November 2022 Summaries

Azion has introduced a GraphQL API to enhance customer observability and access to platform statistics, offering a more structured and efficient alternative to traditional REST APIs. The GraphQL API allows users to retrieve various types of aggregated data, such as product usage and security metrics, in JSON format, and can be integrated with tools like Grafana for customized analysis. This API enables querying across multiple datasets through a single endpoint, optimizing performance by preventing over-fetching of data and providing flexibility in filtering and sorting, similar to SQL. Users can explore available datasets' metadata to understand the dimensions and metrics they can query, with examples including security insights on top attacked IPs and performance metrics like cache hit rates. The API can be accessed through Azion's Real-Time Manager for secure token generation and is compatible with platforms like Postman and Insomnia for data querying. Azion aims to continue improving its observability offerings by incorporating customer feedback and plans to expand access to raw event data and enhance real-time security visualizations.

Amidst increasing cyberattacks and stringent data security laws, Azion emphasizes its commitment to security by achieving SOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 3 compliance, providing clients with confidence in the safety and availability of their applications and websites. These certifications, developed by the American Institute of CPAs, offer structured audit standards, with SOC 2 focusing on five trust service principles for secure data management and SOC 3 enhancing transparency by making security and availability controls accessible to customers. Evaluated by KPMG, Azion's compliance ensures robust protection against unauthorized access and security breaches, reinforcing trust in its edge platform's resilience.

Azion has launched the Azion Build product suite to enhance the development of serverless edge applications, offering tools that improve developer velocity by simplifying and accelerating the creation of modern web apps. This suite supports popular architectures and frameworks, allowing developers to deploy and scale applications on Azion's serverless edge platform while ensuring flexibility, performance, and security. Azion Build includes Edge Functions for event-driven apps, WebAssembly support, and compatibility with React-based frameworks like Next.js and Flareact, as well as the Jamstack architectural approach. It features RESTful APIs and a Command-Line Interface for efficient deployment and integration with CI/CD pipelines. By adhering to open standards, it ensures developers need not learn new skills to use it, and applications can be easily deployed on other platforms. The suite also includes a Load Balancer for dynamic multi-cloud infrastructure use. Azion's commitment to developers is further demonstrated by recent initiatives such as the Azion Marketplace and the appointment of Alessandro Cauduro as Chief Developer Experience Officer.

WebAssembly (WASM) is an assembly-like language that enables code written in compiled languages such as C, C++, Go, and Rust to run at near-native speed on the web, complementing rather than replacing JavaScript. Designed to be fast, efficient, secure, and open, WASM addresses the limitations of JavaScript in handling compute-intensive web applications like AR/VR and 3D gaming. Modernizing legacy applications to run on edge computing platforms can be streamlined with WASM, as it allows existing code to be recompiled rather than rewritten in JavaScript, avoiding significant resource costs and potential speed and security compromises. The Azion Web Platform exemplifies how WASM can be used to quickly modernize applications, such as image transformation in e-commerce, by compiling code into WASM format and deploying it on the edge, thereby enhancing scalability, availability, and security without sacrificing performance. This approach simplifies the transition of applications from centralized data centers to edge platforms, offering developers an efficient path to innovate faster in a hyper-connected digital economy.