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Publication
Architecting Serverless Applications at the Edge with Workflows
| Name: | Description: | Size: | Format: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.45 MB | Adobe PDF |
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
A indústria global dos videojogos depende cada vez mais de estratégias de monetização digital subscrições, consumíveis, moedas virtuais e vendas de ativos como base para um crescimento sustentável. No entanto, embora processadores de pagamento como a Stripe [1] forneçam acesso seguro e escalável à infraestrutura financeira, os criadores de jogos continuam a enfrentar desafios significativos na orquestração fiável do cumprimento ponta-a-ponta das compras. As falhas na coordenação de pagamentos, atualizações de inventário e pagamentos a terceiros não só corroem a confiança dos jogadores como também ameaçam as receitas dos desenvolvedores. Esta dissertação aborda esses desafios ao explorar como os princípios de orquestração de fluxos de trabalho podem ser aplicados ao domínio da monetização em jogos.
Revisitamos o design de sistemas distribuídos dos monólitos aos microserviços e serverless defendendo que a execução durável [2] é a abstração em falta para fluxos de trabalho fiáveis, duradouros e com estado. Comparamos as principais plataformas de orquestração Temporal [2], AWS Step Functions [3], Cloudflare Workflows [4], Uber Cadence [5], Netflix Conductor [6] e Camunda [7] ao longo dos eixos de durabilidade, capacidade de resposta, ergonomia para programadores e governação, revelando compromissos fundamentais entre garantias de progresso e latência operacional, e entre poder expressivo e auditabilidade. Com base nestas conclusões, propomos uma arquitetura de fluxos de trabalho edge-first que combina o runtime global da Cloudflare com os mecanismos de pagamento da Stripe [1], de forma a fornecer pagamentos e transferências resistentes e com capacidade de repetição.
As contribuições desta tese são duplas: por um lado, um enquadramento conceptual que situa os fluxos de pagamento no contexto dos sistemas distribuídos e da teoria da orquestração; por outro, um plano prático de design que ilustra como estes princípios podem ser implementados para suportar economias de jogo reais. Ao unir inovação criativa e infraestrutura financeira, esta investigação fornece aos desenvolvedores de jogos uma base escalável e resiliente para monetização, permitindo-lhes focar-se na experiência do jogador enquanto confiam no sistema subjacente para oferecer um comércio contínuo e fiável.
The global gaming industry increasingly depends on digital monetization strategies subscriptions, consumables, in-game currencies, and asset sales as a foundation for sustainable growth. Yet while payment processors such as Stripe [1] provide secure and scalable access to financial infrastructure, game creators continue to face significant challenges in reliably orchestrating the end-to-end fulfillment of purchases. Failures in coordinating payments, inventory updates, and payouts not only erode player trust but also threaten developer revenues. This dissertation addresses these challenges by exploring how workflow orchestration principles can be applied to the domain of gaming monetization. We revisit distributed-systems design from monoliths to microservices and serverless, arguing that durable execution [2] is the missing abstraction for reliable, long-lived, stateful workflows. We compare leading orchestration platforms Temporal [2], AWS Step Functions [3], Cloudflare Workflows [4], Uber Cadence [5], Netflix Conductor [6], and Camunda [7] along axes of durability, responsiveness, developer ergonomics, and governance, revealing fundamental trade-offs between progress guarantees and operational latency, and between expressive power and auditability. Building on these findings, we propose an edge-first workflow architecture that pairs Cloudflare’s global runtime with Stripe’s [1] payment primitives to deliver retryable and resilient payments and payouts. The contributions of this thesis are twofold: a conceptual framework situating payment workflows within distributed systems and orchestration theory, and a practical design blueprint that illustrates how these principles can be implemented to support real-world game economies. By bridging the gap between creative innovation and financial infrastructure, this research provides game developers with a scalable, resilient foundation for monetization, enabling them to focus on player experience while trusting the underlying system to deliver seamless and reliable commerce.
The global gaming industry increasingly depends on digital monetization strategies subscriptions, consumables, in-game currencies, and asset sales as a foundation for sustainable growth. Yet while payment processors such as Stripe [1] provide secure and scalable access to financial infrastructure, game creators continue to face significant challenges in reliably orchestrating the end-to-end fulfillment of purchases. Failures in coordinating payments, inventory updates, and payouts not only erode player trust but also threaten developer revenues. This dissertation addresses these challenges by exploring how workflow orchestration principles can be applied to the domain of gaming monetization. We revisit distributed-systems design from monoliths to microservices and serverless, arguing that durable execution [2] is the missing abstraction for reliable, long-lived, stateful workflows. We compare leading orchestration platforms Temporal [2], AWS Step Functions [3], Cloudflare Workflows [4], Uber Cadence [5], Netflix Conductor [6], and Camunda [7] along axes of durability, responsiveness, developer ergonomics, and governance, revealing fundamental trade-offs between progress guarantees and operational latency, and between expressive power and auditability. Building on these findings, we propose an edge-first workflow architecture that pairs Cloudflare’s global runtime with Stripe’s [1] payment primitives to deliver retryable and resilient payments and payouts. The contributions of this thesis are twofold: a conceptual framework situating payment workflows within distributed systems and orchestration theory, and a practical design blueprint that illustrates how these principles can be implemented to support real-world game economies. By bridging the gap between creative innovation and financial infrastructure, this research provides game developers with a scalable, resilient foundation for monetization, enabling them to focus on player experience while trusting the underlying system to deliver seamless and reliable commerce.
Description
Keywords
Distributed systems Workflow orchestration Durable execution Cloudflare workers Cloudflare workflows