Uncategorized – Bonusbay https://bonusbay.net/ Click for Tech Tue, 18 Jun 2024 06:39:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 In-Memory Caching vs. In-Memory Data Store https://bonusbay.net/in-memory-caching-vs-in-memory-data-store/ https://bonusbay.net/in-memory-caching-vs-in-memory-data-store/#respond Tue, 18 Jun 2024 06:39:33 +0000 https://bonusbay.net/?p=72405

In-memory caching and in-memory data storage are both techniques used to improve the performance of applications by storing frequently accessed data in memory. However, they differ in their approach and purpose.

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In-memory caching and in-memory data storage are both techniques used to improve the performance of applications by storing frequently accessed data in memory. However, they differ in their approach and purpose.

What is In-Memory Caching?

In-memory caching is a method where data is temporarily stored in the system’s primary memory (RAM). This approach significantly reduces data access time compared to traditional disk-based storage, leading to faster retrieval and improved application performance.

In-Memory CachingKey Features:Speed: Caching provides near-instant data access, crucial for high-performance applications.Temporary Storage: Data stored in a cache is ephemeral, and primarily used for frequently accessed data.Reduced Load on Primary Database: By storing frequently requested data, it reduces the number of queries to the main database.Common Use Cases:Web Application Performance: Improving response times in web services and applications.Real-Time Data Processing: Essential in scenarios like stock trading platforms where speed is critical.

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In-Memory Caching: This is a method to store data temporarily in the system’s main memory (RAM) for rapid access. It’s primarily used to speed up data retrieval by avoiding the need to fetch data from slower storage systems like databases or disk files. Examples include Redis and Memcached when used as caches.

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What is an In-Memory Data Store?

An In-Memory Data Store is a type of database management system that utilizes main memory for data storage, offering high throughput and low-latency data access.

In-Memory Data StoreKey Features:Persistence: Unlike caching, in-memory data stores can persist data, making them suitable as primary data storage solutions.High Throughput and Low Latency: Ideal for applications requiring rapid data processing and manipulation.Scalability: Easily scalable to manage large volumes of data.Common Use Cases:Real-Time Analytics: Used in scenarios requiring quick analysis of large datasets, like fraud detection systems.Session Storage: Maintaining user session information in web applications.

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In-Memory Data Store: This refers to a data management system where the entire dataset is held in the main memory. It’s not just a cache but a primary data store, ensuring faster data processing and real-time access. Redis, when used as a primary database, is an example.

How Do (LLM) Large Language Models Work? Explained

A large language model (LLM) is an AI system trained on extensive text data, designed to produce human-like and intelligent responses.

Comparing In-Memory Caching and In-Memory Data Store

Aspect
In-Memory Caching
In-Memory Data Store

Purpose
Temporary data storage for quick access
Primary data storage for high-speed data processing

Data Persistence
Typically non-persistent
Persistent

Use Case
Reducing database load, improving response time
Real-time analytics, session storage, etc.

Scalability
Limited by memory size, often used alongside other storage solutions
Highly scalable, can handle large volumes of data

Advantages and LimitationsIn-Memory Caching

Advantages:

Reduces database load.Improves application response time.

Limitations:

Data volatility.Limited storage capacity.In-Memory Data Store

Advantages:

High-speed data access and processing.Data persistence.

Limitations:

Higher cost due to large RAM requirements.Complexity in data management and scaling.

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Choosing the Right Approach

The choice between in-memory caching and data store depends on specific application needs:

Performance vs. Persistence: Choose caching for improved performance in data retrieval and in-memory data stores for persistent, high-speed data processing.Cost vs. Complexity: In-memory caching is less costly but might not offer the complexity required for certain applications.Summary

To summarize, some key differences between in-memory caching and in-memory data stores:

Caches hold a subset of hot data, and in-memory stores hold the full dataset.Caches load data on demand, and in-memory stores load data upfront.Caches synchronize with the underlying database asynchronously, and in-memory stores sync writes directly.Caches can expire and evict data, leading to stale data. In-memory stores always have accurate data.Caches are suitable for performance optimization. In-memory stores allow new applications with real-time analytics.Caches lose data when restarted and have to repopulate. In-memory stores maintain data in memory persistently.Caches require less memory while in-memory stores require sufficient memory for the full dataset.

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Why did Cloudflare Build its Own Reverse Proxy? – Pingora vs NGINX https://bonusbay.net/why-did-cloudflare-build-its-own-reverse-proxy-pingora-vs-nginx/ https://bonusbay.net/why-did-cloudflare-build-its-own-reverse-proxy-pingora-vs-nginx/#respond Tue, 18 Jun 2024 06:38:59 +0000 https://bonusbay.net/?p=72402

Cloudflare is moving from NGINX to Pingora, it solves the primary reverse proxy and caching needs and even for web server’s request handling.

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NGINX as a reverse proxy has long been a popular choice for its efficiency and reliability. However, Cloudflare announced their decision to move away from NGINX to their homegrown open-source solution for reverse proxy, Pingora.

What is Reverse Proxy?

A reverse proxy sits in front of the origin servers and acts as an intermediary, receiving requests, processing them as needed, and then forwarding them to the appropriate server. It helps improve performance, security, and scalability for websites and web applications.

reverse-proxy

Imagine you want to visit a popular website like Wikipedia. Instead of going directly to Wikipedia’s servers, your request first goes to a reverse proxy server.

The reverse proxy acts like a middleman. It receives your request and forwards it to one of Wikipedia’s actual servers (the origin servers) that can handle the request.

When the Wikipedia server responds with the requested content (like a web page), the response goes back to the reverse proxy first. The reverse proxy can then do some additional processing on the content before sending it back to you.

What is the difference between Forward Proxy vs Reverse Proxy?

Understand, The role that proxies play in web architecture and consider using them to improve the performance, security, and scalability of your site.

Reverse Proxy is used for:Caching: The reverse proxy stores frequently requested content in its memory. So if someone else requests the same Wikipedia page, the reverse proxy can quickly serve it from the cache instead of going to the origin server again.Load balancing: If there are multiple Wikipedia servers, the reverse proxy can distribute incoming requests across them to balance the load and prevent any single server from getting overwhelmed.Security: The reverse proxy can protect the origin servers by filtering out malicious requests or attacks before they reach the servers.Compression: The reverse proxy can compress the content to make it smaller, reducing the amount of data that needs to be transferred to you.SSL/TLS termination: The reverse proxy can handle the encryption/decryption of traffic, offloading this work from the origin servers.Why Does Cloudflare Have a Problem with NGINX?

While NGINX has been a reliable workhorse for many years, Cloudflare encountered several architectural limitations that prompted it to seek an alternative solution. One of the main issues was NGINX’s process-based model. Each request was handled by a separate process, which led to inefficiencies in resource utilization and memory fragmentation.

Another challenge Cloudflare faced was the difficulty in sharing connection pools among worker processes in NGINX. Since each process had its isolated connection pool, Cloudflare found itself executing redundant SSL/TLS handshakes and connection establishments, leading to performance overhead.

Furthermore, Cloudflare struggled with adding new features and customizations to NGINX due to its codebase being written in C, a language known for its memory safety issues.

In-Memory Caching vs. In-Memory Data Store

In-memory caching and in-memory data storage are both techniques used to improve the performance of applications by storing frequently accessed data in memory. However, they differ in their approach and purpose.

