The operating theory is that caching was only just the first/simplest/cheapest use of a globally distributed network of compute nodes (CDNs), but that as more a

The operating theory is that caching was only just the first/simplest/cheapest use of a globally distributed network of compute nodes (CDNs), but that as more and more transistors and clock cycles become available it incrementally makes sense to push more and more "workloads" out to the "edge" of the network, for latency benefits. Right now, the most immediate things that come after caching are stuff like input validation, auth validation, waf filtering, rate limiting, routing, decorating, error handling, load-balancing and traffic management type stuff. With WASM, and more specifically rust & javascript, IMHO the next step will be template rendering. After that maybe ML model inference? As long as transistors keep getting cheaper and the speed of light stays the same the opportunity space grows. Adopting and experimenting with all of that stuff will require developers fully embrace the CDN (oops, "edge") as part of their app architecture. A lot of places still treat the CDN as an ops/infra "config and forget" tool. More heroku for rust at the edge than varnish as a service.