DevDiscuss S2E7: Serverless and the Cloud 101
Tags: podcast, discuss
Published: 2020-09-30 17:43:28

---
title: DevDiscuss S2E7: Serverless and the Cloud 101
published: true
description: This week's episode of DevDiscuss — DEV Community's first original podcast
tags: podcast, discuss
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/ih1kvo3fts4vao4pir61.png
---

In this week's episode of DevDiscuss, the weather report is cloudy with a guarantee of serverless! 

Serverless is a term that's been all abuzz for a few years now, and as @ben pointed out in this episode, it's easy to discount it as another term like "the cloud" that really just means "_on somebody else's computer_", leading folks to assume it's more fluff than substance. 

But in today's world, serverless can really be considered the local language of the cloud and, above all else, a philosophy. Serverless allows you to hand off the application-building tasks getting in your way to servers that aren't your concern. 

In this episode, we explore the historical context of serverless and how it can help you bypass the months it might otherwise take to build an application from scratch — and some challenges it presents, too!

{% podcast https://dev.to/devdiscuss/s2-e7-serverless-and-the-cloud-101 %}

#### This week, Ben and I were joined by two guests who have spent the past handful of years focused on serverless, the cloud, and observability:

- **[Erica Windisch](https://twitter.com/ewindisch)**, Principal Software Engineer at New Relic who was an early engineer at Docker before founding IOPipe.
- **[Yan Cui](dev.to/theburningmonk)**, AWS Serverless Hero and Principal Consultant at The Burning Monk who spent his early career in the banking industry and back end development for mobile games before becoming a developer advocate and independent consultant. 


### _In this episode, Ben, Erica, @theburningmonk, and I discuss_

- Our respective programming journeys, from physical notebooks and manuals to the cloud — and why our guests chose the paths they did.
- The origins of serverless in the cloud and the problems it solves with less noise.
- The advantages of serverless (such as speed and observability) and the disadvantages (like some of the flexibility you get from building apps from scratch). 

... and much more!

Listen to S2E7 of DevDiscuss: today! If you enjoy it, please consider leaving us a review on the podcast platform of your choice. We’ll mail you a FREE pack of DEV stickers if you send us a screenshot of your review! All you have to do is fill out [this form](https://airtable.com/shr8oKAIMZgdYnBxx) 🦄⚡🎨

---


## Quick Listening Links
-   [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/2H52H5aduQdVQhNiR65Upa)
-   [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/devdiscuss/id1513053883)
-   [Overcast](https://overcast.fm/+a_2kWvMC8)
-   [Listen Notes](https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/devdiscuss/s2e7-serverless-and-the-wxmFbhOiDzu/)
-   [TuneIn](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Technology-Podcasts/DevDiscuss-p1324596/?topicId=157661570)
-   [DevDiscuss Website](https://devpods.herokuapp.com/podcasts/devdiscuss/episodes/26)
-   [RSS Feed](https://feeds.devpods.dev/devdiscuss_podcast.xml) to plug into the platform of your choice 🔌
-   [Google Podcasts](https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5kZXZwb2RzLmRldi9kZXZkaXNjdXNzX3BvZGNhc3QueG1s/episode/aHR0cHM6Ly9kZXZwb2RzLmRldi9wb2RjYXN0cy9kZXZkaXNjdXNzLzE2?sa=X&ved=0CAQQkfYCahcKEwiIucKhnZHsAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ)
- [Stitcher](https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/devdiscuss/e/78166636?autoplay=true)
- [Pocket Casts](https://pca.st/y2dmc9rt)

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_Huge thanks to @levisharpe for producing & mixing the show, and @peter and @saronyitbarek for their editorial oversight._

_Thank you to our Season 2 sponsors who help make this show possible. If you're in the market for any of their services, please check out 
- [Heroku](https://devcenter.heroku.com/start)
- [Fastly](https://www.fastly.com/?utm_source=devto&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=fy20_get_a_demo)
- [Triplebyte](https://triplebyte.com/devdiscuss)
- [Smallstep](https://smallstep.com/dev)