updates to serverless page

mattmakai · mattmakai · commit 87ebdca0485f · 2017-05-08T16:26:07.000-04:00
diff --git a/content/pages/08-web-app-deployment/35-serverless.markdown b/content/pages/08-web-app-deployment/35-serverless.markdown
@@ -8,10 +8,11 @@ meta: Serverless is an deployment architecture where servers are not explicitly
 
 
 # Serverless
-Serverless is an [deployment](/deployment.html) architecture where 
-[servers](/servers.html) are not explicitly provisioned. Code is instead
-executed based on developer-defined events as they happen, such as an 
-incoming HTTP request or a new line written to a file. 
+Serverless is a [deployment](/deployment.html) architecture where 
+[servers](/servers.html) are not explicitly provisioned by the deployer. 
+Code is instead executed based on developer-defined events that are 
+triggered, for example when an HTTP POST request is sent to an 
+[API](/application-programming-interfaces.html) a new line written to a file.
 
 
 ## How can code be executed "without" servers?
@@ -22,6 +23,50 @@ the developer and handled by a compute platform such as
 
 <img src="/img/visuals/serverless.png" width="100%" alt="Serverless compute spectrum." class="technical-diagram"> 
 
+Think about deploying code as a spectrum, where on one side you build your
+own server from components, hook it up to the internet with a static IP
+address, connect the IP address to DNS and start serving requests. The 
+hardware, operating system, web server, WSGI server, etc are all completely 
+controlled by you. On the opposite side of the spectrum are serverless 
+compute platforms that take Python code and execute it without you ever
+touching hardware or even knowing what operating system it runs on. 
+
+In between those extremes are levels that remove the need to worry about
+hardware (virtual private servers), up through removing concerns about
+web servers (platforms-as-a-service). Where you fall on the spectrum for
+your deployment will depend on your own situation. Serverless is simply
+the newest and most extreme of these deployment models so it is up to you
+as to how much complexity you want to take on with the deployment versus
+your control over each aspect of the hardware and software.
+
+
+### Serverless implementations
+Each major cloud vendor has a serverless compute implementation.
+These implementations are under significant active developer
+and not all of them have Python support.
+
+* [AWS Lambda](/aws-lambda.html) is the current leader among serverless
+  compute implementations. It has support for both 
+  [Python 2.7](/blog/aws-lambda-python-2-7.html) and 
+  [Python 3.6](/blog/aws-lambda-python-3-6.html).
+  
+* Azure Functions has second-class citizen support for Python. It's
+  supposed to be possible but 
+  [kind of hacky at the moment](https://github.com/Azure/azure-webjobs-sdk-script/issues/335).
+  Polyglot support should be quickly coming to Azure to better
+  compete with AWS Lambda.
+
+* IBM Bluemix OpenWhisk is based on the 
+  [Apache OpenWhisk open source project](https://github.com/openwhisk/openwhisk).
+
+* [Google Cloud Functions](/google-cloud-functions.html) currently
+  only supports JavaScript code execution.
+
+* Webtask.io also only supports JavaScript but there is a cool
+  *prototype* project named [webtask-pytask](https://github.com/tehsis/webtask-pytask) 
+  to run Python code in the browser via webtask. This demo is definitely not 
+  for production code use but awesome to see what the programming community
+  can put together using existing code and services.
 
 
 ### General serverless resources
@@ -36,14 +81,42 @@ out how to structure and operate serverless applications.
 
 * [The (fixable) problem with serverless](https://www.iopipe.com/2016/06/the-fixable-problem-with-serverless/)
 
-* [On Serverless, Multi-Cloud, and Vendor Lock In](https://blog.symphonia.io/on-serverless-multi-cloud-and-vendor-lock-in-da930b3993f)
-
 * [Serverless architectures](http://martinfowler.com/articles/serverless.html)
 
 * [Why the fuss about serverless?](https://hackernoon.com/why-the-fuss-about-serverless-4370b1596da0)
+  is a wide-ranging post about the history of application development and 
+  infrastructure. The timeline is a bit hard to follow but otherwise it's
+  a unique look at why software deployments are moving to serverless-based
+  architectures and the advantages that can provide.
 
 * [Serverless architectures in short](https://specify.io/concepts/serverless-architecture)
 
 * [Cloud first, serverless second](https://hackernoon.com/cloud-first-serverless-second-1c086f282326)
 
 * [Serverless architectures, five design patterns](https://thenewstack.io/serverless-architecture-five-design-patterns/)
+
+
+### Serverless vendor lock-in?
+There is some concern by organizations and developers about vendor lock-in
+on serverless platforms. It is unclear if portability is worse for
+serverless than other infrastructure-as-a-service pieces, but still worth
+thinking about ahead of time. These resources provide additional 
+perspectives on lock-in and using multiple cloud providers.
+
+* [On Serverless, Multi-Cloud, and Vendor Lock In](https://blog.symphonia.io/on-serverless-multi-cloud-and-vendor-lock-in-da930b3993f)
+  is an opinion piece that for *most* cases the additional work of
+  going multi-cloud is not worth the tradeoffs, therefore at this time
+  it's better to go for a single vendor such as AWS or Azure and optimize
+  on that platform.
+
+* [Why vendor lock-in with serverless isn’t what you think it is](https://medium.com/@PaulDJohnston/why-vendor-lock-in-with-serverless-isnt-what-you-think-it-is-d6be40fa9ca9)
+  is a short piece that also recommends using a single vendor for
+  now and stop worrying about hedging your bets because it typically
+  makes your infrastructure significantly more complex.
+
+* [The (Fixable) Problem with Serverless](https://www.iopipe.com/2016/06/the-fixable-problem-with-serverless/)
+  is a bit of a marketing piece but it introduces 
+  [the IOPipe open source projects](https://github.com/iopipe)
+  that are designed as an abstraction layer for running on multiple
+  serverless cloud platforms.
+
diff --git a/content/pages/12-meta/01-change-log.markdown b/content/pages/12-meta/01-change-log.markdown
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ inception in December 2012. You can view detailed changes via the
 
 ## 2017
 ### April
+* New [Serverless compute](/serverless.html) concept page.
 * Two new blog posts, one for 
   [Python 2.7 on AWS Lambda](/blog/aws-lambda-python-2-7.html) 
   and another on
