Edge cloud is moving cloud computing capabilities from the central cloud to the edge, emphasizing that the integrated collaborative management of the cloud and the edge can solve the business needs that cannot be met in the centralized cloud computing mode.
From the data point of view, the edge cloud market is huge and growing rapidly. According to data from well-known institutions such as MARKETSANDMARETS and Gartner, the global edge cloud market is expected to reach US$42.8 billion by 2022. The edge cloud market consists of two parts, the first part is the $25.3 billion edge-based security, computing, and application integration market, including edge computing, WAF, Bot management, and DDoS defense. The second segment is streaming media distribution, application, and network optimization, which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.6%.
BaishanCloud global edge cloud platform has three major categories: infrastructure, security, and developer engine. BaishanCloud Developer Service released the Function@Edge product. Let’s focus on the changes Function@Edge has brought to edge cloud.
Serverless-based Function@Edge
Making the edge cloud flexible and agile
Serverless is one of the main developments in cloud computing that brings revolutionized changes. From the perspective of the underlying technology, cloud computing can be divided into three stages. The first stage is based on virtualization technology, the second on container technology, and the third is Serverless.
We find three major values from Serverless. The first is that no operation and maintenance access is required, and resource configuration, monitoring, and availability guarantee are all handed over to service providers. The second is to reduce costs. The threshold for using Serverless is low, and resources are consumed to generate costs only when an event is triggered. The third is fast iteration and easy trial and error. Serverless is quick to get started, which is conducive to rapid iteration of business trial and error, and more agile success.
Function@Edge is the serverless edge function computing platform of Baishan Cloud. Instead of focusing on service deployment locations, building and maintaining infrastructure, developers can deploy code with a single click and have it taken effect instantly on the edge nodes of BaishanCloud, responding to requests from end-users or devices nearby.
Using serverless technology on edge cloud allows more enterprises to enjoy the benefits of edge cloud quickly at low cost because it does not have the burden of traditional cloud computing, which is also in line with the development trend of edge cloud and cloud computing technology.
Why Function@Edge
Why Function@Edge can efficiently help developers?
Baishan Cloud Function@Edge empowers edge cloud with serverless. This idea is in line with the current trend of technological development. And it has the following three characteristics, it can help developers to use this platform easily.
Function@Edge is an easy-to-use developer tool that provides a CLI and a web IDE. The CLI provides full lifecycle management of functions and can be integrated with the developer’s existing CI/CD process. Web IDE also provides a one-stop, full-process function management and online development platform.
At the same time, it supports a rich programming language ecosystem, including JavaScript ECMAScript 6, TypeScript, and Node.js ecosystems.
In addition, Function@Edge provides W3C-compliant Service Worker API, Streams API, and WebCrypto API, supports common mainstream encryption and decryption algorithms, and can easily implement functions such as edge custom access control, edge content rewriting, and edge content generation.
Function@Edge
What are the application scenarios?
Serverless enables developers to better enjoy the dividends brought by the development of cloud computing and edge cloud. Function@Edge is the basis for providing edge serverless computing capabilities on the edge cloudand its combination with the network, security, and integration capabilities of the BaishanCloud platform itself expands the scope of applications. The following are three classic scenarios.
01
Edge Programmable CDN
Function@Edge combines Baishan Cloud CDN service to realize edge programmable CDN. It includs static website dynamization, edge content rewriting, custom SEO optimization, edge ESI, edge request signature, edge custom anti-hotlink token authentication, A/B testing, which can efficiently customize user personalized requirements, which reduces the pressure on the origin site, and accelerates the service launch process.
02
Precise access control at the edge
The programmability of Function@Edge enables precise access control based on each user’s request information. While traditional precise access control generally consists of matching conditions and actions, Function@Edge, as a complete edge programmable environment, has better scalability than rule configuration and supports rich encryption and decryption algorithms to provide more flexible processing methods.
03
Edge content generation
In e-commerce promotion scenarios or popular concert/conference e-ticketing scenarios, the user area is scattered, the access is instantaneous, and the personalized content response of thousands of people requires high volume, real-time dynamic computing rendering. With centralized business processing, huge service pressure, and complex network conditions, it is difficult to ensure good results for centralized services. Complex capacity and network planning are required to ensure reliability. The solution based on Function@Edge makes full use of the CDN network to retrieve part of the status data back to the origin, and performs short-term caching and personalized content rendering at the edge to disperse the pressure of concurrent requests, improve the response speed, and enhance the user experience.
With the rapid growth and maturity of the edge cloud market, various cloud manufacturers will pay more attention to the potential business opportunities brought by this market, and competition will be inevitably intensified. BaishanCloud has made laaS, NaaS, SaaS, iPaaS, and FaaS a first-mover advantage in the edge.
