Handling Data at the Edge with Cloudflare Workers

Edge functions are serverless cloud functions that run on and are replicated across edge nodes, often synonymous with CDN (content delivery network) nodes. They can help remove latency by moving serverless backend code closer to the client. Some key benefits of using edge functions include modifying request/response bodies, enabling A/B tests without flash of rendering, immediate user redirection, and modification of HTTP headers. However, there are potential tradeoffs such as limitations on certain providers and additional latency involved in retrieving data from a single location. Cloudflare offers multiple options for moving data to the edge, including Cache API, KV, Durable Objects, Transactional Storage API, and D1 (still in beta). These tools can help bring your data closer to the edge, improving performance and user experience.