As the cloud computing industry continues to evolve, so does the need for more efficient and secure ways to deploy and manage applications. Introduced in 2019, (as 1.0) WebAssembly (WASM) has quickly gained popularity as a powerful tool for optimizing performance and enhancing security in web applications. In this article, we will be diving into WASM and it’s impact in areas that are at the frontline of modern tech stacks; Kubernetes and containerization.

WebAssembly (WASM)?

Let’s understand what WebAssembly is. According to the WebAssembly website[1]:

WebAssembly (abbreviated Wasm) is a binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine. Wasm is designed as a portable compilation target for programming languages, enabling deployment on the web for client and server applications.

From this information we can gather a few things:

  1. WebAssembly is a binary instruction format. This means that it’s providing a format to machines that is more efficient to be read by machines.
  2. WebAssembly is stack-based. This means that it’s using a stack data structure to store and retrieve data. This is fairly common, but it’s good to know.
  3. WebAssembly is a portable compilation target. We will look at this more in depth below. In short, it means that WebAssembly can be used to compile code written in languages like C, C++, GO, and Rust into a format that is more portable and multi-platform.
  4. WebAssembly enables deployment on the web for client and server applications. This is a big one. WebAssembly is designed to be used in web applications, both on the client side and the server side.

WebAssembly is a very powerful piece of technology. Let’s take a look at some of its core advantages.

Portability

WASM is designed to be portable. This means that it can be used across different platforms, architectures, and devices. This means that instead of having to write code for each platform (where necessary), and then compile it for each platform, you can write code in a language like C, C++, GO, or Rust, and then compile it to WebAssembly. This WebAssembly code can then be run on any platform that supports WebAssembly. Not only will this save you engineering hours, but it will also make your code more maintainable and scalable.

Performance

WASM is meant to be fast and efficient. It boasts that it is able to run at near-native speeds. This is all thanks to the fact that it is a binary instruction format.

Security

WASM is designed to be secure. It is sandboxed, meaning that it runs in a secure environment, and it’s also memory safe; meaning that it is designed to prevent memory leaks and buffer overflows. It also enforces a few security policies, when embedded in a web application, like the same-origin policy. To be clear, it doesn’t eliminate the need for additional security measures, it simply adds a new layer of security to your application.

Lightweight

WASM is designed to be lightweight compared to traditional container images, as the compiled binary size is significantly smaller. This results in faster loading times and a reduced application footprint, enhancing overall performance.

Interoperability

WASM is designed to be interoperable. This means that it can be incorporated into your existing stack, and work with your existing code. This is great as this allows you to optimize where needed without having to immediately rewrite your entire codebase.

Embedded and Standalone

WASM is designed so that you can implement it as a web embed, or as a standalone application. This leaves the use cases for WASM wide open.

Use cases

The use cases for WebAssembly are vast. It can be used for anything from web applications, to server-side applications, to IoT devices, to gaming. Really, if you can think of it, you can probably use WebAssembly for it.

WebAssembly System Interface

The WebAssembly System Interface (WASI) is a crucial component of the WebAssembly ecosystem. It provides a standardized way to interact with the host system, enabling various use cases beyond the browser[3]. While we won’t delve deeply into its specifics here, it’s important to recognize WASI as a valuable tool in your WebAssembly journey, particularly for applications that require system-level access.

WebAssembly and Kubernetes

Note: As of writing this, WASM is not natively supported in Kubernetes. However, there are projects[2] which are working on integrating WASM with Kubernetes. One of the big ones being WASM-based container runtimes. Hopefully in the near future, we will see native support for WASM in Kubernetes. :slightly_smiling_face: This article is meant to cover the potential impact of WASM in Kubernetes and provide an informative perspective.

With the rise of microservices and containerization of applications, Kubernetes (K8s) has become the market leader when it comes to container orchestration. Kubernetes offers it’s own set of advantages over some of it’s competitors, such as:

  • Scalability: Kubernetes is designed to scale. It can scale up and down as needed, and it can handle a large number of containers within a single cluster.
  • Resilience: Kubernetes is designed to be resilient. It can handle failures gracefully, and it can recover from failures quickly.
  • Flexibility: Kubernetes is designed to be flexible. It can run on any cloud provider, and it can run on-premises. It can also run on any operating system, and it can run on any hardware.
  • Extensibility: Kubernetes is designed to be extensible. It can be extended with plugins, and it can be extended with custom resources.

