[Jestar342]

Serverless web apps.

Using their own Next.js as an example: everything in /pages/ is client app, everything in /api/ is serverless app.

Client talks to the /api/ endpoints, /api/ endpoints talk to your domain services.

Vercel also provide edge-location hosting and caching.

[chrisweekly]

To be more precise: Vercel is the company (fka "Zeit").

They have a suite of complementary software products and services, including NextJS (a "batteries included" React framework with robust support for SSR and SSG), Now (hosting / CDN / runtime in "serverless" paradigm), Micro, etc.

World-class DX and remarkably powerful tools that somehow combine simplicity and flexibility.

No affiliation, just a longtime grateful fan.

[benatkin]

Vercel is the company and the product. Now is the old name of the product. It's been thoroughly re-branded. If you go to now.sh it redirects to a page on vercel.com with no mention of "now". The command-line tool is "vercel", aliased to "vc", and it is configured in vercel.json (no longer now.json). If you go to GitHub and look at the repos containing with "now" in their name, they're archived or deprecated.

[chrisweekly]

Thanks, quite right. (I realized same too late to edit my comment.)

FWIW I liked "Zeit" better than "Vercel" (shrug). But preferences aside, I was annoyed that the new redirects for "now.sh" URLs were -- uncharacteristically for a team famous for attention to detail -- mishandled, e.g. breaking a fantastic preso I'd bookmarked (which grauch used in his React Conf 2017 talks) and which I had cause to reference today in promoting NextJS with a client. It's the only real "footgun" move I've seen them make. Here's hoping it's an anomaly!

[Rauchg]

Hey chrisweekly. "deck.now.sh" we chose to redirect because it had some very so slightly out-of-date information. Thanks for calling this out. The right thing here would be to add a banner to the presentation instead, giving an option to go visit the documentation or newer presentations.

[rbinv]

The term "serverless", to me, makes as much sense as "No Software" (Salesforce) did back then: none. I do get the point of "you're not managing any actual servers", but still.

[paxys]

"Cloud" = you aren't managing a physical server

"Serveress" = you aren't managing a logical server

[michaelbuckbee]

If it's helpful think of it as "less servers".

[mritchie712]

or "servers you don't manage / have to think about"

[jhpriestley]

or "servers you don't control / can't debug / pay extra for"

[yoz-y]

Just today I’ve heard an explanation: “you pay per request instead of per instance”.

[Jestar342]

Server-concern-less.

I.e. you don't need to concern yourself with provisioning, nor maintaining, a server as that part of the process has been abstracted away from you.

[lock-free]

I think 'stateless' is better jargon that conveys what the servers can/can't do when rolling out a service using them.

[NationalPark]

You know what he's talking about though, seems like the word did its job fine.

[kd0amg]

Having had it explained to me later, yes, but when I first heard the term I thought it was a rebranding of standalone desktop applications rather than something that involves servers.

[adyus]

"Nacho server" (not your server) also works.

[tealpod]

Sounds better than misleading "serverless". Whoever named it as serverless deserves a Nobel price for confusion.