How Cloudflare Built Its Reverse Proxy “Pingora” from Scratch?

Being Faced with these limitations, Cloudflare considered several options, including forking NGINX, migrating to a third-party proxy like Envoy, or building their solution from scratch. Ultimately, they chose the latter approach, aiming to create a more scalable and customizable proxy that could better meet their unique needs.

Feature
NGINX
Pingora

Architecture
Process-based
Multi-threaded

Connection Pooling
Isolated per process
Shared across threads

Customization
Limited by configuration
Extensive customization via APIs and callbacks

Language
C
Rust

Memory Safety
Prone to memory safety issues
Memory safety guarantees with Rust

To address the memory safety concerns, Cloudflare opted to use Rust, a systems programming language known for its memory safety guarantees and performance. Additionally, Pingora was designed with a multi-threaded architecture, offering advantages over NGINX’s multi-process model.

With the help of multi-threading, Pingora can efficiently share resources, such as connection pools, across multiple threads. This approach eliminates the need for redundant SSL/TLS handshakes and connection establishments, improving overall performance and reducing latency.

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The Advantages of Pingora

One of the main advantages of Pingora is its shared connection pooling capability. By allowing multiple threads to access a global connection pool, Pingora minimizes the need for establishing new connections to the backend servers, resulting in significant performance gains and reduced overhead.

Cloudflare also highlighted Pingora’s multi-threading architecture as a major benefit. Unlike NGINX’s process-based model, which can lead to resource contention and inefficiencies, Pingora’s threads can efficiently share resources and leverage techniques like work stealing to balance workloads dynamically.

Pingora: A Rust Framework for Network Services

Interestingly, Cloudflare has positioned Pingora as more than just a reverse proxy. They have open-sourced Pingora as a Rust framework for building programmable network services. This framework provides libraries and APIs for handling protocols like HTTP/1, HTTP/2, and gRPC, as well as load balancing, failover strategies, and security features like OpenSSL and BoringSSL integration.

The selling point of Pingora is its extensive customization capabilities. Users can leverage Pingora’s filters and callbacks to tailor how requests are processed, transformed, and forwarded. This level of customization is particularly appealing for services that require extensive modifications or unique features not typically found in traditional proxies.

The Impact on Service Meshes

As Pingora gains traction, it’s natural to wonder about its potential impact on existing service mesh solutions like Linkerd, Istio, and Envoy. These service meshes have established themselves as crucial components in modern microservices architectures, providing features like traffic management, observability, and security.

While Pingora may not directly compete with these service meshes in terms of their comprehensive feature sets, it could potentially disrupt the reverse proxy landscape. Service mesh adopters might consider leveraging Pingora’s customizable architecture and Rust-based foundation for building their custom proxies or integrating them into their existing service mesh solutions.

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The Possibility of a “Vanilla” Pingora Proxy

Given Pingora’s extensive customization capabilities, some speculate that a “vanilla” version of Pingora, pre-configured with common proxy settings, might emerge in the future. This could potentially appeal to users who desire an out-of-the-box solution while still benefiting from Pingora’s performance and security advantages.

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Setup Memos Note-Taking App with MySQL on Docker & S3 Storage https://bonusbay.net/setup-memos-note-taking-app-with-mysql-on-docker-s3-storage/ https://bonusbay.net/setup-memos-note-taking-app-with-mysql-on-docker-s3-storage/#respond Tue, 18 Jun 2024 06:38:50 +0000 https://bonusbay.net/?p=72399

Self-host the open-source, privacy-focused note-taking app Memos using Docker with a MySQL database and integrate with S3 or Cloudflare R2 object storage.

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What is Memos?Memos Note Taking App

Memos is an open-source, privacy-first, and lightweight note-taking application service that allows you to easily capture and share your thoughts.

Memos features:Open-source and free foreverSelf-hosting with Docker in secondsPure text with Markdown supportCustomize and share notes effortlesslyRESTful API for third-party integrationSelf-Hosting Memos with Docker and MySQL Database

You can self-host Memos quickly using Docker Compose with a MySQL database.

Prerequisites: Docker and Docker Compose installed

You have two options to choose MySQL or MariaDB as a Database both are stable versions and MariaDB consumes less memory than MySQL.

Memos with MySQL 8.0version: “3.0”

services:

mysql:
image: mysql:8.0
environment:
TZ: Asia/Kolkata
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: memos
MYSQL_DATABASE: memos-db
MYSQL_USER: memos
MYSQL_PASSWORD: memos
volumes:
– mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql

memos:
image: neosmemo/memos:stable
container_name: memos
environment:
MEMOS_DRIVER: mysql
MEMOS_DSN: memos:memos@tcp(mysql:3306)/memos-db
depends_on:
– mysql
volumes:
– ~/.memos/:/var/opt/memos
ports:
– “5230:5230”

volumes:
mysql_data:

Memos with MySQL Database Docker Compose

ORMemos with MariaDB 11.0version: “3.0”
services:
mariadb:
image: mariadb:11.0
environment:
TZ: Asia/Kolkata
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: memos
MYSQL_DATABASE: memos-db
MYSQL_USER: memos
MYSQL_PASSWORD: memos
volumes:
– mariadb_data:/var/lib/mysql

memos:
image: neosmemo/memos:stable
container_name: memos
environment:
MEMOS_DRIVER: mysql
MEMOS_DSN: memos:memos@tcp(mariadb:3306)/memos-db
depends_on:
– mariadb
volumes:
– ~/.memos/:/var/opt/memos
ports:
– “5230:5230”

volumes:
mariadb_data:

Memos with MariaDB Database Docker Compose

Create a new file named docker-compose.yml and copy the above content.This sets up a MariaDB 11.0 database service and the Memos app linked to it.Run docker-compose up -d to start the services in detached mode.Memos will be available at http://localhost:5230.The configurations are:mysql service runs MySQL 8.0 with a database named memos-db.memos service runs the latest Memos images, and links to the mysql/mariadb service.MEMOS_DRIVER=mysql tells Memos to use the MySQL database driver.MEMOS_DSN contains the database connection details.The ~/.memos the directory is mounted for data persistence.

You can customize the MySQL password, database name, and other settings by updating the environment variables.

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Configuring S3 Compatible Storage

Memos support integrating with S3-compatible object storage like Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces, etc

To use AWS S3/ Cloudflare’s R2 as object storageUse memos with external object storageSettings > StorageCreate a S3/Cloudflare R2 bucketGet the API token with object read/write permissionsIn Memos Admin Settings > Storage, create a new storageEnter details like Name, Endpoint, Region, Access Key, Secret Key, Bucket name and Public URL (For Cloudflare R2 set Region = auto)Save and select this storageconfigure memos with external S3 Object StorageFor Cloudflare R2 set Region = auto

With this setup, you can self-host the privacy-focused Memos note app using Docker Compose with a MySQL database, while integrating scalable S3 or R2 storage for persisting data.

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Mistral 7B vs. Mixtral 8x7B https://bonusbay.net/mistral-7b-vs-mixtral-8x7b/ https://bonusbay.net/mistral-7b-vs-mixtral-8x7b/#respond Tue, 18 Jun 2024 06:38:23 +0000 https://bonusbay.net/?p=72396

Two LLMs, Mistral 7B and Mixtral 8x7B from Mistral AI, outperform other models like Llama and GPT-3 across benchmarks while providing faster inference and longer context handling capabilities.

