What is Fission?
Fission is a Kubernetes-native serverless framework designed to simplify the deployment and management of short-lived functions. It allows developers to write code in various programming languages and map these functions to HTTP requests or other event triggers. The framework eliminates the need for container building and Docker registry management, enabling instant deployment with a single command.
Built as an open-source project under the Apache license, Fission operates on Kubernetes clusters across diverse environments, including private data centers, public clouds, and local machines. It abstracts away complex Kubernetes micro-services configurations, allowing developers to focus solely on their code while Fission handles the underlying infrastructure, scalability, and operational tasks.
Features
- Kubernetes Native: Works on any Kubernetes cluster in private data centers, public clouds, or local environments
- Fast Cold-Start: Maintains configurable container pools for low latency, typically around 100 milliseconds
- Declarative Application Specifications: Allows defining functions once and deploying them anywhere with source control compatibility
- Wide Language Support: Extensible to any programming language, with built-in support for Python, NodeJS, Go, C#, and PHP
- Function Autoscaling: Provides autoscaling based on CPU usage with configurable initial, maximum, and target CPU settings
- Istio Service-mesh Integration: Connects with Istio for micro-services management, monitoring, and request latency tracing
- Administration & Operational Simplicity: Integrates logs directly into CLI via Fluentd and uses Prometheus for metrics tracking
Use Cases
- Build serverless API backends for web and mobile applications
- Easily implement webhooks for third-party service integrations like Slack or GitHub
- Write Kubernetes event handlers for custom automation and infrastructure monitoring
