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Real World Serverless with theburningmonk

Yan Cui

A podcast where we talk about real-world use of Serverless technologies from engineers who work with them day-to-day. We will discuss use cases, why they chose serverless and the pain points and challenges they face. If you want to know what it's REALLY like to work with serverless, this is the show for you.

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  • 20 episodes
  • Avg 55 min
  • English

Episodes 20

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  • S1 · E116
    Apr 19, 2025 · 48 min

    #116: AI Agents, MCP and the problems with AI benchmarks | ft. Matt Carey

    In this episode, I spoke with Matt Carey, founding AI engineer at StackOne, founder of AI Demo Days and member of the OpenUK AI Advisory Board. Everyone needs a friend who works in AI to help them filter the AI news and get the signals from the noise. Matt is that friend for me! We discussed AI agents, MCP, and the challenges of AI benchmarks, which help explain the disconnect between the benchmark results and the anecdotal experiences of AI users, such as myself. Links from the episode: Google's whitepaper on AI agents Anthropic Building Effective AI Agents Simon Willison on X Thorsten Ball's Joy & Curiosity newsletter AI Demo Days MCP has a prompt injection problem Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E115
    Apr 2, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min

    #115: Introducing LocalStack v4!

    In this episode, I spoke with Waldemar Hummer, founder and CTO of LocalStack. We discussed what's new in the latest version of LocalStack and highlighted some of the most interesting additions. One particular highlight for me is the ability to visualise and troubleshoot event-driven architectures end-to-end and quickly identify problems such as missing IAM permission. Lots of exciting new features in LocalStack v4! This episode include a live demo of LocalStack v4. To get the most from the demo, please watch the episode on YouTube here. Links from the episode: My conversation with Waldemar after LocalStack v3 LocalStack v4 announcement My blog post on when to use Step Functions vs running everything in Lambda Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E114
    Mar 12, 2025 · 48 min

    #114: Best practices for building a multi-tenant system with Khawaja Shams

    In this episode, I spoke with Khawaja Shams, co-founder of Momento, about cell-based architectures and how it allows Momento to scale to millions of transactions per second (TPS) while maintaining a healthy blast radius within their multi-tenant system. Links from the episode: Momento Khawaja on X Khawaja on LinkedIn Believe In Serverless community Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.

  • S1 · E113
    Feb 5, 2025 · 45 min

    #113: Why you need Knowledge Graphs for your AI chatbot | ft. Aniket Mitra

    In this episode, I spoke with Aniket Mitra, founder of CW, to learn more about knowledge graphs and how they are making a comeback in the era of AI and LLMs. Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.

  • S1 · E112
    Jan 29, 2025 · 59 min

    #112: Better Developer Experience for Event-Driven Architectures | ft. Alex Bouchard, co-founder of Hookdeck

    In this episode, I spoke with Alex Bouchard, co-founder and CTO of Hookdeck, to learn more about Hookdeck and how it differs from Amazon EventBridge. This episode contains a live demo of Hookdeck, for the best viewing experience, please watch the recording on YouTube here. Alex gave me a demo of Hookdeck, which has some nice features for addressing common developer experience problems with EventBridge. For example: Deliver events to local targets Audit history of event deliveries Issues page of failed event deliveries Replay failed events Links from the episode: Check out Hookdeck Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.

  • S1 · E111
    Jan 17, 2025 · 51 min

    #111 - EventCatalog Revolutionizes Governance in Event-Driven Architectures | ft. David Boyne

    In this episode, I spoke with David Boyne, the creator of EventCatalog, to learn more about the most common challenges with Event-Driven Architectures and how EventCatalog can solve the governance problem - how events are versioned, schema'd, discovered and tested. This episode includes a short demo of EventCatalog, if you want to see the demo in action, then check out the video version on YouTube here. Links from the episode: EventCatalog Winglang Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.

  • S1 · E109
    Oct 24, 2024 · 55 min

    #109: Building serverless apps in PHP with Bref | ft Matthieu Napoli

    Thank you to Momento for supporting this episode. Momento's real-time data platform empowers developers to build innovative products faster and more reliably than ever before. Visit gomomento.co/theburningmonk for more information. In this episode, I spoke with Matthieu Napoli about the Bref framework for developing serverless applications in PHP - how it works, why PHP and how it compares with Laravel Vapor. This episode includes a short demo of Bref, if you want to see the demo in action, then check out the video version on YouTube here. Links from the episode: Bref framework Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.