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A French startup, Mistral AI has released two impressive large language models (LLMs) – Mistral 7B and Mixtral 8x7B. These models push the boundaries of performance and introduce a better architectural innovation aimed at optimizing inference speed and computational efficiency.

Mistral 7B: Small yet Mighty

Mistral 7B is a 7.3 billion parameter transformer model that punches above its weight class. Despite its relatively modest size, it outperforms the 13 billion parameters Llama 2 model across all benchmarks. It even surpasses the larger 34 billion parameter Llama 1 model on reasoning, mathematics, and code generation tasks.

Two foundations of Mistral 7B’s efficiency:

Grouped Query Attention (GQA) Sliding Window Attention (SWA)

GQA significantly accelerates inference speed and reduces memory requirements during decoding by sharing keys and values across multiple queries within each transformer layer.

SWA, on the other hand, enables the model to handle longer input sequences at a lower computational cost by introducing a configurable “attention window” that limits the number of tokens the model attends to at any given time.

Name
Number of parameters
Number of active parameters
Min. GPU RAM for inference (GB)

Mistral-7B-v0.2
7.3B
7.3B
16

Mistral-8X7B-v0.1
46.7B
12.9B
100

How Do (LLM) Large Language Models Work? Explained

A large language model (LLM) is an AI system trained on extensive text data, designed to produce human-like and intelligent responses.

Mixtral 8x7B: A Sparse Mixture-of-Experts Marvel

While Mistral 7B impresses with its efficiency and performance, Mistral AI took things to the next level with the release of Mixtral 8x7B, a 46.7 billion parameter sparse mixture-of-experts (MoE) model. Despite its massive size, Mixtral 8x7B leverages sparse activation, resulting in only 12.9 billion active parameters per token during inference.

LLM Bechmark GraphImage Credit: Mistral.ai

The key innovation behind Mixtral 8x7B is its MoE architecture. Within each transformer layer, the model has eight expert feed-forward networks (FFNs). For every token, a router mechanism selectively activates just two of these expert FFNs to process that token. This sparsity technique allows the model to harness a vast parameter count while controlling computational costs and latency.

According to Mistral AI’s benchmarks, Mixtral 8x7B outperforms or matches the large language models like Llama 2 70B and GPT-3.5 across most multiple tasks, including reasoning, mathematics, code generation, and multilingual benchmarks. Additionally, it provides 6x faster inference than Llama 2 70B, thanks to its sparse architecture.

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Both Mistral 7B and Mixtral 8x7B are good at code generation tasks like HumanEval and MBPP, with Mixtral 8x7B having a slight edge and it’s better. Mixtral 8x7B also supports multiple languages, including English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, making them valuable assets for multilingual applications.

On the MMLU benchmark, which evaluates a model’s reasoning and comprehension abilities, Mistral 7B performs equivalently to a hypothetical Llama 2 model over three times its size.

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LLMs Benchmark Comparison Table

Model
Average MCQs
Reasoning
Python coding
Future Capabilities
Grade school math
Math Problems

Claude 3 Opus
84.83%
86.80%
95.40%
84.90%
86.80%
95.00%

Gemini 1.5 Pro
80.08%
81.90%
92.50%
71.90%
84%
91.70%

Gemini Ultra
79.52%
83.70%
87.80%
74.40%
83.60%
94.40%

GPT-4
79.45%
86.40%
95.30%
67%
83.10%
92%

Claude 3 Sonnet
76.55%
79.00%
89.00%
73.00%
82.90%
92.30%

Claude 3 Haiku
73.08%
75.20%
85.90%
75.90%
73.70%
88.90%

Gemini Pro
68.28%
71.80%
84.70%
67.70%
75%
77.90%

Palm 2-L
65.82%
78.40%
86.80%
37.60%
77.70%
80%

GPT-3.5
65.46%
70%
85.50%
48.10%
66.60%
57.10%

Mixtral 8x7B
59.79%
70.60%
84.40%
40.20%
60.76%
74.40%

Llama 2 – 70B
51.55%
69.90%
87%
30.50%
51.20%
56.80%

Gemma 7B
50.60%
64.30%
81.2%
32.3%
55.10%
46.40%

Falcon 180B
42.62%
70.60%
87.50%
35.40%
37.10%
19.60%

Llama 13B
37.63%
54.80%
80.7%
18.3%
39.40%
28.70%

Llama 7B
30.84%
45.30%
77.22%
12.8%
32.6%
14.6%

Grok 1

73.00%

63%

62.90%

Qwen 14B

66.30%

32%
53.40%
61.30%

Mistral Large

81.2%
89.2%
45.1%

81%

This model comparison table was last updated in March 2024. Source

When it comes to fine-tuning for specific use cases, Mistral AI provides “Instruct” versions of both models, which have been optimized through supervised fine-tuning and direct preference optimization (DPO) for careful instruction following.

👍

The Mixtral 8x7B Instruct model achieves an impressive score of 8.3 on the MT-Bench benchmark, making it one of the best open-source models for instruction.

Deployment and Accessibility

Mistral AI has made both Mistral 7B and Mixtral 8x7B available under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, allowing developers and researchers to use these models without restrictions. The weights for these models can be downloaded from Mistral AI’s CDN, and the company provides detailed instructions for running the models locally, on cloud platforms like AWS, GCP, and Azure, or through services like HuggingFace.

LLMs Cost and Context Window Comparison Table

Models
Context Window
Input Cost / 1M tokens
Output Cost / 1M tokens

Gemini 1.5 Pro
128K
N/A
N/A

Mistral Medium
32K
$2.7
$8.1

Claude 3 Opus
200K
$15.00
$75.00

GPT-4
8K
$30.00
$60.00

Mistral Small
16K
$2.00
$6.00

GPT-4 Turbo
128K
$10.00
$30.00

Claude 2.1
200K
$8.00
$24.00

Claude 2
100K
$8.00
$24.00

Mistral Large
32K
$8.00
$24.00

Claude Instant
100K
$0.80
$2.40

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct
4K
$1.50
$2.00

Claude 3 Sonnet
200K
$3.00
$15.00

GPT-4-32k
32K
$60.00
$120.00

GPT-3.5 Turbo
16K
$0.50
$1.50

Claude 3 Haiku
200K
$0.25
$1.25

Gemini Pro
32K
$0.125
$0.375

Grok 1
64K
N/A
N/A

This cost and context window comparison table was last updated in March 2024. Source

💡

Largest context window: Claude 3 (200K), GPT-4 Turbo (128K), Gemini Pro 1.5 (128K)

💲

Lowest input cost per 1M tokens: Gemini Pro ($0.125), Mistral Tiny ($0.15), GPT 3.5 Turbo ($0.5)

For those looking for a fully managed solution, Mistral AI offers access to these models through their platform, including a beta endpoint powered by Mixtral 8x7B.

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Conclusion

Mistral AI’s language models, Mistral 7B and Mixtral 8x7B, are truly innovative in terms of architectures, exceptional performance, and computational efficiency, these models are built to drive a wide range of applications, from code generation and multilingual tasks to reasoning and instruction.

How does the Groq’s LPU work?

Each year, language models double in size and capabilities. To keep up, we need new specialized hardware architectures built from the ground up for AI workloads.

