Embrace Serverless computing with Firebase and Google Cloud Functions. Focus on code, not servers and scaling.

1. Firebase Cloud Functions
the GA, the Beta, and the Ugly
Joseph Lust mabl engineer @lustcoder

3. “The secret of change is to focus all of your
energy, not on fighting the old, but on building
the new.”
–Socrates

4. startups must push or perish
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5. serverless just works
■ No Provisioning
■ Transparent Scaling
■ Event Driven
■ Pay only for Use
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6. how developers deploy code
2014
2007 2013
VPS
Machine
Image
Docker
Containers
war File
AWS
Lambda
6
2000
Container Era
Serverless Era
Firebase
CF
Serverless functions
GCF
2016 2017

7. event driven all the way
Trigger Events Firebase CF GCF
Cloud Storage Events ✔ ✔
PubSub Topics ✔ ✔
HTTP Endpoint ✔ ✔
Auth Events ✔ ✘
Database Events ✔ ✘
Google Analytics Events ✔ ✘
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8. no function provider is a clear winner
Features Firebase CF GCF
Stackdriver Error Reports ✔ ✔
Cloud Logging ✔ ✔
Environment Configs ✔ ✘
Code Based Wireup ✔ ✘
Rich Function Dashboard ✘ ✔
Deployment Wireup ✘ ✔
SCM Base Deploy ✘ ✔
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9. function clarity through dashboards
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10. live function health tracking
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12. but, there are some speed bumps...
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13. the ugly: firebase cloud functions
■ All functions run as FB project Editor
■ No failure retry semantics
■ Cannot access resources cross project
■ CLI deploy requires rigid project layout
■ Automatic undeploy of all functions for non-standard layouts
■ Slow deployment ~ 5min
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14. the uglier: gcf
■ Cannot pass configs to function
■ No failure retry semantics
■ All functions run as project Editor
■ Complex multi-module deploy
▲ Impossible from SCM deploy
■ Slow deployment ~ 2min
■ Non-Deterministic Deployment Failures
■ Single Supported Region (Iowa US-Centra1)
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15. functions are not designed for failure
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16. functions require total trust
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17. blazing fast function deployment
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18. lossy pubsub deployments
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19. work arounds to the rescue
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20. work around the warts
■ Load ServiceAccount key from KMS encrypted CS file
■ Cache resources between function calls
■ Use Firebase Admin lib from GCF
▲ Best of most worlds
■ Use the lowest sensible memory and timeout limits
■ Use --local-path and --include-ignored-files for multi-module deploy
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21. embrace serverless
■ to focus on shipping code
■ to harness NodeJS microservices
■ to power low latency experiences
■ to provision, deploy, and scale automatically
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22. cloud functions resources
■ FB CF Examples Repo: github.com/firebase/functions-samples
■ GCF Examples: github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/nodejs-docs-samples
■ I/O 2017 CF Presentations
▲ Building the Fire!sale demo app: youtu.be/G-MBeEW92v4
▲ FB and ML with CF: youtu.be/RdqV_N0sCpM
▲ FB CF and Testability: youtu.be/SnWwkURpwxs
▲ Data Pipelines with CF: youtu.be/guo-4IOqx2M
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23. Questions?

24. gcf is cheaper by half
■ FB CF 125K req/mo FREE, 2.5M/ $1
■ GCF 2M req/mo FREE, 5M/ $1 after
* Also see execution time, bandwidth, and memory costs
Source GCP Pricing, FB Pricing
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