---
title: 'Edge Compute vs Traditional Serverless: An In-Depth Look'
description: 'Comparing cold starts, execution isolation, global distribution, and data locality.'
subtitle: 'V8 isolates versus micro-VMs in production workloads.'
date: '2023-09-14'
lang: 'en'
---

The word "serverless" has expanded from container-backed Lambdas to lightweight V8 isolates running on hundreds of worldwide points of presence.

## Isolates vs Containers

| Metric           | V8 Isolates (Edge) | Micro-VM (Lambda)    |
| :--------------- | :----------------- | :------------------- |
| Cold Start       | < 5ms              | 200ms - 2s           |
| Memory Footprint | ~few MBs           | 128MB+               |
| Node.js APIs     | Standard Web APIs  | Full Node.js Runtime |

Choosing between the two depends heavily on your database proximity and runtime dependency requirements.