The Programmable Edge: Faster and Easier

At Rafay Systems we’re defining the Programmable Edge. In our view, the Edge is as close as you, as an application owner, can get to your end users. Studies have demonstrated when web site speed improves the user experience browse-to-buy conversion rates increase. The Programmable Edge builds upon this by moving applications to the Edge, automatically running enough instances in locations near enough to your users to address speed and scale – and avoiding as many operational headaches as possible.

We’ve talked to engineering and operations leaders at some large companies who helped validate and refine the edge concept. In most cases, they have deployed services in widely distributed locations to improve speed and scale. Their bespoke solutions focus on their business needs, at their scale. And each one of them described how painful it is to build and maintain services on a global scale. Our Programmable Edge solution can help organizations achieve scale instantly without needing to invest in custom toolsets, massive operations teams, and time.

If every company has to address the same set of global distribution challenges — the “fundamental physics” of large scale systems — we’re going to see the same wheel reinvented over and over again. We make it easier to deliver fast global-scale applications, by automatically tracking end user requests and application demand and placing enough instances in the right locations to achieve your performance and locality needs.

The kind of applications that benefit most from the Programmable Edge are those that require many round trips between end user device and web server, or have sensitive data that should remain in a geography for compliance or privacy. The opportunities here are awesome – and endless. I’m excited to be working with this great team to help make cloud native applications easier to deploy, faster, and more powerful than ever before.

If you also find this grand project exciting and would like to join the team building the Programmable Edge, feel free to reach out to me directly.

This blog post was originally published on LinkedIn.