Understanding the edge’s benefits and limitations

In the previous section, you learned that edge computing is about performance. By moving the compute closer to the user, we can reduce response times and, consequently, improve the user experience. Let’s dive deeper and learn more about the edge’s pros and cons.

Edge environments follow a serverless programming model. Each incoming request starts up a new edge function. The function runs the web application (our Remix app) to fulfill the request and shuts down afterward. The serverless programming model makes edge environments highly scalable but also increases the complexity of the associated system architecture as it limits what can be done within the web application.

Serverless execution avoids wasting computing power on idle applications. However, serverless also reduces the capabilities of web applications to short-lived functions that shut down after handling an incoming request. For example, serverless...