Since the first version of Azion Cells - our framework and runtime for serverless applications - customers have been able to run their own code on our Edge network, in over 50 locations around the world. Using Azion’s own DSL (Domain Specific Language), powerful business logic was introduced to our Rules Engine, using our control panel or APIs. Then, we implemented Edge Functions - which allows our users to create their own functions - and we began supporting the Lua language, which gave our Edge Firewalls and Edge Applications much more flexibility and programmability.
With Edge Functions, you can build “without origin” applications that entirely run on the Edge, or functions that replace, correct or add functionality to your origin application, as it can also act as a proxy. When you deploy an Edge Function in Azion, it is installed across our network in a few seconds, and you don’t have to worry about the performance, security, reliability or scalability of the infrastructure. Your users will be handled by the Azion Edge closest to them, and the more locations we have, the more power and less responsibility you will have.
As Azion Cells developed, we added support for new programming languages and a series of functions to be able to create, deploy, run and debug APIs, non-source applications (and Edge Functions as backend), applications from static websites, dynamic applications, as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, such as facial and object recognition, and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) to be able to create Edge infrastructure for 5G networks, such as carrier-grade NAT, vRAN and vEPC, which is more useful to the Telecoms market and the construction of private 5G networks.
We have always tended towards implementing open standards and functionality for building ultra-low latency applications and real-time data processing, especially for use cases of mission critical services. We chose not to use VMs and Containers because of their high runtime cost and poor performance. Instead we chose the V8 - Google’s open source JavaScript and WebAssembly engine - as our request isolation engine. As a result, our performance is up to 100x higher and cost up to 10x lower, than it would be compared to Containers. This also avoids the long cold start time that Containers has, which creates unwanted latency and high memory costs - not good enough for the level of application we aim to deliver.
We are really excited about what our next steps will be, as the platform is rapidly developing to allow increasingly powerful edge-native applications to be created and run on it, in more and more places - so that you can run your serverless applications on not just Azion, but wherever you want - and it is increasingly easier! We are already taking the next step, come and join us!
Sign up for the Edge Functions with JavaScript support Early Access program and start building and running your functions at Azion. With the most popular programming language in the world: JavaScript.
As part of our Early Access program, you will help us make decisions regarding the new features and integrations needed for Azion to simplify your applications’ life cycle - from building to a global scale in seconds. At the same time, you get ahead of the entire market by implementing ultra-low latency applications - either internally or through partner software houses already enabled by Azion.
In our Early Access program, you can use Edge Functions with JavaScript, free of charge. At this stage, we recommend using non-critical workloads, experiments, proofs of concept, and mainly to accelerate the development of new features and use cases, without using the service in mission-critical and large-scale workloads. In a short time, this new feature will be available for use in production, and you will be the first to enjoy all its benefits.
