There’s a new storage and processing architecture coming to the IoT called Serverless Computing. It is designed to make coding and development more efficient while streamlining processing—especially at the network’s Edge.
Recently, I sat down (remotely) with Delano Seymour, CTO of Edge and Serverless Computing company EDJX. He gave me a sneak peek into their serverless capabilities and shared why it might be a good fit for IT, TO, and IoT companies.
Let’s dig into the interview conversation.
Tell us about yourself.
I’ve been in the IT industry for about 25 years. I started out fixing computers and worked my way up to the point where we created a Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) that we offered our customers. We took that service, and there we went — this was before AWS was in place. When serverless came on the scene, we realized that serverless computing was the way to go. Especially with the fact that it’s very small, it could fill the gaps, and we don’t have to do as much hardware in order to make that serverless environment.
What is serverless computing?
First of all, there are servers. But, the servers are removed off-site from the developer, so they don’t have to worry about how much service they need and can focus purely on code. When the developer writes the code, they can upload it to a serverless platform. The platform takes care of running that code, scaling that code, or picking the right server for that code. Essentially, developers can focus entirely on the software, and that’s it.
Serverless is different from normal platforms like cloud computing platforms in the sense that there is no server to worry about. You don’t even have to think about a server. There is also an event-based system, so functions are executed based on events that happen in your platform.
How does serverless computing make it easier to focus on the code?
Number one, you have to think about your code in small portions. Functions are what we call them, and those functions (small portions) communicate with each other based on the events that have happened in the system. One event could be an HTTP request, and that event will trigger one of these functions to execute. After that function executes, it can create a new event that will trigger another function to execute. We can then connect those functions together to create a complete application.
Is there a catch? What are the downsides and/or disadvantages? What can’t you do with serverless computing?
With serverless, you are focusing on a set of functions. You cannot take an existing application from an enterprise infrastructure and simply convert it over. It would first need to be broken down into functions—so that’s one disadvantage. You can’t just take what you have and convert it over. Other than that, there are very few disadvantages. You can literally do the same thing you would normally do.
What are some reasons to switch to serverless?
One reason is cost. It’s cheaper to run a serverless application than a full-blown stack that runs in a cloud platform. The second reason is scalability. You can scale a serverless application to a global level because of the stack’s nature, and that is its capability out of the box. You don’t have to build anything special to scale that application. A third reason is that the type of application is event-driven, meaning that if nothing happens over a period of time, but at other times there is a lot of activity, it’s probably a good fit for serverless.
Is this a no-code development or a plug-and-play platform? How is it the same or different?
In a serverless world, you still have to write code. However, once you write that code, it’s very similar to no-code from that point forward. You don’t have to worry about any servers, bandwidth, or how to scale it. Everything else is the same.
Lastly, can you tell us a little about EDJX?
EDJX provides a serverless platform but as part of a larger platform. We are edge-computing, and we do the storage and serverless component. We also handle your domain registration. We give you the complete package.
I want to give a special thanks to Delano Seymour of EDJX for his time and for sharing his knowledge on serverless computing. I enjoyed our conversation. Thanks for reading. Check out the full video interview below!
