Architecture

Edge compute

Run code at the CDN edge, milliseconds from the user.

In plain terms

Cloudflare Workers, AWS Lambda@Edge, Vercel Edge Functions. V8 isolates rather than full processes — cold start measured in microseconds.

Origin

Cloudflare Workers launched 2017; AWS Lambda@Edge 2017; Vercel Edge Functions 2021. V8 isolates (not containers) made cold-start microseconds-scale, which made the model practical.

Where it shows up in production

Cloudflare Workers JS / Rust at 300+ PoPs. Used for routing, A/B testing, geo-personalisation.
Vercel Edge Functions Next.js middleware runs on every request, microseconds from the user.
Fastly Compute@Edge WebAssembly-based; deeper customisation than VCL allowed.

On Semicolony

Guide cdn

Sources & further reading

Blog Cloudflare — V8 isolates vs containers

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