A serverless stack gives you compute, cache, and a database. It doesn’t give you a live connection back to your users.
That gap is the focus of a conversation between Matthew O’Riordan, CEO of Ably, and James Governor, co-founder of RedMonk. Recorded in September 2022, it covers why Kafka alone might not solve realtime and whether you should build your own on AWS.
What’s missing from the serverless stack?
A typical serverless stack includes compute, cache, and a database. The piece the conversation points to is a stateful connection back to the client.
That connection lets developers give their users a live experience. Creating it is the problem Ably helps solve.
Why not just use Kafka for realtime?
If you need realtime data, Kafka is a natural question to ask. The conversation looks at what the difference is and why WebSockets matter.
Is it worth building your own realtime architecture on AWS?
The conversation also asks whether assembling your own realtime architecture from AWS services is worth the effort. Ably’s approach is to do one thing well. It composes services that scale and have a developer experience that makes teams more productive.
Other topics covered
- The rise of realtime
- The power of WebSockets
- The value of product-led business models
- Serverless
- Why applications handle apostrophes in Irish names so badly
Watch the conversation
Watch the full RedMonk conversation to hear the discussion in full. If you’re ready to build, sign up for free.
