Fastly
Corporate brand
UnclaimedAn edge cloud platform provider offering content delivery, application delivery, computing, observability, and cybersecurity services.
Last updated October 14, 2026
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Overview
Fastly is a United States-based cloud computing company headquartered in San Francisco. Its platform is designed to move application logic, content delivery, security controls, and data processing closer to end users through a globally distributed edge network. The company is best known for its content delivery network (CDN), which acts as a reverse proxy between customers' origin infrastructure and internet users. Rather than requiring customers to create a separate content subdomain, Fastly routes traffic through its own network, retrieves content from origin systems when needed, and caches it at strategically located points of presence. This architecture is intended to reduce latency, improve application responsiveness, and give customers centralized control over traffic and security policies. Fastly was founded in 2011 by Artur Bergman, a Swedish-American technology executive who had previously served as chief technology officer of Wikia, now known as Fandom. The company initially focused on programmable content delivery and developer-oriented infrastructure. It expanded through venture financing, including a 2013 Series B round, a 2014 Series C round, and a 2015 Series D round. In 2014 it acquired CDN Sumo, a CDN add-on for Heroku, helping broaden its developer and cloud-platform reach. Fastly later introduced a wider edge cloud platform that combined delivery with image optimization, load balancing, and web application firewall capabilities. It completed its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2019 under the ticker FSLY. The company has progressively broadened its product scope beyond traditional CDN services. Its edge computing offering, originally associated with Compute@Edge, allows customers to run code at distributed edge locations rather than relying exclusively on centralized cloud regions. Fastly also provides image and media optimization, load balancing, application programming interfaces, real-time logging, and observability tools. Its security portfolio includes distributed denial-of-service attack protection, bot mitigation, web application firewall services, API security capabilities, and other controls intended to protect internet-facing applications. The company has used acquisitions to strengthen these capabilities, notably purchasing Signal Sciences in 2020 and the developer platform Glitch in 2022. It also acquired Domainr, a domain-status API provider, in 2023. Fastly's technology has been used by media organizations, online retailers, software companies, public-sector sites, and other businesses that require high-volume or low-latency delivery. The platform supports modern web protocols including HTTP/3, encrypted delivery, digital-rights-management workflows, secure tokens, and semantic caching. Its infrastructure is based in part on a heavily modified version of Varnish, an open-source HTTP accelerator. Fastly emphasizes programmability, granular configuration, real-time visibility, and the ability to combine delivery, compute, and security functions at the edge. The company's history also includes operational and strategic challenges. In June 2021, a software bug triggered by a customer configuration caused a major outage that made numerous prominent websites temporarily unavailable. Fastly subsequently identified and corrected the problem. In 2024, the company announced a workforce reduction affecting approximately 11 percent of employees. Fastly has also undertaken financing and debt-management measures as it has sought to balance investments in infrastructure and product development with the requirements of a public company. Leadership has changed several times since the IPO period. Bergman moved from chief executive to chief architect and executive chair in 2020, when Joshua Bixby became CEO. Todd Nightingale succeeded Bixby in 2022, and Kip Compton became CEO in 2025 after serving as chief product officer. Fastly remains an independent, publicly traded provider focused on edge cloud infrastructure, application delivery, and internet security.
History
Fastly was founded in 2011 by Artur Bergman, a Swedish-American technology entrepreneur and former chief technology officer of Wikia. From its beginnings, the company concentrated on programmable content delivery and infrastructure for internet applications. Its model differed from conventional CDN arrangements by routing customer traffic through Fastly's network as a reverse proxy and allowing customers to control caching and delivery behavior through software and configuration. The company raised a Series B round in June 2013, followed by a Series C round in September 2014 and a Series D round in August 2015. In April 2014, it acquired CDN Sumo, a Heroku-oriented CDN add-on. The transaction helped Fastly extend its reach among developers and cloud-platform users. In September 2015, Google announced a partnership with Fastly and other CDN companies to provide delivery services to users. Fastly expanded its product ambitions during the second half of the 2010s. In April 2017, it launched an edge cloud platform that combined CDN delivery with image optimization, load balancing, and a web application firewall. It raised additional capital in 2017 and 2018, then filed for an initial public offering in April 2019. Fastly began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 17, 2019, using the ticker FSLY. In February 2020, Bergman stepped down as chief executive and became executive chair and chief architect. Joshua Bixby assumed the CEO position. Later that year, Fastly announced the acquisition of Signal Sciences, a cybersecurity company focused on application protection. The reported transaction value was approximately $775 million, structured with both cash and stock consideration. The acquisition reinforced Fastly's strategy of combining delivery, edge computing, and security in one platform. Fastly experienced a highly visible operational incident on June 8, 2021, when a software bug activated by a particular customer configuration caused a major portion of the company's CDN service to become unavailable. The incident affected many prominent websites and online services. Fastly identified the problem, disabled the faulty configuration, and restored service after several hours. The outage demonstrated both the importance of CDN infrastructure and the systemic impact that a configuration or software failure can have when a provider serves many large websites. In 2021, Ronald W. Kisling was selected as chief financial officer, succeeding Adriel Lares. In May 2022, Fastly announced the acquisition of Glitch, a web-coding platform known for its developer community and collaborative programming environment. Todd Nightingale, previously an executive vice president at Cisco, became CEO in August 2022, succeeding Bixby. Fastly continued to broaden its platform in 2023. It acquired Domainr, a domain-status API provider, and announced wider partner access to its network services and web application security products. The company also announced an Oblivious HTTP relay service designed to support privacy-preserving data collection scenarios, including use cases associated with Google Chrome. These initiatives reflected a move toward a more integrated platform spanning application delivery, edge compute, developer tooling, security, and observability. In 2024, Fastly announced a workforce reduction affecting approximately 11 percent of employees. It later announced convertible senior notes as part of a debt-management and restructuring program. In June 2025, Kip Compton, previously Fastly's chief product officer and an executive with experience at Cisco and Comcast, became chief executive. The company remains an independent public provider of edge cloud, CDN, application delivery, and security services.