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Self-Host Open-Source Slash Link Shortener on Docker https://bonusbay.net/self-host-open-source-slash-link-shortener-on-docker/ https://bonusbay.net/self-host-open-source-slash-link-shortener-on-docker/#respond Tue, 18 Jun 2024 06:38:03 +0000 https://bonusbay.net/?p=72393

Slash, the open-source link shortener. Create custom short links, organize them with tags, share them with your team, and track analytics while maintaining data privacy.

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Sharing links is an integral part of our daily online communication. However, dealing with long, complex URLs can be a hassle, making remembering and sharing links efficiently difficult.

What is Slash?Slash Link Shortener DashboardSlash Link Shortener Dashboard

Slash is an open-source, self-hosted link shortener that simplifies the managing and sharing of links. Slash allows you to create customizable, shortened URLs (called “shortcuts”) for any website or online resource. With Slash, you can say goodbye to the chaos of managing lengthy links and embrace a more organized and streamlined approach to sharing information online.

One of the great things about Slash is that it can be self-hosted using Docker. By self-hosting Slash, you have complete control over your data.

Features of Slash:Custom Shortcuts: Transform any URL into a concise, memorable shortcut for easy sharing and access.Tag Organization: Categorize your shortcuts using tags for efficient sorting and retrieval.Team Sharing: Collaborate by sharing shortcuts with your team members.Link Analytics: Track link traffic and sources to understand usage.Browser Extension: Access shortcuts directly from your browser’s address bar on Chrome & Firefox.Collections: Group related shortcuts into collections for better organization.

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Prerequisites:

Method 1: Docker Run CLI

The docker run command is used to create and start a new Docker container. To deploy Slash, run:

docker run -d –name slash -p 5231:5231 -v ~/.slash/:/var/opt/slash yourselfhosted/slash:latest

Let’s break down what this command does:

docker run tells Docker to create and start a new container-d runs the container in detached mode (in the background)–name slash gives the container the name “slash” for easy reference-p 5231:5231 maps the container’s port 5231 to the host’s port 5231, allowing access to Slash from your browser-v ~/.slash/:/var/opt/slash creates a volume to store Slash’s persistent data on your host machineyourselfhosted/slash:latest specifies the Docker image to use (the latest version of Slash)

After running this command, your Slash instance will be accessible at http://your-server-ip:5231.

Method 2: Docker Compose

Docker Compose is a tool that simplifies defining and running multi-container Docker applications. It uses a YAML file to configure the application’s services.

Create a new file named docker-compose.yml and paste the contents of the Docker Compose file provided below.version: ‘3’

services:
slash:
image: yourselfhosted/slash:latest
container_name: slash
ports:
– 5231:5231
volumes:
– slash:/var/opt/slash
restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
slash:

docker-compose.yml

Start Slash using the Docker Compose command:docker compose up -d

This command will pull the required Docker images and start the Slash container in the background.

After running this command, your Slash container will be accessible at http://your-server-ip:5231

Slash is ready & allows you to create, manage, and share shortened URLs without relying on third-party services or compromising your data privacy.

Setup Memos Note-Taking App with MySQL on Docker & S3 Storage

Self-host the open-source, privacy-focused note-taking app Memos using Docker with a MySQL database and integrate with S3 or Cloudflare R2 object storage.

Benefits of Self-Hosting Slash Link Shortener

By self-hosting you gain several advantages:

Data Privacy: Keep your data and links secure within your infrastructure, ensuring complete control over your information.Customization: Tailor Slash to your specific needs, such as branding, integrations, or additional features.Cost-Effective: Eliminate recurring subscription fees associated with third-party link-shortening services.Scalability: Scale your Slash instance according to your requirements, ensuring optimal performance as your link management needs to grow.

Slash offers a seamless solution for managing and sharing links, empowering individuals and teams to streamline their digital workflows.

13 Tips to Reduce Energy Costs on Your HomeLab Server

HomeLabs can be expensive when it comes to energy costs. It’s easy to accumulate multiple power-hungry servers, networking equipment, and computers.

Shlink — The URL shortener

The self-hosted and PHP-based URL shortener application with CLI and REST interfaces

1.1 About | Blink

CircleCI

GitHub – SinTan1729/chhoto-url: A simple, lightning-fast, selfhosted URL shortener with no unnecessary features; written in Rust.

A simple, lightning-fast, selfhosted URL shortener with no unnecessary features; written in Rust. – SinTan1729/chhoto-url

GitHub – Easypanel-Community/easyshortener: A simple URL shortener created with Laravel 10

A simple URL shortener created with Laravel 10. Contribute to Easypanel-Community/easyshortener development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub – miawinter98/just-short-it: Just Short It (damnit)! The most KISS single-user URL shortener there is.

Just Short It (damnit)! The most KISS single-user URL shortener there is. – GitHub – miawinter98/just-short-it: Just Short It (damnit)! The most KISS single-user URL shortener there is.

liteshort

User-friendly, actually lightweight, and configurable URL shortener

GitHub – ldidry/lstu: Lightweight URL shortener. Read-only mirror of https://framagit.org/fiat-tux/hat-softwares/lstu

Lightweight URL shortener. Read-only mirror of https://framagit.org/fiat-tux/hat-softwares/lstu – ldidry/lstu

Lynx

The sleek, powerful URL shortener you’ve been looking for.

GitHub – hossainalhaidari/pastr: Minimal URL shortener and paste tool

Minimal URL shortener and paste tool. Contribute to hossainalhaidari/pastr development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub – azlux/Simple-URL-Shortener: url shortener written in php (with MySQL or SQLite) with history by users

url shortener written in php (with MySQL or SQLite) with history by users – azlux/Simple-URL-Shortener

Przemek Dragańczuk / simply-shorten · GitLab

GitLab.com

YOURLS | YOURLS

Your Own URL Shortener

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Top Android Apps for Math Practice and Skill Development https://bonusbay.net/top-android-apps-for-math-practice-and-skill-development/ https://bonusbay.net/top-android-apps-for-math-practice-and-skill-development/#respond Tue, 18 Jun 2024 06:37:48 +0000 https://bonusbay.net/?p=72390

In an era where education increasingly incorporates technology, Android apps have become crucial tools for students seeking to enhance their math skills. These applications offer interactive and engaging ways to practice and master mathematical concepts, making learning fun and effective. Below, we explore the top Android apps for math practice and skill development, each offering unique features to cater to various learning styles and objectives.

1. Photomath

Photomath is a revolutionary app that has changed how students approach math homework. By simply pointing your smartphone camera at a math problem, Photomath provides instant solutions and step-by-step explanations.

Scan and Solve: Use your camera to scan printed or handwritten math problems.
Interactive Tutorials: Each step has interactive tutorials that help you understand the process.
Multiple Solving Methods: The app shows different methods to solve the same problem, enhancing conceptual understanding.
Smart Calculator: Enter or edit scanned math problems using an intuitive keyboard.

Photomath is ideal for students who need quick help with homework and desire a deeper understanding of how math problems are solved.

While exploring the top Android apps for math practice and skill development, students might find their schedules heavily loaded with complex assignments and tight deadlines. In such cases, an expert assignment writer UK can provide much-needed relief. These services can help learners tackle their written assignments, such as math problem explanations or related research papers, allowing them to focus more on honing their mathematical skills through these interactive apps. This support ensures students can maintain a balanced approach to learning, effectively managing both their app-based practice and academic responsibilities.

