The CERN School of Computing (CSC) is one of those experiences that stays with you. Every year it brings together students and professionals for an intensive week of advanced lectures on distributed systems, data processing, security, and modern software engineering. It’s not just about attending talks; it’s about being immersed in computing, discussing ideas late into the evening, and sharing perspectives with people from all over the world.
The Inverted School of Computing adds a special twist. Instead of only listening to experts, selected students are invited to present a topic they are passionate about. It’s a recognition of curiosity and competence: you move from the audience to the stage.
In 2025, I had the opportunity to give a talk about WebAssembly and why I believe it represents a fundamental shift in how we think about cloud computing.
WebAssembly started as a browser technology, designed as a portable binary format that could run safely inside a sandbox. But it is rapidly expanding beyond the browser. Today, WASM is becoming a universal execution format capable of running on different architectures and operating systems through a runtime that guarantees isolation and portability. Unlike traditional binaries, it is not tightly coupled to a specific kernel or system interface. This makes it extremely lightweight, fast to start, and secure by design.
In the talk, I explored how this model challenges containers. While containers rely on kernel primitives and operating system features for isolation, WASM enforces isolation at the runtime level, reducing complexity and improving portability. This opens interesting possibilities for multi-tenant platforms, serverless systems, edge computing, and even heterogeneous hardware environments.
I also discussed how WASM could change the way we execute workloads on GPUs and accelerators. If a single standardized binary format can target different kinds of hardware, the way we distribute scientific computing and AI workloads may become significantly simpler and more flexible.
WebAssembly is no longer just a browser curiosity. It is emerging as a serious candidate for the next generation of cloud and distributed computing.
At the bottom of this page you can watch the full recording of the talk.