Running compute at the edge means you can transform and optimize content before it reaches your users — with sub-millisecond cold starts and no additional infrastructure. Every FastEdge worker runs on WebAssembly, providing sandboxed, predictable performance across all edge locations.
This post explores Brotli and Gzip Compression at the Edge — a capability that demonstrates the power of edge computing for content transformation.
The Idea
Compress responses on-the-fly at the edge using Brotli or Gzip — reduce bandwidth costs and improve load times without touching your origin.
By processing at the edge, you eliminate round-trips to origin servers for transformation workloads. A user requesting content in Tokyo gets it processed at the Tokyo PoP, not at a central server in Frankfurt or Virginia.
Implementation
Here is the core implementation pattern:
Performance Benefits
- Zero additional infrastructure — runs on the existing edge network, with no servers to provision.
- Sub-millisecond cold starts — WebAssembly starts faster than container-based solutions.
- Process at the closest PoP — minimizes latency regardless of the user's location.
- Offload origin servers — transformation happens at the edge, reducing compute costs by up to 80%.
- Automatic scaling — the edge network scales with demand, with no capacity planning needed.
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