Announcing Limited Availability for HTTP/2

As promised in March of this year, we are excited to announce that our HTTP/2 Limited Availability (LA) program is here. If you’re interested in participating, here’s how to get started:

• Eligible customers have a dedicated IP and TLS certificate with Fastly OR they are willing to be added to our shared HTTP/2 SAN certificate.

• If you fit that description, email support@fastly.com to request an invite.

• Our support and product teams will work with you to answer any questions and establish a turn-up plan.

Fastly HTTP/2 overview

How does it work?

For customers activated for HTTP/2, the interaction should be seamless since it’s tightly integrated into our existing environment. We expose a handful of new VCL variables in Varnish to provide end-users full HTTP/2 support.

One of the key benefits of HTTP/2 is that it reduces overhead by using a single TCP connection with multiplexed streams instead of opening up several connections simultaneously. This can be extremely helpful for page load times when there are many assets (images, videos, etc.) on a page. There are many other benefits and changes to HTTP/2, and the Fastly implementation of the protocol will support all standard features, as well as options like server push.

Some of the features of the Fastly implementation include:

• Server push functionality

• Stream multiplexing

• Stream prioritization

• Header compression

• Enforced TLS over HTTP/2

• New VCL Variables for HTTP/2 and TLS

Going forward

Once you’re approved for LA, we’ll reach out to ensure a seamless setup. You can also expect a follow-up post with more details about our implementation and future plans, as well as our General Availability release later this year. We’ll continuously add LA customers throughout the year, and look forward to your feedback on our HTTP/2 program. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions.