The University of Leeds
School of Computing
COMP5850M Coursework 2 - 2021/2022
Deadline: 25 March 2022, 17:00
1 Introduction
This exercise aims to give you some practical experience of using serverless architectures. It will also give you the
opportunity to research on the cloud computing domain of Function as a Service (FaaS), technologies and performance.
Serverless computing is revolutionising cloud application development as it offers the ability to create modular, highly-
scalable, fault-tolerant applications, with minimal operational management. In order to contribute to its widespread
adoption of serverless platforms, the design and performance of language runtimes that are available in FaaS serverless
platforms is key. This coursework aims to investigate the performance impact of such language runtimes.
The following deliverables are expected:
(a) a research report on the domain of investigation.
(b) material developed as part of the experiment design (code, scripts).
You should review the lecture notes on this topic carefully before you start work.
2 Useful Resources
Useful resources are available on COMP5850M module area on Minerva: https://minerva.leeds.ac.uk
3 Tasks
(a) Research into the performance of serverless architectures (commercial) in order to provide insight into their
capabilities and increase awareness of their potential. The coursework specifically considers Microsoft Azure
Function App and focuses on language runtimes available on Azure;
(b) Design a set of experiments to assess the capabilities and performance of the serverless architecture. Investigate
the performance impact of two language runtimes of your choice. You can choose among Python, Java, Node.js
and .NET. Propose a cloud-based technical solution for benchmarking and analysis of the serverless architecture
using a set of test functions and demonstrate its performance in terms of effectiveness and efficiency.
4 Requirements
(a) Report on Azure serverless architecture;
(b) Consider two functions of your choice, e.g. sum of an array of numbers, matrix multiplication, file read
operation, file write operation, HTTP request ...
(c) Consider two programming languages for implementation of your function;
(d) Evaluate the performance of the language runtimes in terms of scalability, e.g. by increasing the number of
function invocations;
(e) Consider a benchmark for performance comparison, e.g. local execution of your function on bare metal.
5 Submission
Address the questions in relation the problem motivation, related work, experimental design and implementa-
tion, discussion of results, and evidence of execution on Gradescope.
1
To submit your code/scripts for the exercise, create a Zip or tar archive of the file which make up your solution
and submit the file through the same link on Gradescope. Remember to include a descriptive README file
as well as any additional material which you think are useful. Ensure you include all files needed to work as
part of your submission.
6 Marking Scheme
Report
Problem motivation 5
Related work 5
Experimental Design and Implementation 10
Results 10
Quality of evaluation 15
Code/scripts 5
50
7 Weight
This coursework accounts for 20% of the assessment.
8 Lateness Penalty
5% of the maximum available mark per day will be applied.
9 Notes
You should be aware that the rules around academic malpractice are still in force
Any academic malpractice will be processed in accordance with the academic integrity policy. In particular we
expect that the work submitted is the student’s work alone.