Edge Computing
Running computation at the network edge, close to the user, instead of in a central data center. Reduces latency for real-time applications like IoT and streaming.
What is Edge Computing?
Running computation at the network edge, close to the user, instead of in a central data center. Reduces latency for real-time applications like IoT and streaming.
Edge Computing is a intermediate-level concept that sits in the Web & Content Delivery area of system design. Engineers reach for it whenever they need to reason about real-world trade-offs in that space — not just for textbook correctness, but because real production systems at companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Google make these decisions every day.
If you want to go deeper than this definition — with diagrams, code, and a quiz to lock it in — work through the "Edge Computing" lesson linked below. It walks through the why, the mechanism, the trade-offs, and how the giants actually use it in production.
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Full interactive lesson with diagrams, code examples, real-world references, and a quiz.
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Lessons that touch on Edge Computing as part of a larger topic.
See also
Related glossary terms you might want to look up next.
CDN
A network of servers distributed globally that caches content close to users. Netflix uses CDNs to stream video from servers near you, not from one central location.
Serverless
A cloud execution model where the provider manages all infrastructure and you pay only for actual compute time. AWS Lambda, Vercel Functions, and Cloudflare Workers are serverless.
Latency
The time delay between sending a request and getting a response. Amazon found every 100ms of extra latency costs 1% in sales.