2. Khan Academy

Khan Academy is renowned for its comprehensive learning programs, and its Android app is no exception, providing a vast range of math topics from basic arithmetic to advanced calculus.

Structured Courses: Follow structured paths for different math levels.
Interactive Exercises: Practice with thousands of interactive exercises with instant feedback.
Progress Tracking: The app tracks your progress and recommends topics based on your performance.
Video Tutorials: Learn through easy-to-understand video tutorials that cover every topic in detail.

Khan Academy’s app is perfect for students who prefer a structured, classroom-like environment with the flexibility of learning at their own pace.

3. Mathway

For higher education students facing complex calculus, algebra, or other advanced math subjects, Mathway is a go-to app. It offers powerful computational abilities to solve even the most challenging problems.

Advanced Problem Solver: Input various math problems, from introductory algebra to complex calculus equations.
Step-by-Step Explanations: See the steps to solve each problem, which helps you learn the methodology.
Graphing Capabilities: Plot graphs to visualize equations and enhance your understanding.
User-Friendly Interface: The simple, clean interface makes entering and solving problems easy.

Mathway is especially useful for college students and adults returning to education who need help tackling high-level math problems.

4. MyScript Calculator

MyScript Calculator takes a unique approach by allowing users to write math problems on their touchscreen as if using paper and pen. This natural input method makes it especially appealing to users who find traditional calculators restrictive.

Handwriting Recognition: Write any mathematical expression on the screen, and the app converts it into text and solves it.
Scratch-Out Gestures: Easily erase mistakes with simple scratch-out gestures.
Immediate Results: Solutions are displayed instantly as you write.
Supports Complex Problems: Supports operations like powers, roots, and exponentials.

MyScript Calculator is perfect for those who prefer a more hands-on approach to solving math problems and enjoy the tactile feel of writing out equations.

5. Brilliant

Brilliant is designed to deepen understanding of math concepts through problem-solving and interactive learning. This app challenges users with engaging puzzles and conceptual quizzes focusing on critical thinking.

Conceptual Quizzes: Test and build your understanding with quizzes that challenge how you think, not just what you know.
Learning Through Puzzles: Solve intriguing puzzles that incorporate mathematical concepts.
Interactive Learning: Participate in active learning instead of passive watching.
Personalized Courses: Tailor your learning experience with courses that adapt to your skill level.

Brilliant is excellent for students who enjoy a challenge and want to improve their critical thinking and problem-solving skills in math.

The Bottom Line

These Android apps cater to diverse learning needs and styles, offering tools for solving simple arithmetic and tackling advanced mathematical problems. Integrating these apps into your study routine can dramatically improve your mathematical skills and confidence, making math a more enjoyable and rewarding subject.

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Remote Work in Data Science: Pros and Cons https://bonusbay.net/remote-work-in-data-science-pros-and-cons/ https://bonusbay.net/remote-work-in-data-science-pros-and-cons/#respond Tue, 18 Jun 2024 06:37:35 +0000 https://bonusbay.net/?p=72387

Remote work is a form of employment in which a specialist does not work in an office but performs their duties from home, a coworking space, or another location. The real boom in the transition of IT specialists to this format occurred in 2020. Back then, it was simply necessary to keep the work going, and all this led to the fact that more specialists are choosing this format today. So, according to statistics, by 2025, 32.6 million Americans will work remotely.

As with other specialties, remote data scientist jobs have their pros and cons, which are important to consider when deciding whether this form of work is suitable for a particular case. Let’s look at each of them to make it easier to decide.

Pros of Working Remotely
1. Get a flexible schedule

The most important advantage is the flexibility of the working schedule. You can work from anywhere in the world and spend more time with your family or travel.

2. Balance your work and personal life

In a remote format, you can independently choose the optimal hours for work, easily balancing it with household chores and leisure time.

You will no longer need to waste time traveling to the office and back, lunch and unnecessary conversations in the office. This will also allow you to spend more time with your family.

3. Productivity growth

35% of remote professionals report increased productivity when working remotely. When you work remotely, you get a feeling of saving time, a feeling of being “your own boss,” and there are no distractions in the form of conversations between colleagues and non-work moments in the office.

4. Move up the Career Ladder

Working remotely allows a data scientist to have exposure to a wide range of jobs and projects around the world, which can increase opportunities for career growth and professional development.

5. Create Better Working Conditions

When working remotely, you don’t need to spend a lot of time getting ready. Many professionals simply work in their pajamas and slippers from the comfort of their living room and feel more productive. There are no limits when it comes to the ideal workspace.

Cons of Working Remotely
1. Risk of not getting a flexible schedule

Not all companies are willing to give their data science professionals free reign over their work schedules. Thus, some employers set strict schedule limits and require that screen timing be set that tracks the real-time a specialist works. As a result, the specialist is forced to spend the entire working day strictly on work tasks without flexibility and freedom of action.

2. Lack of interaction with colleagues

The overall result at work depends not only on professional skills, but also on communication within the team. If it is not fixed, then problems often arise. Without personal contact, specialists simply cannot exchange ideas, which leads to gaps.

3. Low motivation and attention levels

Working remotely can be a real problem for some professionals. Especially if there is no discipline and motivation. In this case, too much time can be allocated to one task, which harms productivity.

4. The problem with maintaining a balance between personal life and performance of work duties

Many professionals think that remote work is an opportunity to spend more time with loved ones. This is true, but one should not forget about maintaining a balance between these areas. If you don’t have time management skills, then this task can become really difficult. The way out in such a situation is the development of self-discipline, which allows you to switch efficiently.

5. The risk of losing the opportunity for career growth

Remote employees hardly have any personal contact with colleagues, as well as with the representatives of top management. This can make it difficult to evaluate results and achievements. This is often the reason for limiting opportunities for career advancement.

Final thought

If you are interested in data science, working with different amounts of information and solving tasks, then the data scientist profession may be the optimal solution. It is in demand and highly paid. However, those who choose the remote format may experience difficulties. That is why, when considering such a job offer, it is worth analyzing both the advantages and disadvantages. This will help you make an informed choice that is suitable for your case.

 

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Bare Metal Servers vs. Dedicated Host https://bonusbay.net/bare-metal-servers-vs-dedicated-host/ https://bonusbay.net/bare-metal-servers-vs-dedicated-host/#respond Tue, 18 Jun 2024 06:36:00 +0000 https://bonusbay.net/?p=72384

Bare metal gives you total control over the hypervisor for maximum flexibility and resource optimization. Dedicated hosts keep things simple with the cloud provider managing the VMs for you.

Image is subject to copyright!

Let’s imagine you’re the owner of a fastest-growing e-commerce business. Your online store is getting more and more traffic every day, and you need to scale up your server infrastructure to handle the increased load. You’ve decided to move your operations to the cloud, but you’re unsure whether to go with bare metal servers or dedicated hosts. How does it impact your growth of business?

What are Bare Metal Servers & Dedicated Hosts, and what is the main difference?Bare Metal vs. Dedicated HostBare Metal vs. Dedicated Host

Both bare metal servers and dedicated hosts are physical machines located in a cloud provider’s data center. The main difference lies in who manages the hypervisor layer – the software that allows you to run multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical server.

What is a Hypervisor and What Does It Do?

A hypervisor is a software layer that creates and runs virtual machines (VMs) on a physical host machine. It allows multiple operating systems to share the same hardware resources, such as CPU, memory, and storage. Each VM runs its own operating system and applications, isolated from the others, providing a secure and efficient way to run multiple workloads on a single physical server.

Types of Hypervisors Used in Cloud Data CentersType 1 (Bare-Metal) Type 2 (Hosted)Type 1 Hypervisor vs Type 2 Hypervisor LayerType 1 Hypervisor vs Type 2 Hypervisor

Type 1 (Bare-Metal) Hypervisors run directly on the host’s hardware, providing better performance and efficiency. Examples include VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix Hypervisor.

Type 2 (Hosted) Hypervisors run on top of a host operating system, like Windows or Linux. Examples include VMware Workstation, Oracle VirtualBox, and Parallels Desktop.

👍

Cloud providers often prefer Type 1 hypervisors for their data centers due to their superior performance and security.

Bare Metal vs Virtual Machines vs Containers: The Differences

When deploying a modern application stack, how do we decide which one to use? Bare Metal, VMs or Containers?

With a bare metal server, you’re essentially renting the entire physical machine from the cloud provider. However, you’re also responsible for installing and managing the hypervisor software yourself. This gives you a lot of control and flexibility. You can tweak the hypervisor settings to optimize performance, overcommit resources (like CPU and RAM) to squeeze more virtual machines onto the physical server, and have direct access to the hypervisor for monitoring, logging, and backing up your VMs.

🏠

Think of it like renting a house. You’re in charge of everything – from painting the walls to mowing the lawn. It’s a lot of work, but you get to customize the house to your exact preferences.

Feature
Bare Metal Server
Dedicated Host

Hardware
Physical server rented from cloud provider
Physical server rented from cloud provider

Hypervisor Management
Customer installs and manages the hypervisor software
Cloud provider installs and manages the hypervisor software

Hypervisor Control
Full control over hypervisor configuration settings
Limited or no control over hypervisor settings

Resource Allocation
Can overcommit CPU, RAM across VMs for efficiency
Limited ability to overcommit resources across VMs

Monitoring
Direct access to hypervisor for monitoring and logging
Rely on cloud provider’s monitoring tools

Backup/Recovery
Can backup VMs directly through hypervisor
Must use cloud provider’s backup/recovery services

Scalability
Scale VMs up/down based on available server resources
Request cloud provider to scale VMs up/down

Security
Responsible for securing the hypervisor layer
Cloud provider secures the hypervisor layer

Management Complexity
High, requires hypervisor expertise
Low, cloud provider handles hypervisor management

Pricing Model
Pay for entire physical server capacity
Pay for VM instances based on usage

Use Cases
High performance, legacy apps, regulatory compliance
General-purpose applications, simplified operations

Examples
IBM Cloud Bare Metal, AWS EC2 Bare Metal
IBM Cloud Dedicated Hosts, AWS Dedicated Hosts

Dedicated Hosts: Simplicity but Less Control

On the other hand, a dedicated host is like renting an apartment in a managed building. The cloud provider takes care of the hypervisor layer for you. All you have to do is tell them how many virtual machines you want, and they’ll set them up on the dedicated host for you. You don’t have to worry about managing the hypervisor or any of the underlying infrastructure.

The trade-off, of course, is that you have less control over the specifics. You can’t overcommit resources or tinker with the hypervisor settings. But for many businesses, the simplicity and convenience of a dedicated host are worth it.

How Companies Are Saving Millions by Migrating Away from AWS to Bare Metal Servers?

Many startups initially launch on AWS or other public clouds because it allows rapid scaling without upfront investments. But as these companies grow, the operating costs steadily rise.

Open-Source Hypervisor Alternatives

While cloud providers typically use proprietary hypervisors like VMware ESXi or Hyper-V, there are also free and open-source alternatives available, such as:

Proxmox Virtual Environment (Proxmox VE): A complete open-source server virtualization management solution that includes a KVM hypervisor and a web-based management interface.Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM): A type 1 hypervisor that’s part of the Linux kernel, providing virtualization capabilities without requiring proprietary software.Xen Project Hypervisor: An open-source type 1 hypervisor that supports a wide range of guest operating systems and virtualization use cases.Which Option is Right for Your E-commerce Business?

If you have a team of skilled system administrators who love getting their hands dirty with server configurations, and you need the flexibility to fine-tune your infrastructure for optimal performance, a bare metal server might be the way to go.

However, if you’d rather focus on your core business and leave the nitty-gritty server management to the experts, a dedicated host could be a better fit. It’s a more hands-off approach, allowing you to concentrate on building and scaling your e-commerce platform without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.

Should You Use Open Source Large Language Models?

The benefits, risks, and considerations associated with using open-source LLMs, as well as the comparison with proprietary models.

DevOps vs SRE vs Platform Engineering – Explained

At small companies, engineers often wear multiple hats, juggling a mix of responsibilities. Large companies have specialized teams with clearly defined roles in DevOps, SRE, and Platform Engineering.

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Why Are My AirPods So Quiet https://bonusbay.net/why-are-my-airpods-so-quiet/ https://bonusbay.net/why-are-my-airpods-so-quiet/#respond Tue, 18 Jun 2024 06:35:47 +0000 https://bonusbay.net/?p=72381

Apple’s AirPods along with its Pro and Max versions are excellent for FaceTime, phone calls, and music playback. The seamless transition between devices, like as your iPhone and Mac when you sit down at your work, is one of its best features. However, they do experience issues sometimes. One of the common problems is that the volume on the AirPods gets too low. We will demonstrate how to resolve that in this article.

 

Why Is The Volume in My AirPods So Low?

Apple AirPods

Depending on the gadget you’re using your AirPods with, there are several reasons why they might not be loud enough. For instance, your Mac or iPhone’s accessibility settings may be restricting the volume, or your battery may be almost dead. Additionally, your AirPods’ performance may be unpredictable if you’re getting close to the boundary of their Bluetooth range. This could result in the volume being too low.

One of the following common issues could be the cause of your AirPods becoming quiet:

Accumulation of earwax: It’s unpleasant, but earwax buildup on your AirPods’ mesh might really reduce sound quality.
Poor bluetooth: Your AirPods’ sound quality may be impacted by a weak Bluetooth connection or disturbance from other devices.
Software problems: If your AirPods haven’t received the most recent software update, you will experience low sound levels.
Battery life: Low-level batteries may also have an impact on sound quality.
Configurations: It’s possible that the volume or balance of the audio settings on your device are off.

 

7 Ways To Fix Quiet AirPods

First, determine if the issue affects all of the devices you use or just one of them. Try them on your iPhone or iPad if you see the issue on your Mac, and vice versa. In this manner, you can determine if your Mac, iPhone, or AirPods are the source of the issue.

There are a few options available if your AirPods are the issue. This is how you should proceed.

 

1. Clean your AirPods

Clean your airpods

AirPods occasionally become a bit dirty because of all the debris that gets accumulated in the speaker mesh. So, wipe them down with a soft, wet cloth that is free of lint as soon as possible. Make sure the cloth is only slightly wet. You do not want to get moisture on your AirPods. Use the same method to clean the charging port and the casing. You can take off the silicone ear tips from your AirPods Pro and give them a quick wash in cold water. Before you reattach them, make sure they have dried.

