Here’s some vital information you should know: You can package anything as a serverless function with OpenFaaS. The open source project, founded by VMware’s Alex Ellis, makes serverless functions simple for Docker and Kubernetes so that you can build a scalable, fault-tolerant, event-driven serverless platform for your applications. Now here’s some exciting breaking news: OpenFaaS is spreading like wildfire in the serverless community, all thanks to some extremely notable updates, showcases and event appearances since our last check-in with the project back in March.
By the Numbers
Looking at the numbers, the OpenFaaS community has grown to an impressive 104 contributors, earning more than 12,000 stars and garnering over 2,000 code commits and 732 forks on GitHub. Since March, the project has added function readiness into its UI, enhanced Watchdog configuration, released configuration and UI landing page updates, enabled basic authentication on gateway and added health and info endpoints.
Introducing OpenFaaS Cloud
OpenFaaS Cloud is not only an example of innovation which has come about from listening to the growing FaaS community, but one that embodies the project’s commitment to put developers first. OpenFaaS Cloud arrived in April and makes it easier for developers to build and ship functions with Docker using a Git-based workflow with native integrations for GitHub, with even more planned for the near future. While still in its early stages, OpenFaaS Cloud is now functional for on premise use or with the community-hosted, public cluster.
Community Engagement
Beyond the technical aspects of OpenFaaS, it’s the blossoming community and growing contributor base that really define the success of the project. The values of the OpenFaaS community are developer-first, operational simplicity and, arguably most important, community-centric.
OpenFaaS embarked on an extensive community roadshow this past year, making quite the splash at several industry conferences these past few months, including DevNet and KubeCon, not to mention many additional grassroots, all-hands community meetings that offer more quality face-to-face time with the community. The most recent meeting featured three fascinating demos from the community:
- OpenFaaS on AWS Fargate/ECS
- CloudEvents integration
- The OpenFaaS Operator with Weave Flux
There have also been several globetrotting workshops throughout the spring targeting those with interest in the project and who are looking to get started with serverless. They consist of a series of hands-on labs which allow users to learn and work through OpenFaaS at their own pace. You can check out a recap of some of those here.
Upcoming DockerCon Events
The next stop on OpenFaaS’s whirlwind tour of the open source world is DockerCon, taking place June 11-15 in San Francisco. Alex will be on-hand at a number of DockerCon events to represent the community, including:
- GitOps for the Kubernetes Developer: OpenFaaS, Helm and Istio Meetup – Tuesday, June 12, 7 p.m. PST at Pivotal.
- Container Innovation SIG – Wednesday, June 13 at DockerCon
- Serverless Panel – Thursday, June 14, 3:50 p.m. PST at DockerCon
Join the Community
Whether you’re new to this space, have questions or want to start contributing to open source, the OpenFaaS community wants you! The easiest way to get connected with the project is to join the Slack workspace and visit the project’s page on GitHub: https://github.com/openfaas/
Be sure to visit Alex Ellis’ blog for up-to-date news on OpenFaaS and follow him on Twitter (@alexellisuk). Stay tuned to the Open Source Blog for more coverage and follow us on Twitter (@vmwopensource).
