Section Blog - Empowering Developers at the Edge

Debug headers are a valuable tool for understanding what is happening with content on a webpage so you can make informed decisions in your performance optimization efforts. In this article, we will look at how to set up and interpret debug headers and provide best practices for implementing them on the Section platform. First off, however, let’s review what response and request headers are and how to read them.

Edge computing sets up a new paradigm for running software applications outside the cloud. A report from Gartner in October 2017 revealed that around 10% of enterprise-generated data already came from outside traditional data centers or cloud, and predicted this figure to rise to 75% by 2022.

We’re thrilled to announce that Section is now a proud supporting member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). We’re honored to join this community of like minded individuals and organizations who share the same values of transparency, collaboration and community in the spirit of accelerating technological advancements for a common benefit.

A couple months back, we published an article talking about game developers looking to the edge and the transformative value it can offer, particularly in relation to faster and more reliable gathering and processing of in-game data that the edge supports. This article focuses more on the benefits of edge compute for gamers themselves and draws out a host of examples that gamers (and game creators) can relate to.

There are a number of lightweight code at the edge solutions emerging to complement existing lightweight solutions such as AWS Lambda. Several traditional CDN players have implemented a cut down Javascript layer called V8 (both Cloudflare and Stackpath have taken this route).

As the hype around edge computing continues to mount, engineering teams across the globe are asking themselves how they can achieve lower latency and greater efficiency by migrating more processing to the edge. From retail environments and fast food chains, to wind energy and autonomous vehicles, the use cases for edge computing are seemingly endless. For developers building and operating in these increasingly distributed systems, there are some fundamental workload considerations to keep in mind at the edge.

Magento 2.3 is the latest iteration of the enterprise-class eCommerce platform, Magento, that many of our customers at Section use. In fact, it is estimated that one in four of all businesses use the Magento software. The open source platform officially began development in 2007 and the first public beta version was released seven months later that same year. It is known for its wealth of customizable options and extra adaptations, designed to suit a wide range of use cases and provide a host of useful features such as cart customization and robust security.

One of the most important topics in relation to edge computing is scheduling. In the future, it is perfectly feasible that every 5G base station will have a data center at its base. While these edge data centers will enable a massive amount of compute, there won’t be enough to run every application in the world at every tower at once. We need a system that is capable of optimizing workload scheduling to run in the right place at the right time. This is a hugely challenging problem that needs our attention.

Edge computing may soon make it possible to create a completely new generation of consumer and industrial applications. Those applications will benefit from lower latency and improved performance because of the proximity of processing near the end device. It is predicted that edge computing use cases will demand round-trip processing times of better than 10ms; that’s compared to around 40ms by traditional CDNs.

Section Co-Founder and CTO Daniel Bartholomew was recently interviewed on the L8ist Sh9y podcast. Hosts Stephen Spector and Rob Hirschfeld chatted with Daniel about the critical role that the developer experience plays in realizing the potential of edge computing.