Firecracker
Firecracker is an open-source virtualization technology that enables secure, lightweight microVMs (micro virtual machines) for serverless computing and container workloads. It uses KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) to provide hardware virtualization with minimal overhead, starting in milliseconds and using only a few MiB of memory per instance. Originally developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for AWS Lambda and AWS Fargate, it is designed to run multi-tenant workloads safely and efficiently.
Developers should learn Firecracker when building or deploying serverless applications, containerized environments, or edge computing solutions that require fast startup times and strong isolation between workloads. It is particularly useful in cloud-native architectures where security and resource efficiency are critical, such as in multi-tenant platforms or when running untrusted code. Use cases include serverless functions, sandboxed containers, and lightweight virtual machines for testing or production.