European cloud and CDN firm Gcore has launched a new serverless Edge solution called FastEdge.

FastEdge is built upon Gcore's content delivery network (CDN), which distributes the custom code across more than 160 Edge nodes worldwide.

According to Gcore, FastEdge has been designed for cloud-native development and provides low latency (average of 30 ms) and high performance without the complexity of server or infrastructure maintenance and management.

FastEdge uses WebAssembly runtime environment which can launch applications quicker than container-based solutions. Gcore states that it can also support lightweight AI model execution at the Edge and removes the need for developers to invest and create their own AI infrastructure.

"We designed FastEdge, our new Edge computing product, to enable the dev community to build and deploy useful applications quickly, easily, and globally, without the limitations of traditional cloud computing," said Andre Reitenbach, CEO at Gcore. "Edge computing is the next big step in the evolution of CDN that empowers creative minds to innovate and deliver unique value eliminating geographical barriers."

According to Gcore's website, it is designed for workloads like AI inference, advanced image editing, personalization, A-B testing, and quick authentication.

FastEdge is currently available in an "early beta" form to JavaScript and Rust developers for free, though will eventually be available in other languages.

In October 2023, Gcore launched a generative AI cluster using Nvidia A100 and H100 Tensor Core GPUs in Luxembourg. The cluster had a total of 20 servers with Nvidia A100s, and the company intended to add another 128 servers with H100 GPUs and 25 with A100 GPUs later in 2023.

The company also has a cluster in Amsterdam and Wales.

Founded in 2014, Gcore is headquartered in Luxembourg and offers cloud, Edge computing, content delivery, hosting, security, and AI solutions. The company has more than 160 points of presence in data centers around the world.

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) emerged in the late 1990s, with players like Akamai and Cloudflare speeding up web page performance by caching content close to users.

More recently, Edge computing emerged as a way to achieve essentially the same thing, and CDN players have extended their offerings to do more than caching, handling services closer to users.

Rival CDN firms Cloudflare and Akamai have launched similar Edge and cloud offerings to Gcore in recent years in an attempt to use their existing footprints to take on incumbent cloud firms.