While containers’ virtualized method for running distributed software applications has hogged the spotlight for the past couple of years, some technology experts quietly predicted that one day soon, serverless computing will take containers’ place as the best thing happening in next-generation applications.

That day is today — at least if conversations at this week’s AWS Summit in New York City are any indication.

“Serverless has in many ways eclipsed the containers discussion for the hot buzz in the industry,” said Stu Miniman (@stu) (pictured, left), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio. (* Disclosure below.)

Serverless architecture allows users to run code without managing servers or run times in cloud or on-premise. Miniman and co-host John Walls (@JohnWalls21) (pictured, right) broke down the positioning of Amazon Web Services in both serverless computing and containers.  

“We heard it a lot today — serverless applications, serverless computing — from more than one source,” Walls said. This is perhaps predictable from an AWS show. AWS Lambda leads the serverless pack at the moment, according to Miniman.

Proof points for serverless are piling up as companies adopt it as a partial or sole infrastructure type. Credit analysis firm and AWS customer Fair Isaac Corp. now executes its admin functions with serverless architecture. And while it’s still early days for serverless, theCUBE spoke today with two companies at AWS Summit — A Cloud Guru and IOpipe — that are all in.

“Their cloud infrastructure was all built on serverless, and they both got funding recently,” Miniman said.

Container comeback at re:Invent

The Summit’s short shrift to containers in favor of serverless is a little confusing given AWS’ recent activities. The company just joined the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, home of container orchestration management platform Kubernetes.

The dearth of details on how AWS will bake Kubernetes into its services was disappointing, according to Miniman. AWS, however, will respond in time to the groundswell of customer demand for Kubernetes, he believes.

“I would expect by the time we get to the re:Invent show in November that we will have more clarity here,” Miniman concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS Summit. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is an unpaid media partner for AWS Summit. Neither Amazon Web Services Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE