devtools.fm: Developer Tools, Open Source, Software Development Erik Bernhardsson - Modal
Aug 14, 2023
Erik Bernhardsson, founder of Modal, talks about the challenges of building a serverless platform and creating a new vision for serverless cloud. They discuss the benefits of using Modal for code deployment and setting up GPU-based infrastructure. They also explore the features and use cases of Modal, including its similarities to a CDN and its applications in AI and non-AI tasks. The podcast concludes with a discussion on Modal's future plans and expansion.
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Why Erik Built Modal From Scratch
- Erik started Modal because existing workflows made productionizing data work painful and fragmented.
- He built a new runtime layer rather than using Docker/Kubernetes because those tools didn't meet his performance and UX goals.
Bring The Cloud Into Local Development
- Put the cloud inside your local feedback loop to dramatically speed iteration.
- Run code in a cloud runtime during development, then deploy without rewriting for production.
Zero YAML, All-In Code Configuration
- Modal uses code (Python) rather than YAML or external Docker files to define infrastructure and functions.
- Functions are ordinary Python functions with decorators that describe runtime and dependencies, and Modal lazily builds containers.