Although these advantages are great, Kubernetes is not without its challenges. Enter WebAssembly. Let’s dive into some of these challenges and how WebAssembly can help.

Cold Start Times

Cold start times in K8s can be a pain, especially in critical applications. In K8s, there are several factors that can be a contributor to cold start times:

  • Container Image Size: The larger the container image, the longer it will take to download and start
  • Resource Allocation: If you don’t allocate enough resources to your container, it will take longer to start. In some cases, you may have the capabilities to auto-scale your nodes to create more resources, but this can be, yet another, time-consuming process.
  • Health Checks: This isn’t really a major contributor on it’s own, but it can add to the time it takes for a container to start.
  • Application Startup Time: If your application has a long init and/or startup process, this can take a long time, and also cause health checks to fail.

As we mentioned previously, WASM is designed to be fast and efficient meaning that there is potential for WASM to help reduce your cold start times.

Container Image Size

Since WASM is a binary instruction format, it is much smaller in size than a container image. This means that it will take less time to download and start. At the very least, it could have the potential to reduce the size of your container image, which would reduce the time it takes to download and start.

Resource Allocation

Although it cannot directly help with resource allocation, WASM can help with resource utilization. WASM is designed to be fast and efficient, meaning that it will use less resources than a traditional container. This means that you can request a smaller amount of resources for your container, and still have it run efficiently.

Application Startup Time

Since it’s running at near-native speeds, WASM can help reduce the time it takes for your application to start and reduce the time it takes for your health checks to pass.

Security

Kubernetes has a large attack surface, from container images, containers themselves, nodes, the Kubernetes API, and this is just to name a few. WASM has the potential to help reduce this attack surface. Since WASM is sandboxed, it runs in a secure environment. This means that even if an attacker is able to exploit a vulnerability in your application, they will not be able to exploit the host system. This is a huge advantage, especially in a security-conscious environment. To be clear, this does not mean that you can ignore security best practices, but it does mean that you have an extra layer of security for each of your applications utilizing WASM.

Microservice complexity

Microservices have transformed the software industry by enabling more controlled and granular modifications to applications. However, this also adds a layer of complexity as you know have to manage multiple services that all have their own dependencies. WASM can also help here as WASM is interoperable and modular. This allows you to deploy your services in a smaller, focused, and more manageable way. An added bonus is it can also help you reduce your container overhead!

Delivery time

Kubernetes application deployments can be another point of slowing down a development cycle. With WASM, you can still maintain granular updates, but you also gain the ability to deliver in a much more efficient manner. There are several points of the development cycle that can be sped up with WASM, such as:

  1. Build time: WASM can be compiled ahead of time, meaning that you can compile your code once, and then deploy it to any platform that supports WebAssembly.
  2. Testing time: WASM can provide a secure and speedy environment for testing your applications.
  3. Deployment time: WASM can help reduce the time it takes to deploy your applications, as it is designed to be fast and efficient.
  4. Rollback time: If you need to rollback a deployment, WASM can help you do this quickly and efficiently.

Final Thoughts

WebAssembly and Kubernetes, on their own, are both powerful technologies with their own advantages. But when you combine them, you get a powerful combination that can take an application from good to great. While Kubernetes is pretty well established in the industry, WebAssembly is still relatively new. However, as WebAssembly continues to grow in popularity, we can expect to see more and more use cases for it in Kubernetes. I will be keeping an eye on this space, and I am excited to see what the future holds for WebAssembly and Kubernetes. If you are interested in learning more about WebAssembly, I would recommend checking out the official WebAssembly website, as well as some of the projects that are actively working to integrate WebAssembly with Kubernetes. I have included some links to these resources in the references section below.

Thank you for reading! I hope you are as excited about the potential of WebAssembly in Kubernetes as I am. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please feel free to reach out to me. I would love to hear from you!

References

  1. Official WebAssembly Website
  2. Here are a few projects that are actively working to integrate WASM with Kubernetes:
  3. A great introduction to WASI (and WASM) was written by Aaron turner (@torch2424) can be found here: https://wasmbyexample.dev/examples/wasi-introduction/wasi-introduction.all.en-us.html

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