  • S1 · E108
    Sep 20, 2024 · 1 hr 2 min

    #108: Lambda on Rust with James Eastham

    Thank you to Hookdeck for sponsoring this episode. If you're looking to level-up your event-driven architecture, then check out their serverless event gateway at hookdeck.com/theburningmonk and help support this channel. James Eastham is a developer advocate at Datadog and co-author of "Crafting Lambda Functions in Rust". In this episode, we dive into writing Lambda functions in Rust and why you should invest in learning Rust. Links from the episode: NSA whitepaper on memory safety Julian Wood’s Lambda internals talk at re:Invent 2022 Jame's YouTube channel Crafting Lambda Functions in Rust Ep106 on middy with Luciano Mammino Ep97 on LLRT (the superfast JavaScript runtime for Lambda) Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.

  • S1 · E107
    Aug 27, 2024 · 52 min

    #107: How to Have a Successful Cloud Career in 2024 | ft. Andrew Brown

    Thank you to Momento for supporting this episode. Momento's real-time data platform empowers developers to build innovative products faster and more reliably than ever before. Visit gomomento.co/theburningmonk for more information. I spoke with Andrew Brown, renowned educator in the cloud space, to get his take on how cloud learners can break into the cloud and forge a successful career. Links from the episode: Andrew's paid courses Andrew's free courses Andrew's AWS examples Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E106
    Aug 13, 2024 · 45 min

    #106: Rust with Lambda, easy-mode Rust & future of Middy | ft. Luciano Mammino

    Thank you to Hookdeck for sponsoring this episode. If you're looking to level-up your event-driven architecture, then check out their serverless event gateway at hookdeck.com/theburningmonk and help support this channel. AWS Serverless Hero Luciano Mammino shares the history of Middy, the popular middleware engine for AWS Lambda functions; why he's sold on writing Lambda functions in Rust and why you should too! Links from the episode: AWS Bites channel Middy How to sponsor Middy Crafting Lambda Functions in Rust Easy mode Rust Using Node.js ES modules and top-level await in AWS Lambda Using Middy with Typescript Ep97 on LLRT (the superfast JavaScript runtime for Lambda) Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E105
    Jul 26, 2024 · 1 hr 14 min

    #105: The inception story of Cognito & secret to succeeding at AWS | ft. David Behroozi

    Thank you to Momento for supporting this episode. Momento's real-time data platform empowers developers to build innovative products faster and more reliably than ever before. Visit gomomento.co/theburningmonk for more information. David Behroozi, a 15-year Amazon veteran, tells us the inception story of Amazon Cognito and the cheat code for succeeding at AWS. He also gave us a demo of Speedrun, his latest project since leaving Amazon. It turns your GitHub markdown into executable blocks of code that remember your context (e.g. AWS account and region) so your runbook can be executed right from the markdown. I recommend watching the episode on YouTube so you can see the full demo: https://youtu.be/nhWYlzb8mSA Links from the episode: David's LinkedIn profile David's Twitter profile Learn more about Speedrun David's blog How to Securely let Frontend Apps to Directly Access AWS services Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E104
    Jul 16, 2024 · 57 min

    #104: Baseline, is this new serverless development framework better than Amplify?

    Thank you to Hookdeck for sponsoring this episode. If you're looking to level-up your event-driven architecture, then check out their serverless event gateway at hookdeck.com/theburningmonk and help support this podcast. Thomas Nixon, CTO of Baseline, shares stories from the trenches about the challenges of adopting serverless technologies. He gave us a demo of Baseline.js, a new serverless development framework that captures the many hard-learned lessons his team has made in the last six years. Think Amplify, but you own the source code and can easily customize things to suit your needs. I recommend watching the episode on YouTube so you can see the full demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6r8M8E_5n4 Links from the episode: Getting started with Baseline.js Baseline's Github repo Thomas' LinkedIn profile Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E103
    Jul 1, 2024 · 1 hr

    #103 - Community building, being an enable, is serverless dead? ft. Allen Helton

    Thank you to Hookdeck for sponsoring this episode. Please check them out and help support this podcast. Allen Helton on being an enabler, building communities, and is serverless dead? Links from the episode: Help Olivia's Fight Against Leukemia! Believe In Serverless community Ready, Set, Cloud! Momento, serverless cache Ep102: Peek behind the curtains of the AWS Heroes & Community Builders programmes, ft. Farrah Campbell Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E102
    May 15, 2024 · 44 min