2. Use The Ear Tip Fit Test

After everything has been cleaned, you can confirm that your AirPods Pro fits comfortably in your ears. For this, Apple offers a helpful fit test that can distinguish between muffled and clear music. This way, you won’t need to increase the AirPods’ volume for louder sound and guarantee a better sound quality.

A proper fit could actually make the difference between your AirPods feeling too quiet and just right.

 

3. Reset and Recharge Your AirPods

Even though your AirPods seem to have a lot of power left, there can be a problem with the battery life display itself. Recharge them and give them another go to be sure that’s not the case.

If the volume of your AirPods is too low on a particular device but not on another, there may be a problem with Bluetooth or your device itself. You can follow these steps to resolve the issue with system reset:

Place your AirPods in their case, then select System Settings>Bluetooth, from the Apple menu on your device.
Click on “Remove” and confirm.
Open the cover of your AirPods case, then hold the setup button until the light begins to flash.
Navigate to System Preferences>Bluetooth, and select “AirPods.”
Check to see if the problem is resolved

 

4. Check the Volume

It may seem silly, but check sure that the affected device’s volume is up before performing any more actions. In case your Mac is not working with your AirPods, select Control Center and move the slider towards the right. Verify that the app you’re using is not on mute and that the volume is also cranked up.

Apple customers also check if they didn’t turn on any odd equalizer settings by double-checking the settings of their programs. Things may sound much quieter than they actually are if you have adjusted the level sliders partially or completely. This user tip is quite helpful in most situations.

Additionally, some websites, such as YouTube, have volume sliders built right into their playback windows. It would be wise to make sure that all of these are adjusted to a high level before using the Mac’s main volume adjustment.

 

5. Check Your iPhone Settings

Check the Settings on your iPhone if the volume on your AirPods is only too low when you use them with your phone. Select Sound & Haptics > Headphone Safety after opening the Settings app. Verify that the toggle switch for “Reduce Loud Sounds” is turned off.

Additionally, you should look at the accessibility options, since occasionally they can be set up in a way that makes your AirPods too silent. Navigate to Settings, select Accessibility, then Audio/Visual. Verify that the slider is positioned halfway between L and R. Select Headphone Compatibility. Turn them off and back on if the toggle switch is in the “on” position to avoid the potential issue.

 

6. Run Maintenance Scripts

There are various reasons why your Mac could be the source of the quiet music coming from your AirPods. Using maintenance scripts is the most efficient way to address multiple issues at once. There are several apps made specifically for that purpose. They can perform a wide range of other maintenance tasks, such as reindexing Spotlight, thinning out Time Machine pictures, and freeing up RAM, in addition to executing maintenance scripts.

 

7. Check if the Volume On Both Earphones is the Same

It’s possible that one earbud might have ended up being quieter than the other. You’ll need your iPhone close at hand to verify if that is the case:

Launch the Settings application.
Log in to your Apple ID if you’re not logged in.
Click or tap “Accessibility.”
Select “Audio/Visual” under “Hearing.”
Make sure the “Balance” section’s slider is in the middle, then move it back there if necessary.

You may need to get in touch with Apple for support if none of these fixes work to address your loudness problems. Even so, it is worthwhile to experiment with all of the aforementioned settings, in case you happen to miss something simple, like the volume controls. You can also contact community forums to see if you can find any unique information. Your feedback can help others as well so if you want to add your experience to it, that’s helpful as well.

 

Conclusion

If you’ve performed all the checks above and still don’t see any improvement, it’s time to go to the Apple service store. Just know that you may be saying goodbye to your AirPods if you’ve read this far and you don’t have a fix. You will have to go without them for a short while while they are being fixed or replaced.

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Is FaaS the Same as Serverless? https://bonusbay.net/is-faas-the-same-as-serverless/ https://bonusbay.net/is-faas-the-same-as-serverless/#respond Tue, 18 Jun 2024 06:35:39 +0000 https://bonusbay.net/?p=72378

Suppose, as a small business owner, you’ve worked hard to build an e-commerce website that showcases your unique products. Your website is gaining traction, and you’re starting to see a steady increase in customer traffic. However, with this growth comes a new challenge – scalability.

Credit: Melody Onyeocha on Dribble

Whenever a customer clicks your site’s “Buy Now” button, your web application needs to process the order instantly, update the inventory, and send a confirmation email. But what happens when hundreds of customers start placing orders simultaneously? Your current server-based architecture simply can’t keep up, leading to slow response times, frustrated customers, and lost sales.

So you need a more scalable solution for your web application. This is where serverless computing comes in, allowing you to focus on code rather than infrastructure.

What is FaaS (Functions as a Service)?

Functions as a Service (FaaS) is a cloud computing service that allows you to run your code in response to specific events or requests, without the need to manage the underlying infrastructure. With FaaS, you simply write the individual functions (or “microservices”) that make up your application, and the cloud provider takes care of provisioning servers, scaling resources, and managing the runtime environment.

The benefits of FaaS:Pay-per-use: You only pay for the compute time when your functions are executed, rather than paying for always-on server capacity. Automatic scaling: The cloud provider automatically scales your functions up or down based on incoming traffic, ensuring your application can handle sudden spikes in demand. Focus on code: With the infrastructure management handled by the cloud provider, you can focus solely on writing the business logic for your application.

FaaS is specifically focused on building and running applications as a set of independent functions or microservices. Major cloud providers like AWS (Lambda), Microsoft Azure (Functions), and Google Cloud (Cloud Functions) offer FaaS platforms that allow developers to write and deploy individual functions without managing the underlying infrastructure.

How Companies Are Saving Millions by Migrating Away from AWS to Bare Metal Servers?

Many startups initially launch on AWS or other public clouds because it allows rapid scaling without upfront investments. But as these companies grow, the operating costs steadily rise.

What is Serverless?

Serverless is a broader cloud computing model that involves FaaS but also includes other fully managed services like databases (e.g., AWS DynamoDB, Azure Cosmos DB, Google Cloud Datastore), message queues (e.g., AWS SQS, Azure Service Bus, Google Cloud Pub/Sub), and storage (e.g., AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage).

In a serverless architecture, the cloud provider is responsible for provisioning, scaling, and managing the entire backend infrastructure required to run your application.

💡

FaaS is one type of serverless architecture, but there are other types, such as Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS).

The benefits of Serverless Computing:Reduced operational overhead: With no servers to manage, you can focus entirely on building your application without worrying about infrastructure. Event-driven architecture: Serverless applications are designed around event triggers, allowing you to react to user actions, data changes, or scheduled events in real time. Seamless scalability: Serverless platforms automatically scale your application’s resources up and down based on demand, with no additional configuration required on your part.

Monolithic vs Microservices Architecture

Monolithic architectures accelerate time-to-market, while Microservices are more suited for longer-term flexibility and maintainability at a substantial scale.

IT Infrastructure - IaaS, PaaS, FaaS

Feature
FaaS
Serverless

Infrastructure Management
Handles provisioning and scaling of servers/containers for your functions
Handles provisioning and scaling of the entire backend infrastructure, including servers, databases, message queues, etc.

