Introducing the FLAME Pattern for Serverless Architecture in Elixir

The article presents FLAME - Fleeting Lambda Application for Modular Execution, a new pattern introduced by Chris McCord for building serverless applications with a focus on Elixir. Unlike the traditional complexities faced with cloud functions and serverless architectures which require intricate setups using queues, storage, and ephemeral functions, the FLAME pattern aims to simplify and make scaling more granulate and efficient. It utilizes the Elixir flame library, which can work with different backends, primarily focusing on how it can be used with Fly.io for rapid deployment and executions. The concept is explained through examples of video transcoding in an Elixir application, showcasing the ease of use and seamless database interactions. FLAME also provides an elastic pool for efficient scale-to-zero and hot standby within the actual app environment. In contrast with FaaS, which adds complexity layers, FLAME removes the problem, letting the app itself handle the modular execution. The article also touches on how FLAME can integrate into existing Elixir features like process supervision and how it could possibly be adapted for non-Elixir environments, highlighting the essentials for a FLAME library in any language.