The most interesting conversation in enterprise technology right now isn’t happening in the cloud.
It’s happening at the edge. For years, the narrative was simple: centralize compute, scale in the cloud, optimise costs. That model worked—until it didn’t. Because as digital experiences became real-time, personalized, and always-on, the distance between users and infrastructure started to matter again.
Milliseconds began to define outcomes. And now, a new architecture is emerging—one that shifts intelligence closer to where interactions actually happen.
Companies like Fastly are betting heavily on this shift. And nowhere is that bet more visible right now than in India.
From CDN To Edge Intelligence
Fastly wasn’t built to be just another content delivery network. Founded in 2011 by Artur Bergman, the company emerged at a time when the internet was transitioning from static pages to dynamic, application-driven experiences. The early insight was deceptively simple: delivery alone wouldn’t be 
enough. Security and programmability had to be built in from the start.
That design choice is now defining its evolution. “The edge started pretty simply with delivery,” said Nicola Gerber, VP, Asia Pacific and Japan, Fastly. “But today, it requires intelligence.” That intelligence spans performance, security, and increasingly, compute—turning what was once a distribution layer into a decision layer.
The Real Problem: Resilience, Not Just Speed
If performance was the first wave of edge innovation, resilience is the second—and arguably more urgent. Enterprise leaders are waking up to a hard truth: outages are no longer just technical failures. They are business failures.
Recent industry estimates suggest downtime can cost anywhere between $3,000 to $30,000 per minute. But the financial hit is only part of the story. Customer trust—once lost—is far harder to recover.
“What we’re seeing is that many organizations simply aren’t prepared for the scale and nature of disruptions happening today,” Gerber said. “That’s why resiliency and risk management have become top priorities at the CIO and board level.”
The challenge is compounded by the nature of modern applications—distributed, API-driven, and increasingly dependent on real-time data flows.
And then there’s AI.
When Bots Outnumber Humans
The rise of AI isn’t just changing applications. It’s reshaping internet traffic itself. For decades, traffic
was largely human-driven. Today, that assumption no longer holds.
“As we move into a world of agentic AI, the nature of traffic fundamentally changes,” said Richard Wong, CFO, Fastly. “A human might visit five sites to research something. An AI agent could scan twenty, synthesize the information, and act on it.”
That explosion in automated activity creates both opportunity and risk.
On one hand, it drives demand for faster, more scalable infrastructure. On the other, it introduces new security challenges—distinguishing between legitimate and malicious traffic at scale.
Some estimates suggest that a significant portion of internet traffic today is non-human. Managing that effectively requires intelligence at the edge—not just centralized control.
Why India Is Ground Zero For This Shift
If there’s one market where these trends converge most visibly, it’s India.
A rapidly expanding digital economy. A mobile-first user base. Explosive growth in streaming, e-commerce, and SaaS. And a unique mix of Tier 1 and Tier 2/3 consumption patterns.
“All of these dynamics create very different performance and security requirements,” Wong said. “What works in a metro environment doesn’t necessarily work in smaller cities. You need flexibility in how you deliver and secure applications.”
Fastly’s response has been aggressive. Over the past 18 months, the company has expanded its points of presence (PoPs) in India by nearly 10x—from roughly five to more than 50. It is also scaling local teams and investing in operational capabilities, including a new center in Pune.
“In terms of where we’re investing globally, India is right at the top,” Wong said. “It’s one of the fastest-growing markets for us, and the opportunity here is significant.”
Competing In A Crowded Market
India is not a greenfield opportunity. Established players already have strong footprints. So where does Fastly differentiate? Part of the answer lies in architecture.
Unlike fragmented models that rely on multiple networks for delivery, security, and compute, Fastly operates on a single, unified platform. That simplifies operations, reduces latency, and improves resilience. But perhaps more importantly, it emphasizes programmability.
“The way we’ve architected our platform gives customers much more control,” Gerber said. “They’re not locked into predefined configurations. They can adapt to their specific needs.”
In a market as diverse as India, that flexibility can be a decisive advantage.
The Security Imperative
Security is quickly becoming the center of gravity in this conversation.
As applications become more distributed—and as AI introduces new attack vectors—the need for integrated security at the edge is intensifying.
Fastly’s acquisition of Signal Sciences several years ago was an early move in this direction. Today, security is one of its fastest-growing business segments, reflecting broader industry demand. “Every increase in traffic—especially with AI—comes with an increase in risk,” Wong said. “You’re going to have good bots and bad bots. The ability to manage that effectively is critical.”
This is not just about blocking threats. It’s about enabling trust. Because in a digital economy, trust is currency.
The Partner-Led Growth Model
Another key element of Fastly’s strategy is its reliance on partnerships. Rather than going direct at scale, the company is working with hyperscalers like AWS and Google Cloud, as well as regional system integrators and managed service providers.
“We don’t believe in going it alone,” Gerber said. “Partners understand their customers deeply. Our role is to enable them to deliver more value.”
This approach also aligns well with India’s large IT services ecosystem, opening up opportunities for managed services around edge platforms—particularly in areas like security, performance optimization, and application delivery.
What Comes Next
The edge is no longer a supporting layer. It’s becoming a strategic one. As AI-driven workloads grow and user expectations continue to rise, the ability to process, secure, and act on data closer to the source will define competitive advantage.
And this is where the conversation is headed. From delivery to intelligence. From centralization to distribution. From infrastructure to experience. “The edge has a very critical role to play in what comes next,” Wong said.
He’s right. Because the future of the Internet won’t just be faster. It will be closer.
