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Edge-first should be the new default
Why most web applications in 2025 should start at the edge rather than a central origin.
- Architecture
- Edge
- Performance
For a decade the default was one server in one place. Users are everywhere. That distance is a cost no amount of code tuning buys back.
Three practical shifts
- Latency is a product property. 200ms is not a technical number — it is the difference between "snappy" and "sluggish".
- Operating cost approaches zero at small scale. There is no idle server to pay for.
- Data boundaries get clearer. Read at the edge, write where the source of truth lives.
When NOT to
- Long-running CPU-heavy work
- Native Node-only library dependencies
- Transactions needing strict distributed locks
Edge should be the default. Exceptions should be justified, not the other way round.