Netlify Edge Functions: A new serverless runtime powered by Deno

While the general trend today is to back the serverless environment with Javascript runtimes (Cloudflare runs its edge on top of V8, Netlify uses deno, most other serverless runtimes use nodejs), I'm optimistic that WebAssembly will take over this space eventually, for a bunch of reasons like:

1. Running a WASM engine on the cloud means, running user code with all security controls, but with a fraction of the overhead of a container or nodejs environment. Even the existing Javascript runtimes, comes with WebAssembly execution support out of the box! which means these companies can launch support for WASM with minimal infra changes.

2.It unlocks the possibility of running a wide range of languages. So there’s no lock-in with the language that the Serverless provider mandates.

3.Web pages that are as ancient as the early 90s are perfectly rendered even today in the most modern browsers because the group behind the web standards strive for backward compatibility. WebAssembly’s specifications are driven by those same folks - which means WASM is the ultimate format for any form of code to exist. Basically, it means a WASM binary is future proof by default.

I've published my (ranty) notes on why Serverless will eventually replace Kubernetes as the dominant software deployment technique, here - https://writer.zohopublic.com/writer/published/nqy9o87cf7aa7...

Re: Netlify Edge Functions: A new serverless runtime powered by Deno

#6

Post by valbaca » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

the_common_man wrote: post #3

This is a new concept for me, what is the use case for edge functions?

The first link in the article points to this: https://www.netlify.com/products/#netlify-edge-functions

How to use them Drop JavaScript or TypeScript functions inside an edge-functions directory in your project.

Use cases Custom authentication, personalize ads, localize content, intercept and transform requests, perform split tests, and more.

Re: Netlify Edge Functions: A new serverless runtime powered by Deno

#7

Post by ignoramous » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

AaronO wrote: post #2

Aaron from Deno here, happy to answer any questions you may have !

Is Netlify running Deno on their edge and not on Deno.com Deploy's? Is this also what Slack, Vercel (?), and Supabase do?

Re: Netlify Edge Functions: A new serverless runtime powered by Deno

#8

Post by ajdegol » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

Great stuff! Well done!!

Re: Netlify Edge Functions: A new serverless runtime powered by Deno

#9

Post by qbasic_forever » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 4:20 PM UTC

the_common_man wrote: post #3

This is a new concept for me, what is the use case for edge functions?

Serverless API functions, like if you were going to use Amazon AWS lambda functions to add interactivity or simple APIs to a site without have to manage and run a full server.

Re: Netlify Edge Functions: A new serverless runtime powered by Deno

#10

Post by electroly » Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 4:20 PM UTC

lewisjoe wrote: post #5

This is great news. I'm really rooting for a successful trend of Serverless runtimes, mainly as a weapon against rising cloud deployment costs. While the general trend today is to back the serverless environment with Javascript runtimes (Cloudflare runs its edge on top of V8, Netlify uses deno, most other serverless runtimes use nodejs), I'm optimistic that WebAssembly will take over this space eventually, for a bunc…

> a fraction of the overhead of a container

I mean, only in theory or when looking at it from the right angle, right? Or are you only comparing against JavaScript (unclear)? WASM is still much slower than native code. Containers spend most of their time executing native code; the "overhead" of containers is at the boundaries and is minor compared to the slowdown by moving from native code to WASM. In the future WASM may approach native performance, but it's not there now. I'm 100% certain that transitioning my native-code-in-containers workloads to WASM would be slower, not faster.