Topic outline

  • Microservice Architectures and Serverless Computing (III-IV/2019)

    The introduction of cloud computing and the explosive growth of mobile computing and new online services brought also new ways of structuring computing systems: microservice architectures and serverless computing. 

    This course is targeted to students with basic understanding of service architectures and scalable architectures, and builds on top of that to look at what possibilities and new challenges microservice architectures and serverless computing brings on top of “classic” service architectures.

    The course lasts 2 periods and is worth 5 credits (op). The work on the course consists of 3 hours of weekly lectures and 1-2 hours of exercise sessions per week, and independent small group and individual work. Passing the course requires:

    • Passing an end exam
    • Participation at and submission of group work (total of 4 group assignments),
    • Project work completion (individual work)

    The course project work is in the form of developing a small-scale web service utilizing techniques and technologies learned during the course.

    The 2019 course has a participant limit of at most 20 students. 

    The group work is done in groups of 3-5 persons each. Participants are encouraged to contact each other and form groups prior to the start of the course. Ungrouped students are randomly allocated to groups after the first lecture.

    The course language is english. The course material is in the form of lecture notes and material available openly on the Internet.

    Prerequisites

    Participants are required to have programming and web development skills, and have basic understanding of how to use Git. Experience with cloud infrastructure services (AWS, Azure, Google) and containers (Docker, Kubernetes) will help.

    Lectures

    Lectures are on Thursdays at 14-17 on both periods III and IV, except on some select days, exam weeks etc. The first lecture is on Thursday 10.1.2019, with the following exceptions:

    • No lecture on Thursday 24.1
    • Lecture on Friday 25.1. at 12-14

    Remember that unless you have formed a group of at least 3 and at most 6 people by the end of the first lecture (and indicated that either at the lecture, or previously via email), then you will be assigned to a random group.

    Location

    The location of the lectures is Simulation laboratory in the OIH building, Maarintie 6 (ground floor). There may be some exceptions which are communicated separately.

    Coursework

    Personal coursework deadline is Sunday 14.4. (23:59). There will be an assignment opened during April for the submission.

    Exam

    Course exam is on 11.4. in TU7 (TUAS building) from 16:30 to 19:30. 

    Enrolment

    Enrolment to the course is via Oodi: https://oodi.aalto.fi/a/opettaptied.jsp?OpetTap=1135133269&html=1

    Contact

    Course teacher is Santeri Paavolainen (email santeri.paavolainen@aalto.fi).