Atlassian Forge Serves an AWS Lambda-Based Serverless Option

Atlassian launched a serverless functions-as-a-service (FaaS) platform that takes advantage of Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Lambda to make it easier for enterprise developers to build and run cloud applications that integrate with Atlassian products. Atlassian launched a serverless functions-as-a-service (FaaS) platform that takes advantage of Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Lambda to make it easier for enterprise developers to build and run cloud applications that integrate with Atlassian products. The Forge platform includes Atlassian-operated compute and storage, a declarative UI language that allows developers to build with just a few lines of code, and a DevOps toolchain that uses the Forge command line interface (CLI). Atlassian claims the platform provides all of the typical benefits of serverless platforms like a simplified developer environment because there is no need to configure infrastructure and application portability across internet platform outlets. It’s also claiming greater security as applications created in Forge will run inside of a second security layer that enforces tenancy isolation and data egress restrictions. The move is similar to one made late last year by GitLab when it struck a deal with TriggerMesh to provide a Knative-powered serverless management platform. Knative is a platform that taps Kubernetes to provide cloud portability for serverless applications. Atlassian competes in the broader DevOps and continuous integration/continuous development (CI/CD) space with vendors like GitHub, GitLab, and CloudBees. GitHub was acquired last year by Microsoft for $7.5 billion; GitLab recently closed on a $268 million Series E funding round that valued it at $2.75 billion; and CloudBees earlier this year acquired CD and application release automation vendor Electric Cloud. Serverless is somewhat mis-named as it does indeed rely on servers. But instead of a developer having to configure servers to support an application, a serverless platform automatically ties the application and required resources into a cloud provider’s infrastructure. In addition to reducing the need for infrastructure configuration, serverless platforms can also spin down when not in use, thus saving money. However, many of the current serverless platforms are based on and tied to a specific cloud platform, which can lead to vendor lock-in for an organization adopting one of those platforms. Those include AWS Lambda, Microsoft Azure Functions, and Google Cloud Functions. Analysts have been expecting serverless to gain traction in the enterprise space, though the current vendor lock-in issue has stymied adoption. Projects like Knative are attempting to circumvent that issue. Jason McGee, VP and CTO for IBM’s Cloud Platform, told attendees at last year’s KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2018 event in Seattle, that Knative was an important project in unifying the dozens of serverless platforms that have flooded the market. “That fragmentation, I think, holds us all back from being able to really leverage functions as part of the design of our applications,” McGee said during his keynote. “I think Knative is an important catalyst for helping us come together to bring functions and applications into our common cloud native stack in a way that will allow us to move forward and collaborate together on this common platform.”