WebAssembly revolutionized browser apps, and promises to upend the server stack. How will it impact containers and Kubernetes? Six experts weigh in.
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Heralded as the fourth standard of the web, WebAssembly, or Wasm for short, has sparked heated discussion since its origins. Wasm is an assembly-like programming language, a compact binary format, and a compilation target for C, C++, C#, Go, JavaScript, Python, Rust, and others that runs at near-native speeds in a web browser. It is well-established in web development and has been inching closer to mass use outside the browser.
Wasm’s compactness, speed, portability, and security have developers excited about its possibilities on servers as well as clients, and even its potential to supplant Linux containers. But will this technology become a mainstream platform that disrupts today’s established container ecosystem?
People close to the Wasm vs. containers discussion are probably sick of seeing this 2019 tweetfrom Solomon …