Serverless infrastructure makes it easier than ever to eliminate the boundary between frontend and backend. When engineers own the entire stack, they can focus less on rebuilding the same infrastructure and more on what matters: the user experience.
Web apps have traditionally been built with a 3-tier stack: frontend, backend, and database. Each of these tiers is often written in a different language and has its own set of technical challenges. Many of these challenges are common across wildly different products. Every product needs a database that is scalable and correct, a backend that is fast and secure, and a frontend that is reactive and interactive. Given the number of different concerns, it’s no wonder most companies have separate teams managing each layer!
In this presentation, we’ll zoom in on the essence of the dynamic web app.
- If we solve the common technical challenges that all web apps face, what’s left?
- How do serverless solutions compare to in-house stacks? Can they deliver more with less work?
- How does product development change when individual engineers can own features, end-to-end?
Speaker
Alex Cole
Software Engineer @convex_dev, previously @Asana
Alex is a software engineer at Convex, building Convex’s reactive backend-as-a-service platform. He’s passionate about reactivity, TypeScript, databases, GraphQL, and mountains. Previously he worked at Asana, leading the Client Infrastructure team.