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back to article Next big thing after containers? Amazon CTO talks up serverless computing

Amazon CTO Dr Werner Vogels talked up the value of serverless computing at the AWS (Amazon Web Services) London Summit last week. "What we’ve seen is a revolution where complete applications are being stripped of all their servers, and only code is being run. Quite a few companies are ripping out big pieces of their …

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  1. Just a geek

    Not exactly serverless computing, more like shared computing/processing/SaaS. We do that today with large, "central" SQL servers that run databases for multiple apps.

    1 0 Reply
  2. Forget It
    Thumb Up

    Tim Bray's take on this

    http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2016/03/31/Serverlessness

    0 0 Reply
  3. Locky

    I'll believe it when I see it

    Considering they've been banging on about the paperless office for the past 30 years, I'm not holding my breath

    4 0 Reply
    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge
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      Coat

      Paperless, serverless, pah.

      I'll be impressed when they manage computerless.

      3 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        i'd quite like to see "supporting departments / HR etc"-less .....

        5 0 Reply
  4. richard?

    So exactly like mainframe computing 30 years ago...

    OK, you had to put your code on a tape and send it by post, but "run this code with this much memory and this much disk space" is old stuff.

    Being able to do it on demand for very small units of work is cool though.

    6 0 Reply
    1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
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      Coat

      Re: So exactly like mainframe computing 30 years ago...

      OK, you had to put your code on a tape and send it by post, but "run this code with this much memory and this much disk space" is old stuff.

      Do the results come back in a PDF with 14⅞" x 11" pages, alternating green & white stripes? That would be even more cool...

      9 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Re: So exactly like mainframe computing 30 years ago...

        Hope the editor lets you punch virtual cards on screen...

        Jokes aside, the Cloud now not only wants your data, but your source code as well...

        1 0 Reply
    2. gudguy1a
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      Re: So exactly like mainframe computing 30 years ago...

      Hmmmm, maybe Hollerith cards are coming back too?

      Let me see if I can dig up a box or two of those punched cards to do a 2 or 3 page report on the state of mainframe, errr, serverless computing.

      0 0 Reply
  5. Jan 0 Silver badge

    Was Vogel built by Frankenstein?

    Well he seems to have a spanner in his hand and a poorly disguised bolt in his neck.

    1 0 Reply
    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
      Reply Icon

      Re: Was Vogel built by Frankenstein?

      Kudos for not mixing up the creator and his creation (as "only truly stupid people do" - Kryten), but: the thingies on the monster's neck are not neck bolts, they are electrodes.

      But yeah, saw the pic and tought "didn't that guy use to be in Rammstein?"

      2 0 Reply
  6. SVV

    So, it's like a big IT department then....

    You as a developer write your application and when it's ready to go live you pass it over to the admins who manage the servers and they deploy it.

    On a server.

    Revolutionary indeed.

    1 0 Reply
  7. Tom 64
    Paris Hilton

    I looked into lambda before...

    It turns out that its just a nice little earner for Amazon.

    Sure it sounds convenient on the surface, but actually AWS's tools for doing anything useful with it were pretty poor and not easy to get your head around (this was a year ago and may have improved).

    Ditch Lambda, set up your own VMs to do what you want and you'll be making a big saving anyway.

    Paris, cause well, whats the effing point?

    0 0 Reply
  8. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    How about something on CTO-less computing

    That'd make sense.

    2 0 Reply

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