Choose Your Own Adventure — A Chat About the Future of Edge Computing

Using EdgeWorkers as a way to get around closed systems

We’re all familiar with code freezes and moratoriums, so one of the first topics we asked about was the use of edge computing as a tool to get around pesky application black-out windows. James noted that having the ability to push key business logic out to the edge means you can make your marketing friends happy when you’d otherwise have to defer their requests because of seasonal or operational freezes.

Another use case that James highlighted: By using EdgeWorkers and a tool like Queue-it, changes can be made outside of a locked system like software as a service (SaaS) or a system in lockdown, which provides flexibility and options to IT leaders who are trying to keep up with business demands. Changes at the edge can be made on the fly, and even bypass calls to origin servers altogether and serve content right from the edge.

Getting the most out of subscription-based tools

James talked about how, in these times of economic uncertainty, many COOs and CFOs are getting a little stingy when it comes to paying for pricey subscription services. It’s critical  to have the right technology in place to help organizations use their resources wisely 

Queue-it combined with EdgeWorkers can help do things such as match the flow of traffic to the capacity of a third-party system or enable developers to build a mechanism at login that allows employees to wait for a reasonable amount of time until a free license becomes available. This leads to a more efficient use of each license and the C-suite can avoid having to purchase another batch of recurring subscriptions. 

Speedy solutions help companies stay out of the news

Queue-it has deployed EdgeWorkers to help them fix eleventh hour-application emergencies in only a day or two.

Because developers can quickly deploy code at the edge , hot fixes are easy to get into production. James mused, “EdgeWorkers is great for companies to stay out of the news,” which he calls the “edge compute insurance policy.”  

Edge computing solutions like EdgeWorkers make it possible to fix something in minutes versus waiting for lengthy deployments and dependencies on other systems.  The fix could be as simple as alerting users that the site is having trouble and re-routing to a backup site — or the fix could be something more advanced, like serving alternate content or delivering a personalized experience.

Recent trends in edge computing

James talked about how over the last few years edge computing has evolved from performing simple redirects or A/B testing use cases into helping enterprises solve more challenging problems. 

Take composable commerce, for example: EdgeWorkers and edge computing could be the key to enabling developers to stitch together the patchwork of results from various API calls delivered through GraphQL, customer data platforms, and other mechanisms. Using edge computing with composable commerce is a great marriage — and one we’re likely to see a lot more of in the future.

See content generated at the edge

With EdgeWorkers it’s possible to build a full website that has no origin; users can see content that is generated at the edge and cached on a recurring cycle, which James said is the wave of the future. 

“It used to be that a website was built like a deck of cards where you're dealing cards [pages] to every visitor,” says James. ”The idea of a website having pages — I'm not even sure that's going to be a thing in a while.”

Personalized user experiences

James believes that whatever is right for the moment will be the website of the future. Conditional personalized user experience enabled by edge computing and driven by decision-making analytics will allow consumers to “choose your own adventure.”