What is Edge Computing?

Подробно

Edge Computing is the evolution of CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) — between 2017-2020 Cloudflare Workers, AWS Lambda@Edge, and Vercel Edge Functions shifted from static content delivery to dynamic compute execution at edge nodes.

Provider stack 2026: **Cloudflare Workers** (300+ POPs, V8 isolates, $0-$5/M requests) — most distributed. **Vercel Edge Functions** (Next.js native, Workers-on-top) — best DX. **AWS Lambda@Edge** (CloudFront integration) — enterprise, complex. **Deno Deploy** (TypeScript native, Cloudflare-style) — emerging.

Use cases: (1) **A/B testing at edge** — variant routing without origin trip. (2) **Authentication / personalisation** — JWT validation + content gating <10ms. (3) **i18n routing** — redirect /ka, /en, /ru based on Accept-Language header. (4) **Image transformation** — resize/convert AVIF on-demand at edge. (5) **Bot protection / rate limiting** — block before reaching origin. (6) **Geolocation-based pricing** — show GEL to Georgians, USD to international. (7) **API caching** — store GET responses at edge, expire on POST.

Performance gains: traditional Tbilisi → US-East data center round-trip: 180ms TTFB. Cloudflare edge (Frankfurt POP): 35ms TTFB. 5× improvement, no code change. Compound effect — 5 sequential API calls become 175ms vs 900ms.

Limitation: edge compute has a restricted runtime — no filesystem, no native Node modules, typically max 50ms execution. Heavy compute (AI inference, video processing) still needs origin server. Best pattern: edge for cheap-and-frequent, origin for heavy-and-rare.