitely worth your time to listen to.

Announcements

  • Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
  • When you’re ready to launch your next app or want to try a project you hear about on the show, you’ll need somewhere to deploy it, so take a look at our friends over at Linode. With 200 Gbit/s private networking, scalable shared block storage, node balancers, and a 40 Gbit/s public network, all controlled by a brand new API you’ve got everything you need to scale up. And for your tasks that need fast computation, such as training machine learning models, they just launched dedicated CPU instances. Go to pythonpodcast.com/linode to get a $20 credit and launch a new server in under a minute. And don’t forget to thank them for their continued support of this show!
  • And to keep track of how your team is progressing on building new features and squashing bugs, you need a project management system designed by software engineers, for software engineers. Clubhouse lets you craft a workflow that fits your style, including per-team tasks, cross-project epics, a large suite of pre-built integrations, and a simple API for crafting your own. With such an intuitive tool it’s easy to make sure that everyone in the business is on the same page. Podcast.init listeners get 2 months free on any plan by going to pythonpodcast.com/clubhouse today and signing up for a trial.
  • Bots and automation are taking over whole categories of online interaction. Discover.bot is an online community designed to serve as a platform-agnostic digital space for bot developers and enthusiasts of all skill levels to learn from one another, share their stories, and move the conversation forward together. They regularly publish guides and resources to help you learn about topics such as bot development, using them for business, and the latest in chatbot news. For newcomers to the space they have the Beginners Guide To Bots that will teach you the basics of how bots work, what they can do, and where they are developed and published. To help you choose the right framework and avoid the confusion about which NLU features and platform APIs you will need they have compiled a list of the major options and how they compare. Go to pythonpodcast.com/discoverbot today to get started and thank them for their support of the show.
  • You listen to this show to learn and stay up to date with the ways that Python is being used, including the latest in machine learning and data analysis. For even more opportunities to meet, listen, and learn from your peers you don’t want to miss out on this year’s conference season. We have partnered with organizations such as O’Reilly Media, Dataversity, and the Open Data Science Conference. Coming up this fall is the combined events of Graphorum and the Data Architecture Summit. The agendas have been announced and super early bird registration for up to $300 off is available until July 26th, with early bird pricing for up to $200 off through August 30th. Use the code BNLLC to get an additional 10% off any pass when you register. Go to pythonpodcast.com/conferences to learn more and take advantage of our partner discounts when you register.
  • The Python Software Foundation is the lifeblood of the community, supporting all of us who want to run workshops and conferences, run development sprints or meetups, and ensuring that PyCon is a success every year. They have extended the deadline for their 2019 fundraiser until June 30th and they need help to make sure they reach their goal. Go to pythonpodcast.com/psf2019 today to make a donation. If you’re listening to this after June 30th of 2019 then consider making a donation anyway!
  • Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the newsletter, and read the show notes. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions I would love to hear them. You can reach me on Twitter at @Podcast__init__ or email hosts@podcastinit.com)
  • To help other people find the show please leave a review on iTunes and tell your friends and co-workers
  • Join the community in the new Zulip chat workspace at pythonpodcast.com/chat
  • Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Raghu Murthy from DataCoral about his experience building and deploying a personalized SaaS platform on top of serverless technologies

Interview

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python?
  • Can you start by giving a brief overview of DataCoral?
  • Before we get too deep can you share your definition of what types of technologies fall under the umbrella of "serverless"?
  • How are you using serverless technologies at DataCoral?
    • How has your usage evolved as your business and the underlying technologies have evolved?
  • How do serverless technologies impact your approach to application architecture?
  • What are some of the main benefits for someone to target services such as Lambda?
    • What is your litmus test for determining whether a given project would be a good fit for a Function as a Service platform?
  • What are the most challenging aspects of running code on Lambda?
    • What are some of the major design differences between running on Lambda vs the more familiar server-oriented paradigms?
    • What are some of the other services that are most commonly used alongside Function as as Service (e.g. Lambda) to build full featured applications?
  • With serverless function platforms there is the cold start problem, can you explain what that means and some application design patterns that can help mitigate it?
  • When building on cloud-based technologies, especially proprietary ones, local development can be a challenge. How are you handling that issue at DataCoral?
  • In addition to development this new deployment paradigm upends some of the traditional approaches to CI/CD. How are you approaching testing and deployment of your services?
    • How do you identify and maintain dependency graphs between your various microservices?
  • In addition to deployment, it is also necessary to track performance characteristics and error events across service boundaries. How are you managing observability and alerting in your product?
  • What are you most excited for in the serverless space that listeners should know about?

Keep In Touch

Picks

Links

The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA


Share on social media:


Listen in your favorite app:



More options

Here are shows you might like

See show recommendations
Data Engineering Podcast
Tobias Macey
AI Engineering Podcast
Tobias Macey