IBM Bluemix OpenWhisk: IBM InterConnect 2017, Las Vegas, USA: Technical Strategy

© 2017 IBM Corporation l Interconnect 2017
IBM Bluemix
OpenWhisk
The Future of Cloud Compute:
Event-driven and Serverless
Applications with OpenWhisk
@Michael_beh
@AndreasNauerz

IBM Bluemix OpenWhisk
Please note
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The development, release, and timing of any future features
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Performance is based on measurements and projections
using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled environment.
The actual throughput or performance that any user will
experience will vary depending upon many factors, including
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in
the user’s job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage
configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no
assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve
results similar to those stated here.

Agenda
1. Evolution of Serverless
2. What is serverless aka FaaS?
3. Why is serverless better than a traditional approach?
4. OpenWhisk
5. What is serverless good for?
6. Q&A

Everything is getting
more  
ﬁne-granular.
Evolution of Serverless

IBM Bluemix OpenWhiskEvolution of Serverless
Unit of management getting more granular
VM VM
VM
Virtual Machine ServerlessBare Metal

IBM Bluemix OpenWhiskEvolution of Serverless
Application architecture
Monolithic
Application
Break-down into
microservices
Make each
microservice HA
Protect against
regional outage
Region A
Region B

IBM Bluemix OpenWhiskWhat is serverless aka FaaS?
Runs code only
on-demand on a
per-request basis

Runs code only on-demand on
a per-request basis
Serverless
deployment &
operations model
VM
No servers Just code

a per-request basis
“Serverless is for
compute what
object storage is
for storage”
VM
No servers Just code

a per-request basis
Optimal
utilization &
granular pricing
zzz
time
charged

a per-request basis
Scales on
a per-request
basis

IBM Bluemix OpenWhiskWhy serverless?
CF Container VM
Application
Process
and Idle
2
Requests
1a
Polling
1b
Worry about scaling
• When to scale? (mem-, cpu-, response time-, etc. driven?)
• How fast can you scale?
Worry about resiliency & cost
• At least 2 processes for HA
• Keep them running & healthy
• Deployment in multiple regions
Charged even when idling / not 100% utilized
Continuous polling due to missing event programming model
Traditional model
Process
and Idle

IBM Bluemix OpenWhiskWhy serverless?
Trigger
1
OpenWhisk
Engine
2 Pool of Actions
Js Swift
Java PythonDocker
Running
Action
Running
Action
Running
Action
3
Scales inherently
• One process per request
No cost overhead for resiliency
• No long running process to be made HA / multi-region
Introduces event programming model
Charges only for what is used
• Only worry about code 
higher dev velocity, lower operational costs
Serverless model
Deploy actions
within millisecs,
run it, free up
resources

IBM Bluemix OpenWhiskOpenWhisk
FaaS platform
to execute code
in response to
events

Delivered as 
Open source via Apache
openwhisk.org
FaaS platform to execute code
in response to events
OpenWhisk

Managed service on 
IBM Bluemix
bluemix.net/openwhisk
FaaS platform to execute code
in response to events
OpenWhisk

Triggers
(response)
Rules
Actions
(code)
Source
(events) Results
OpenWhisk

OpenWhisk allows
you to build up an
entirely serverless
application
architecture
Openwhisk
IOT
Mobile
Cognitive
APIs
Data
OpenWhisk

Supported
Languages
JS/NodeJS Swift
Python
Java Docker
Go Haskell
Scala . . .
Multi
language
Support
Community
Efforts
… and more to come
JS/NodeJS 6
Java
Python 2
(3 coming soon)
Swift 3
Docker
(any compiled binary,
incl Go, C, …)
Haskell
…
Scala

Non-blocking
Blocking
Periodic
Support for
different invocation
models
OpenWhisk

Supports
higher-level
programming
constructs Chaining/
Sequencing
Action 1
Action 2
Parameter
Binding
Default Name
Default
Parameters
Default Value
OpenWhisk

Event
Provider
Open event emitter
(consumer ecosystem)
Open interface 
for event emitters
OpenWhisk

Event
Provider Periodic IBM Cloudant Message Hub
Mobile Push Github
OpenWhisk
IBM App Connect

zzz
time
chargedGranular pricing
Pay only for the exact time your actions run, on a
100 millisecond granularity. When an action is not
invoked, it’s not running in memory, so you don’t
pay anything.
OpenWhisk