    #102: Building AWS communities with Farrah Campbell

    Take a peek behind the AWS Heroes and Community Builders programmes with Farrah Campbell, who was a former AWS hero turned AWS employee. Nowadays, Farrah heads up both the AWS Heroes and Community Builders programmes. Links from the episode: How to become an AWS hero by Danielle Heberling S3 no longer charges for unauthorized requests AWS Heroes directory AWS Community Builders directory Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E101
    Apr 23, 2024 · 1 hr

    #101: Faster serverless APIs with Brian LeRoux

    In this episode, I spoke with Brian LeRoux, co-founder of begin.com and creator of the Architect framework. Brian is also an AWS Serverless Hero and is currently working on enhance.dev, an HTML-first full-stack web framework. In a wide-ranging conversation, we discussed: the Architect framework Lambdalith vs. Single-purpose functions Building a faster AWS SDK (aws-lite) Web components Functionless WASM Infra from code frameworks such as Ampt Links from the episode: AWS Lite SDK Architect framework Begin Enhance framework The LocalStack episode The LLRT episode Ampt by Jeremy Daly My serverless testing course Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E100
    Apr 2, 2024 · 1 hr 10 min

    #100: LocalStack v3 is here and it's kinda amazing!

    In this episode, I spoke with Waldemar Hummer, founder and CTO of LocalStack. We discussed what's new in the latest version of LocalStack and highlighted some of the most interesting additions. One particular highlight for me is the ability to identify IAM permission errors between direct service integrations. For example, when an EventBridge pipe cannot deliver a message to a SQS target. And the ability to use test runs to generate the necessary IAM permissions so they can be added to your Lambda functions. LocalStack v3 also allows running chaos experiments locally by adding random latency spikes, making an entire AWS region unavailable, or simulating DynamoDB throughput-exceeded errors. Lots of exciting new features in LocalStack v3! Waldemar gave us a live demo of some of these features. You can watch the episode on YouTube and watch the demos here. Links from the episode: My webinar with Waldemar after LocalStack v2 LocalStack v3 announcement My blog post on when to use Step Functions vs running everything in Lambda LocalStack is hiring! Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E99
    Mar 27, 2024 · 54 min

    #99: Azure Functions deep dive with Ian Griffiths

    In this episode, I spoke with Ian Griffiths, a Technical Fellow at Endjin, a Microsoft MVP, and the author of O'Reilly's Programming C# 10.0. In this episode, we took a deep dive into Azure Functions, how it works and how it differs (significantly) from AWS Lambda. Links from the episode: Bye bye Azure Functions, hello Azure Container Apps WASI (WebAssembly system interface) Endjin Introductions to Reactive Extensions for .Net Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E98
    Mar 13, 2024 · 53 min

    #98: How DAZN streams live sports to millions of concurrent viewers

    In this episode, I spoke with Bob Hannent, the principal architect of DAZN's video playback and delivery system. This system is responsible for streaming live sporting events to millions of concurrent viewers. We discussed the many challenges that come with streaming live videos at scale. How to ensure uptime even when your CDN partners suffer an outage. And how best to ensure the best playback experience for your customers across dozens of different platforms. There's a lot to learn from this conversation. Honestly, I'm amazed by how much thought and engineering have gone into delivering those bytes from the stadiums to the customers. And when you can push both AWS and CDN providers to their limits, every engineering decision has to be thought through carefully. Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E97
    Feb 28, 2024 · 52 min

    #97: 10x Lambda cold start performance with LLRT

    In this episode, I spoke with Richard Davison, the creator of the new LLRT (Low Latency Runtime) for Lambda. We talked about the motivation for a specialised JavaScript runtime for Lambda, how it achieves the insane cold start time and the trade-offs they had to make. Links from the episode: GitHub repo for LLRT API compatibility list QuickJs engine Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • S1 · E96
    Feb 21, 2024 · 59 min

    #96: How Fathom saved $100k/year in their AWS bill

    In this episode, I spoke with Jack Ellis, who is a co-founder of Fathom. We into the cost optimizations that he used to save Fathom $100k/year on their AWS bill. Links from the episode: Fathom's technical blog Jack's personal page Jack's newsletter Opening theme song: Cheery Monday by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3495-cheery-monday License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

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