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by mark212 2767 days ago
still seems much slower than the model used by Cloudflare for what they call "workers."[1] A recent blog post a few weeks back was the subject of considerable discussion here[2], and it seems to me to be doing much the same thing as Firecracker, but still faster because there's less overhead. But maybe I'm missing something.

[1] https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloud-computing-without-containe...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18415708

2 comments

> But maybe I'm missing something.

From the "Disadvantages" section of your first link:

"No technology is magical, every transition comes with disadvantages. An Isolate-based system can’t run arbitrary compiled code. Process-level isolation allows your Lambda to spin up any binary it might need. In an Isolate universe you have to either write your code in Javascript (we use a lot of TypeScript), or a language which targets WebAssembly like Go or Rust."

"If you can’t recompile your processes, you can’t run them in an Isolate. This might mean Isolate-based Serverless is only for newer, more modern, applications in the immediate future. It also might mean legacy applications get only their most latency-sensitive components moved into an Isolate initially. The community may also find new and better ways to transpile existing applications into WebAssembly, rendering the issue moot."

the way i see it, firecracker is more flexible but cloudflare workers isolate is faster. amazon can't afford the limitation of Isolate hence this project.