Caching and data storage at the edge
Fastly stores your data on our edge servers, allowing fast and reliable access to configuration, cached content, user data, or anything else you would like to store and access at the edge.
Fastly offers a number of different types of features that store data at the edge:
| Type | Edge access | API access | Volatility | Scope | Optimized for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dynamic configuration | Read-only | Read/write | Persistent | Global | Fast reads |
| Data stores | Read/write | Read/write | Persistent | Global | Eventual consistency |
| Cache interfaces | Read/write | Purge only | Volatile | Local (per POP) | Fast reads and writes |
More information about each type of store is below, or use this wizard to determine which is most suited to your needs:
Unsure which option to pick for your use case? Answer a few questions and we'll recommend one!
Dynamic configuration
Dynamic configuration features allow you to provide data via the Fastly API or web interface that is pushed out to all edge servers and made available persistently and globally (but read-only) to your code with predictable, fast read performance.
For general purpose configuration data such as limits, on/off flags, or routing rules, Edge dictionaries (for VCL services) and config stores are good choices. For more specialized configuration use cases, Access control lists store and match on IP address subnets, and secret stores implement best practices for handing of sensitive data such as credentials.
Data stores
Data stores can be read or written in the web interface, API or at the edge during request processing. Edits are synchronized globally and are persistent and eventually consistent.
Cache interfaces
Fastly provides a pool of cache storage at each POP, and multiple ways to access it. Cache interfaces temporarily store data that is being actively requested by end users to reduce the number of requests that need to be forwarded to your origin servers. Caches are read/write at the edge only, are non-persistent, and scoped to the POP.
