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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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INSIGHT

Serverless Python Runtime For Data Teams

  • Modal is a serverless platform that runs your Python code in the cloud and charges per usage.
  • It targets data teams and abstracts provisioning, scaling, and resource management.
ANECDOTE

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.
ADVICE

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.
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