Pricing Model
Pay-per-execution (cost per function invocation)
Pay-per-use (cost per resource consumption, e.g., CPU, memory, data transfer)

Scalability
Automatically scales functions up and down based on demand
Automatically scales the entire application infrastructure up and down based on demand

Stateful vs. Stateless
Functions are typically stateless
Supports both stateful and stateless services

Event-Driven Architecture
Supports event-driven execution of functions
Natively supports event-driven architecture with managed event services

Third-Party Service Integration
Integrates with other cloud services through API calls
Seamless integration with a rich ecosystem of managed cloud services

Development Focus
Concentrate on writing the application logic in the form of functions
Concentrate on building the overall application structure and leveraging managed services

Vendor Lock-in
Some vendor lock-in, as functions are typically tied to a specific FaaS platform
Potential for vendor lock-in, as Serverless often relies on a broader set of managed services

Examples
AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Google Cloud Functions, IBM Cloud Functions
AWS (Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB), Azure (Functions, Cosmos DB, Event Grid), Google Cloud (Functions, Datastore, Pub/Sub), IBM Cloud (Functions, Object Storage, Databases)

Infrastructure Management
Handles provisioning and scaling of servers/containers for your functions
Handles provisioning and scaling of the entire backend infrastructure, including servers, databases, message queues, etc.

1. Scope

FaaS is a specific type of serverless architecture that is focused on building and running applications as a set of independent functions. Serverless computing, on the other hand, is a broader term that encompasses a range of cloud computing models, including FaaS, BaaS, and others.

2. Granularity

FaaS is a more fine-grained approach to building and running applications, as it allows developers to break down applications into smaller, independent functions. Serverless computing, on the other hand, can be used to build and run entire applications, not just individual functions.

3. Pricing

FaaS providers typically charge based on the number of function executions and the duration of those executions. Serverless computing providers, on the other hand, may charge based on a variety of factors, such as the number of API requests, the amount of data stored, and the number of users.

Monorepos vs Microrepos: Which is better?

Find out why companies choose Monorepos over Microrepos strategies and how they impact scalability, governance, and code quality.

Major cloud providers that offer FaaS and serverless computing services:AWS Lambda – AWS Lambda is a FaaS platform that allows developers to run code without provisioning or managing servers. Lambda supports a variety of programming languages, including Python, Node.js, Java, and C#.Azure Functions – Azure Functions is a serverless computing service that allows developers to build event-driven applications using a variety of programming languages, including C#, Java, JavaScript, and Python.Google Cloud Functions – Google Cloud Functions is a FaaS platform that allows developers to run code in response to specific events, such as changes to a Cloud Storage bucket or the creation of a Pub/Sub message.IBM Cloud Functions – IBM Cloud Functions is a serverless computing platform that allows developers to build and run event-driven applications using a variety of programming languages, including Node.js, Swift, and Java.Oracle Cloud Functions – Oracle Cloud Functions is a FaaS platform that allows developers to build and run serverless applications using a variety of programming languages, including Python, Node.js, and Java.Choosing Between FaaS and ServerlessUse FaaS for:Opt for serverless computing when:You’re deploying complex applications that require a unified environment for all components.You want to reduce the operational overhead of managing servers while maintaining control over application configurations.

AWS Lambda vs. Lambda@Edge: Which Serverless Service Should You Use?

Lambda is regional while Lambda@Edge runs globally at edge locations. Lambda integrates with more AWS services. Lambda@Edge works with CloudFront.

Understand with an Example

Suppose you want to build a simple web application that allows users to upload images and apply filters to them. With a traditional server-based architecture, you would need to provision and manage servers, install and configure software, and handle scaling and availability. This can be time-consuming and expensive, especially if you’re just starting out.

With a serverless architecture, on the other hand, you can focus on writing the code for the application logic, and let the cloud provider handle the rest.

For instance, you could use AWS Lambda (FaaS) to run the code that processes the uploaded images, AWS S3 for storage, and other AWS services like API Gateway and DynamoDB as part of the overall serverless architecture. The cloud provider would automatically scale the resources up or down based on demand, and you would only pay for the resources you actually use.

All FaaS is serverless, but not all serverless is FaaS.

FaaS is a type of serverless architecture, but the two terms are not the same. FaaS is all about creating and running applications as separate functions, while serverless computing is a wider term that covers different cloud computing models. In other words, FaaS is a specific way of doing serverless computing that involves breaking down an application into small, independent functions that can be run separately. Serverless computing, on the other hand, is a more general approach that can involve using different cloud services to build and run an application without having to manage servers.

The major cloud providers offer varying levels of tooling and community support for their FaaS and serverless offerings. AWS has the largest community and a mature set of tools like AWS SAM for local development and testing of serverless applications.

Microsoft Azure has good tooling integration with Visual Studio Code, while Google Cloud’s tooling is still catching up. A strong developer ecosystem and community support can be crucial when building and maintaining serverless applications.

FaaS Platform

Feature
Lambda
Azure Functions
Cloud Functions

Arm64 architecture
✅
❌
❌

Compiled binary deployment
✅
✅
❌

Wildcard SSL certificate free
✅
❌
✅

Serverless KV store
DynamoDB
CosmosDB
Datastore

Serverless SQL
Aurora Serverless
Azure SQL
BigQuery

IaC deployment templates
SAM, CloudFormation
ARM, Bicep
GDM

IaC drift detection
✅
❌
❌

Single shot stack deployment
✅
❌
❌

Developement

Feature
Lambda
Azure Functions
Cloud Functions

Virtualized local execution
✅
❌
❌

FaaS dev tools native for arm64
✅
❌
✅

Go SDK support
✅
✅
✅

PHP SDK support
✅
✅
✅

VSCode tooling
✅
✅
✅

Dev tools native for Apple Silicon
✅
❌
✅

Feature
Lambda
Azure Functions
Cloud Functions

Reddit community members
278,455
141,924
46,415

Stack Overflow members
256,700
216,100
54,300

Videos on YouTube channel
16,308
1,475
4,750

Twitter/X followers
2.2 M
1 M
533 K

GitHub stars for JS SDK
7.5 K
1.9 K
2.8 K

GitHub stars for .NET SDK
2 K
5 K
908

GitHub stars for Python SDK
8.7 K
2.7 K
4.6 K

GitHub stars for Go SDK
8.5 K
1.5 K
3.6 K

Runtimes

Runtime
Lambda
Azure Functions
Cloud Functions

Custom (Linux)
✅
✅
❌

Custom (Windows)
❌
✅
❌

Python
✅
✅
✅

Node.js
✅
✅
✅

PHP
❌
❌
✅

Ruby
✅
❌
✅

Java
✅
✅
✅

.NET
✅
✅
✅

Go
✅
✅
✅

Rust
✅
✅
❌

C/C++
✅
✅
❌

Serverless AI

Provider
Lambda
Azure Functions
Cloud Functions

Open AI
❌
✅
❌

Gemini
❌
❌
✅

Anthropic
✅
✅
✅

Meta Llama2
✅
✅
✅

Cohere
✅
✅
✅

AI21
✅
❌
❌

Amazon Titan
✅
❌
❌

Mistral
✅
✅
✅

Stability (SDXL)
✅
❌
✅

Computer Vision
✅
✅
✅

Bare Metal Servers vs. Dedicated Host

Bare metal gives you total control over the hypervisor for maximum flexibility and resource optimization. Dedicated hosts keep things simple with the cloud provider managing the VMs for you.

Ansible vs Terraform

Infrastructure automation and configuration management are two essential practices in modern IT operations, particularly in the DevOps & Cloud.

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