All blog posts
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How to fuzz a server with American Fuzzy Lop
In this blog post, I'll describe how to use AFL's experimental persistent mode to blow the doors off of a server without having to make major modifications to the server's codebase. I've used this technique at Fastly to expand testing in some of the servers that we rely on and others that we are experimenting with.
The technology that empowers real-time journalism
We’re more engaged online than ever before, especially when it comes to consuming news. If you work with online media brands, you’re well aware that the way readers engage with news events is changing.
Caching with CORS
Before diving into CORS (Cross-origin resource sharing), I need to mention JSONP, which is the other solution to getting data from a different “Origin.” In Using ESI, Part 2: Leveraging VCL and ESI to Use JSONP, Simon explains what JSONP is, and how to cache it with Fastly, using one Fastly specific feature, req.topurl. Now, with Varnish 4.1, req.top.url (note the extra period) is available, and it allows you to do the same thing with vanilla Varnish.
Fastly Engineers Discuss Coding Bootcamps | Fastly
It’s difficult to change course mid-career and educate yourself on a new subject after college has ended. For those entering the field of engineering, it often means taking coding classes or taking part in a coding bootcamp, such as those offered at App Academy, General Assembly, Hackbright Academy, and Hack Reactor.
Recap of Altitude 2015, Fastly’s first customer summit
Last week, we hosted our first customer summit, Altitude 2015, at the SFJAZZ Center. Our goal was to bring together our customers and the people who build our products to discuss web performance, Varnish, and the future of Fastly.
Announcing Window Snyder as CSO
Today, I’m happy to announce that Window Snyder has joined our executive team as Chief Security Officer. Window was formerly a security and privacy strategist at Apple as well as security chief at Mozilla Corporation. At Fastly, she’ll help manage our expanding security offerings through our global edge infrastructure platform.
Why Marketers Should Prioritize Performance
You may not know that the software your developers use can affect the success of your marketing activities. It’s within both teams’ interests to collaborate to ensure good performance.
Q&A with Miles Ward, Google Cloud Solutions Head | Fastly
We had the opportunity to sit down with Miles Ward and chat about trends in the cloud industry, working with Fastly, and how Google Cloud Platform really sets itself apart.
Defining innovation capacity, part 2: Flexibility capacity
I believe that inflexible technology can promote an aversion to innovation. When building a stack, cost and performance are traditionally prioritized. That makes sense for immediate needs, but companies are finding that the flexibility of that stack matters in the long run.
Innovation Capacity Defined: Tech Stack Values | Fastly
Today's ideas can become tomorrow's indispensable service. This doesn't happen by magic. It takes a toolbox designed for innovative work.
The VCL Cookie Monster
This month's tip is more a theoretical exercise than anything else, just to show the power of VCL, and to explain a few regular expressions. I'm going to discuss VCL that deletes cookies.
FREAK does not affect Fastly services
Fastly is not vulnerable to Logjam — we only offer the more secure Elliptic Curve variant of the Diffie-Hellman key exchange (ECDHE), and the RSA key exchange mechanism for clients that don’t support ECDHE. Since Fastly does not offer any export grade ciphersuite options — and we do not offer the Diffie-Hellman key exchange mechanism — our services are not affected.
Fastly Cloud Accelerator to Connect with GCP | Fastly
In November 2014, we announced Fastly’s Cloud Accelerator, a collaboration with Google Cloud Platform that combines the power of Google’s infrastructure with the speed and flexibility of our real-time content delivery network. We're seeing more of our customers leverage cost-effective cloud services to build scalable infrastructure, and so today we're excited to announce that we're expanding our collaboration with Google Cloud Platform.
Surviving high-traffic events with Fastly
A CDN not only shields your origin from spikes in traffic, but it also ensures speedy delivery of content. This helps you meet your users’ expectations when they visit your site, whether that’s reading the latest news on the royal baby or purchasing a coveted item during a flash sale. To do this well, your CDN needs to have a few key qualities, including prioritizing site uptime and performance, the ability to make updates and serve content in real time, and up-to-the-second visibility into logs and performance analytics. Below, Fastly’s customers discuss how our CDN has helped them during high-traffic events.
Improve CA ops visibility with Cert Transparency | Fastly
If you follow the security news cycle, you may have seen recent discussions about Google detecting a Certificate Authority (CA) in China improperly issuing certificates capable of transparently (that is, without warning) imitating Google TLS-protected websites. As part of the subsequent investigation, Google removed the implicated CA from the list of trusted CAs and indicated that in order for the CA to be considered for re-inclusion, they would have to implement a system known as Certificate Transparency (CT). Below, I’ll outline the basics of CT and how it relates to this and other CA-related incidents in recent history.
Improve performance, get user intel with GeoIP | Fastly
In a previous post, I discussed the benefits of Fastly edge modules. Among those listed is GeoIP / Geography Detection, which is useful for any company (especially those in ecommerce, hospitality/travel, and media) that needs to segment content delivery based on geographic location.
Leveraging your CDN to cache "uncacheable" content
As I've written about before, there is a growing class of content called “event-driven content” that may appear dynamic, but isn’t. Even though caching this type of content is more difficult, it’s possible to cache it with the right tools — although you might have been told otherwise. In doing so, you can leverage the power of caching in new ways and reap the benefits that come along with it.
Reusing backend connections to increase performance
Reusing connections between your Varnish instance and your backends (origins) is a good idea for multiple reasons. If your Varnish is on the same network as your backends and you're doing low volume traffic, you can stop reading, because a) the difference will probably be negligible, and b) you're probably already reusing backend connections.
The Rise of Event-Driven Content
In this post and going forward, we’re going to take a step back, talk about the different types of content our customers are dealing with the most, and discuss how cacheable or uncacheable they are.
Fastly’s edge modules that will power your ecommerce site
Ecommerce companies face challenges that a content delivery network built on Varnish can help address. To stay competitive and relevant, ecommerce websites and applications need to be able to target specific content to specific users (based on location, language, or browsing preferences), tailor content delivery depending on which device a consumer is using, and prioritize shoppers based on actions they’ve taken within a site or app.
