Containers at the edge: it’s not what you think, or maybe it is

Cloudflare is exploring the possibility of offering container services at the edge alongside its existing isolates-based platform. While isolates are considered ideal for distributed systems due to their lightweight nature, containers may be more suitable for certain applications such as single-player 3D video games and legacy systems. The company has already built a capability to run containers at the edge for its Browser Isolation product. However, moving container workloads from centralized locations to the edge may not necessarily result in significant speed improvements due to high overhead and cold start times. Cloudflare is currently inviting developers with use cases for running containers at the edge to sign up for early access.