In the ever-evolving landscape of cloud-native computing, developers are constantly seeking ways to optimize both the performance and resource efficiency of their applications. Serverless computing, with its promise of abstraction and automatic scaling, has gained tremendous popularity in recent years, especially for event-driven workloads. However, the existing serverless models often struggle to provide the necessary level of isolation and resource control required for more complex, multi-tenant, or security-sensitive applications.

This talk introduces the concept of Serverless MicroVMs – a hybrid model that combines the best of containers and virtual machines (VMs) to create ultra-lightweight, secure, and resource-efficient environments for serverless workloads. By leveraging technologies like Firecracker, a minimal virtual machine monitor designed specifically for fast, low-overhead microVMs, we can achieve near-instant provisioning times, strong isolation, and the ability to scale thousands of instances per host – all while maintaining the flexibility and orchestration benefits of Kubernetes.

We will explore how microVMs address the gap between traditional containers and serverless environments by offering a more secure and scalable alternative for running event-driven, stateless applications at scale. The integration of microVMs within Kubernetes allows for seamless orchestration of both containers and microVMs, enabling developers to run containerized applications alongside serverless microservices, all while benefiting from improved isolation, faster startup times, and minimal resource overhead.

Through a live demo, we’ll walk through deploying Firecracker microVMs on Kubernetes, demonstrating how serverless functions can be executed in microVMs, and showcasing the power of this new paradigm for modern cloud-native architectures. This session will also cover the practical use cases, potential challenges, and the future of microVMs in serverless computing.

Join us for this session to learn how serverless microVMs can transform your cloud-native applications, providing greater security, scalability, and control – all while optimizing developer workflows and resource utilization.