Three Key Insights to Vetting an Edge Cloud Platform

Many organizations have tolerated subpar CDN and WAF performance for years, avoiding a migration to superior platforms due to fear of the risk and cost associated with the migration process. However, evolving expectations, a better understanding of the cost of security failures, and concerns about limitations to innovation imposed by vendors are collectively driving organizations to be more open to considering a switch. Key drivers for embarking on a platform migration include a desire for improved content delivery (with enhanced site and application performance + lower latency), increased visibility, superior, more agile security solutions, and bot management. The best edge cloud platforms can address all of these requirements and more, offering solutions that don’t lock you in and that open new possibilities.

Evaluating an Edge Cloud Platform 

Vetting an edge cloud platform should entail a comprehensive look at the platform itself along with an examination of the network and infrastructure that support it. While there are certainly any number of approaches to implementing or enhancing an edge platform strategy, we take pride in the way we’ve built the Fastly platform and believe that in order for a platform to truly support an organization’s business goals, it must satisfy three core competencies.

In our recent Platform Buyer’s Guide, we map out 3 core competencies you should be evaluating against platform providers. We’ll give you a preview below, but you can check out the complete Buyer’s Guide for more detailed guidance and insights.

1. A superior underlying network 

Not all edge platforms are created equal; comparison of their architecture, performance, and the future potential of the networks they’re built on can help to differentiate them. When assessing the underlying network, its core capabilities should include low latency, high reliability, extreme resilience, and the capacity to effortlessly scale. Remember, everything is built on top of this network, so if you aren’t starting with the absolute fastest, lowest latency, and highest flexibility network, then anything you do on the network is operating from a deficit.

2. A powerful, easy-to-use, developer-friendly platform

It is not enough for a platform to be built on top of a thoughtfully-designed architecture, or to provide a lot of new capabilities. The platform must also be easy to use. DevOps, SecOps, application developers, and everyone else should experience a sense of relief and measurable productivity improvements.

The keys to those productivity and efficiency gains are integrations, CI/CD compatibility, and robust logging and observability that empower teams to do more. You are looking for general flexibility and usability in the platform that benefits DevOps, SecOps, and application developers. Beyond that, you’re looking for ways to help those teams work together to unblock and empower each other in ways that were previously impossible.

3. Platform superiority that translates to higher performance and better products

Ultimately, a powerful underlying network and a developer-friendly platform don’t mean anything if those benefits don’t translate into demonstrable differentiators and benefits across the platform’s product suite. The right platform will enable the best in performance, reliability, and flexibility, allowing you to drive highly-personalized experiences, instantly, from the edge. 

You should see proof of measurably improved performance with faster websites and applications, as well as more efficient performance with lower egress charges. You should have more flexible deployment options for your WAF, and measurably faster time-to-protection on threats through access to instant insights. You should see overall improvements in accuracy and protection, as well as more effective bot protection.

Finding the right Edge Cloud Platform

Doing your due diligence when selecting an edge cloud platform is critical - without proper analysis of core functionality and capabilities, you can leave serious performance benefits on the table. For each of these three key competencies we previewed above, we provide actionable recommendations so you can be certain the platform you choose can offer the best in performance, and beyond.