[Pl-seminar] 11/12 Seminar: Arjun Guha: "Faster, Safer, and Cheaper Serverless Computing using Language-Based Techniques"

[Nathaniel Yazdani]

NUPRL Seminar Presents

Arjun Guha
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Faster, Safer, and Cheaper Serverless Computing using Language-Based
Techniques

Abstract

Serverless computing is a cloud computing abstraction that makes it easier
to write robust, large-scale web services. In serverless computing,
programmers write what are called serverless functions, and the cloud
platform transparently manages the operating system, resource allocation,
load-balancing, and fault tolerance. When demand spikes, the platform
automatically allocates additional hardware and manages load-balancing;
when demand falls, the platform silently deallocates idle resources; and
when the platform detects a failure, it transparently retries affected
requests.

In this talk, we will see how language-based techniques can make serverless
computing faster, safer, and cheaper for programmers. First, we present a
detailed, operational model of a serverless computing platform, which shows
that serverless computing is a leaky abstraction. We then derive a
less-leaky "naive semantics" and precisely characterize how the two
semantics coincide. Second, we extend the operational semantics with a
domain-specific language for composing serverless functions, and show that
the language design lends itself to an efficient implementation that lowers
the cost of building modular applications. Finally, we present a
"serverless function accelerator" that significantly reduces the latency of
a large class of functions using language-based sandboxing and speculative
optimizations.

Bio

Arjun Guha is an associate professor of Computer Science at the University
of Massachusetts Amherst. Using the tools and techniques of programming
languages, his research addresses security, reliability, and performance
problems in web applications, systems, networking, and robotics. He
received a PhD in Computer Science from Brown University in 2012 and a BA
in Computer Science from Grinnell College in 2006.
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