- 2025
Kip Compton becomes CEO
[1]Kip Compton succeeded Todd Nightingale as chief executive.
- 2023
Domainr acquisition and partner expansion
[1]Fastly acquired Domainr and expanded partner access to its network and web-application-security products.
- 2022
Glitch acquisition
[1]Fastly acquired the collaborative web-coding platform Glitch.
- 2021
Major CDN outage
[1]A software bug triggered by a customer configuration caused widespread service disruption across prominent websites.
- 2020
Signal Sciences acquisition
[1]Fastly agreed to acquire Signal Sciences to strengthen its application-security portfolio.
- 2019
Initial public offering
[1]Fastly completed its IPO and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under FSLY.
- 2017
Edge cloud platform launch
[1]Fastly launched a broader edge cloud platform with delivery, image optimization, load balancing, and web application firewall functions.
- 2014
CDN Sumo acquisition
[1]Fastly acquired CDN Sumo, a CDN add-on for Heroku.
- 2013
Series B financing
[1]Fastly raised $10 million in reported Series B financing.
- 2011
Fastly is founded
[1]Artur Bergman founded Fastly as a company focused on programmable content delivery and internet infrastructure.
Products and positioning
A programmable, developer-oriented edge cloud platform for enterprise content delivery, application performance, security, and distributed computing.
Content delivery network · 2011
Fastly CDN
Fastly's CDN uses a reverse-proxy architecture to route customer traffic through its distributed network. It caches content near users, supports programmable caching policies, and provides features for encrypted delivery, secure tokens, digital-rights-managed media, HTTP/3, and real-time traffic control.
Edge computing · 2017
Fastly Compute
Fastly Compute enables customers to execute application logic at edge locations. It is intended for low-latency personalization, request processing, API handling, security workflows, and other workloads that benefit from distributed execution closer to end users.
Web application security · 2017
Fastly Next-Gen WAF
Fastly's web application firewall is designed to inspect and filter application traffic, helping customers identify and block malicious requests. It forms part of the company's broader application-security portfolio and can be combined with edge delivery and programmable traffic controls.
Network security
Fastly DDoS Protection
This service is designed to mitigate distributed denial-of-service attacks by absorbing, filtering, and managing abusive traffic across Fastly's edge network. It supports the protection of internet-facing applications and content delivery endpoints.
Application security
Fastly Bot Management
Fastly's bot-mitigation capabilities help customers distinguish automated traffic from legitimate users and manage unwanted activity such as scraping, credential attacks, and automated abuse.
Media optimization · 2017
Fastly Image Optimizer
Image optimization tools process and deliver image assets in forms suited to different devices and network conditions. The offering is intended to reduce payload size, improve page performance, and simplify media delivery workflows.
Application delivery · 2017
Fastly Load Balancing
Fastly's load-balancing services distribute requests across origin servers and application resources. They are designed to improve resilience, support failover, and work alongside CDN caching and edge traffic-management functions.
Brand decisions
2024
Workforce reduction and financial restructuringStrategyBackground
Fastly undertook operating and balance-sheet measures while managing investment in its platform.
Action taken
The company announced a workforce reduction affecting approximately 11 percent of employees and later issued convertible senior notes as part of debt restructuring.
Aftermath
These measures reflected an effort to align operating costs and financing arrangements with the company's business priorities.
2023
Broaden partner access to Fastly productsStrategyBackground
Fastly had previously limited some partners to selling particular products, such as its web application firewall.
Action taken
The company made its network services and web application security products more broadly available to partners.
Aftermath
The change supported a more integrated channel strategy across delivery and security offerings.
2020
Acquire Signal SciencesM&ABackground
Fastly wanted to strengthen its security capabilities and combine application protection with its delivery and edge platform.
Action taken
Fastly announced the acquisition of Signal Sciences for approximately $775 million, using cash and stock consideration.
Aftermath
Signal Sciences became a central part of Fastly's application-security offering.
Reported transaction value. $775 million (2020 announcement)
2017
Expand from CDN into edge cloud servicesStrategyBackground
Fastly sought to address more of the application delivery stack rather than remain focused solely on conventional CDN caching.
Action taken
The company launched an edge cloud platform combining delivery with image optimization, load balancing, and web application firewall capabilities.
Aftermath
The move established the broader platform strategy that later incorporated edge computing, observability, and additional security products.
Recent events
Reported
Fastly announces JavaScript availability in Compute@Edge[3]
Fastly announced that JavaScript is available in its Compute@Edge serverless compute environment.
Reported
Fastly completes acquisition of Signal Sciences[4]
Fastly announced that it had completed its acquisition of Signal Sciences. The transaction combined Signal Sciences' web application and API security solutions with Fastly's edge cloud platform and existing security offerings.
Reported
Fastly CEO Artur Bergman steps down and Joshua Bixby succeeds him[5]
Fastly announced that CEO Artur Bergman would step down from the role and become chief architect and executive chairperson; company president Joshua Bixby would replace him as CEO.
Reported
Mozilla, Intel, Red Hat and Fastly launch Bytecode Alliance[6]
Mozilla, Intel, Red Hat and Fastly announced the launch of the Bytecode Alliance, an open-source group focused on developing software foundations based on standards including WebAssembly and WASI.
Sources6 sources
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