Memory
allocated
(MB)
Time executing
(milliseconds)
Instances
executing
simultaneously
(count)
Pricing model
Time an action was running *
memory allocated to action
$0.000017 per GBs
Free tier: 400,000 GBs
OpenWhisk

Community
efforts to
integrate with
open tools
• VS Code
• NodeRED
• Jupyter Notebooks
• … #BuildUp
OpenWhisk

Allows to package & deploy
all actions, triggers, rules
into a single project
Serverless
Framework
OpenWhisk

Open Engine
Docker (and potentially other abstractions going forward)
*work in progress
REST
Action 2
Swift
Action 3
NodeJS
Action 5
Docker
Action 4
Docker
Action 1
NodeJS
Rule
Rule
Rule
Service Ecosystem
Bluemix Services
3rd Party Services
Self-enabled
Services
Invoke
CLI SDKUIIDE API Gateway*
Package
Feed
Package
Feed
Triggers
Package
Feed

IBM Bluemix OpenWhiskWhat is Serverless good for?
Volatile workload that can
be split in smaller short-
running pieces.
Suited for sporadic as well
as heavy load scenarios.

Serverless microservices /
API backends

Deﬁne API Endpoints
(URLs) and map to Actions
Deﬁne Actions
Full control over
HTTP headers &
body
1
2
Serverless
microservice
APIs/backend

Serverless microservices / API backends
Deﬁne Actions:
getCustomer
createCustomer 
deleteCustomer
Deﬁne API Endpoints (URLs) and map to Actions
Get: mydomain.com/…/customers
Post: mydomain.com/…/customers 
Delete: mydomain.com/…/customers
2 1

e API
oints (URLs)
lly by using
domains)
getCostumer
createCostumer 
deleteCostumer
Get
Post 
Delete
API Gateway takes care of:
Context path mapping
Custom host name & SSL cert
Throttling
Security

Swift Action
Mobile
backend
IBM API Gateway
Openwhisk
APIHi!

Outsource compute-intensive tasks to a scalable
serverless platform and implement your actions without
having to switch the programming language.
Swift Action
IBM API Gateway
Openwhisk
APIHi!
Mobile
backend

Data
processing
Openwhisk
IBM Cloudant

Data
processing
Openwhisk
IBM Cloudant
Ideally suited for working with all kinds of data
like audio, image, video, docs or text data
• audio normalization
• image rotation, sharpening, noise reduction
• generate thumbnails
• apply OCR on images
• video transcoding
• detect objects or people appearing in images or videos

Data
processing
Openwhisk
IBM Cloudant
http://ecc.ibm.com/case-
study/us-en/ECCF-
CDC12387USEN

Cognitive
Openwhisk
IBM Cloudant

Cognitive
Dark Vision
github.com/IBM-Bluemix/openwhisk-
darkvisionapp
Openwhisk
IBM Cloudant

Cognitive
Skylink
https://github.com/IBM-Bluemix/skylink
Openwhisk
IBM Cloudant

Event processing/
Message Hub
Real-time Datastream Openwhisk
IBM Message Hub IBM Cloudant

What is Serverless good for?
Event processing/
Message Hub
Bluemix-managed
Apache Kafka service
for real-time build
outs of data pipelines
and streaming apps
supports binary data
New

What is Serverless good for?
Event processing via
IBM App Connect
IBM App Connect

IoT
Watson IoT
Realtime
Insights
Trigger events based on IoT
sensor data

IoT
Node-Red

Scheduled
tasks
Periodic Alarm
Openwhisk

Chatbots
IBM API Gateway
(Optional)
API

Compute
intensive
scale out
tasks

Commercial offering home:
bluemix.net/openwhisk
Open-source project home:
openwhisk.org
Slack:
slack.openwhisk.org
Learn More
Learn
more

Github github.com/openwhisk
Twitter twitter.com/openwhisk
Medium medium.com/openwhisk
Slideshare slideshare.net/OpenWhisk
Youtube youtube.com/channel/
UCbzgShnQk8F43NKsvEYA1SA
Learn More
Learn
more

Serverless Conf, Austin
austin.serverlessconf.io
FunctionConf, Amsterdam
functionconf.io
Learn More
Future
Conferences

Q&A
@Michael_beh
@AndreasNauerz

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IBM Bluemix OpenWhisk: IBM InterConnect 2017, Las Vegas, USA: Technical Strategy

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