A mixed-method empirical study of Function-as-a-Service software development in industrial practice

Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) describes cloud computing services that make infrastructure components transparent to application developers, thus falling in the larger group of “serverless” computing mod- els. When using FaaS offerings, such as AWS Lambda, developers provide atomic and short-running code for their functions, and FaaS providers execute and horizontally scale them on-demand. Currently, there is nosystematic research on how developers use serverless, what types of applications lend themselves to this model, or what architectural styles and practices FaaS-based applications are based on. We present results from a mixed-method study, combining interviews with practitioners who develop applications and systems that use FaaS, a systematic analysis of grey literature, and a Web-based survey. We find that successfully adopting FaaS requires a different mental model, where systems are primarily constructed by composing pre-existing services, with FaaS often acting as the “glue” that brings these services to- gether. Tooling availability and maturity, especially related to testing and deployment, remains a major difficulty. Further, we find that current FaaS systems lack systematic support for function reuse, and ab- stractions and programming models for building non-trivial FaaS applications are limited. We conclude with a discussion of implications for FaaS providers, software developers, and researchers

Emerging Trends, Challenges, and Experiences in DevOps and Microservice APIs

In August 2019, we organized the second Vienna Software Seminar (VSS) with the topic "DevOps and Microservice APIs." Embracing the positive reception of its first iteration in 2017, VSS is an opportunity for attendees to discuss recent software technologies, practices, and related research. The seminar\u27s 34 participants included a mix of practitioners and academics, who were invited based on their roles and experiences. The explicit intention of the seminar was to provide ample opportunities for exchange and communication: six themed sessions consisted of one invited keynote and two lightning talks, giving different perspectives on the session?s topic and (ideally) sparking ideas for follow-up discussions. After the talks, all participants decided on subtopics for two to three breakout sessions (i.e., informal, self-organized discussions among interested participants). Breakout session topics included microservice security, tooling for application programming interface (API) evolution, serverless programming models, and identification of microservices using domaindriven design. The sessions provided opportunities for detailed discussions and identifying challenges to address in future collaborations. Toward the end of each session, all participants gathered once more to summarize the breakout discussions. Additional opportunities for communication were provided during shared lunch breaks and social events in the evenings