Guests: Ari Weil | Matt Butcher
Companies: Akamai | Fermyon
Show Name: An Eye on AI
Topic: Edge Computing, Kubernetes

What if you could go from a blinking cursor to a deployed edge application in under two minutes — with enterprise-grade security built in, not bolted on? That’s the promise behind Akamai’s acquisition of Fermyon, and it’s reshaping how developers think about building at the edge.

In a recent conversation with TFiR, Matt Butcher, now VP of Product at Akamai and former CEO of Fermyon, and Ari Weil, VP of Product Marketing at Akamai, explained how their integration is solving two of the biggest pain points in edge computing: developer velocity and seamless security.

Developer Experience: Speed Without Compromise

Butcher’s team at Fermyon had one guiding principle from day one: “As a developer, I can go from blinking cursor to deployed application in two minutes or less.” That user story drove an entire year of product development, creating a developer experience so smooth that teams could move immediately from “Hello World” to solving real business problems.

But speed alone isn’t enough. What makes the Fermyon-Akamai integration powerful is the ecosystem it unlocks. When Akamai acquired Linode, they gained a complete Infrastructure-as-a-Service layer including object storage, compute resources, and container runtimes. Layer on Akamai’s CDN services, bot protection capabilities, and new AI inferencing platform, and you have a comprehensive toolkit for building edge-native applications.

“We’re no longer building small enabling chunks,” Matt explained. “Now we’re building full-on edge-native applications that can take advantage of high-speed AI inferencing, store results in relational databases, and work with the CDN to accelerate content delivery.”

For a team that describes itself as “compute nerds,” landing in Akamai’s optimized environment — refined since the 1990s — is transformative.

Security as Development Foundation, Not Afterthought

Ari Weil addressed the elephant in the room: security has traditionally been something developers deal with after deployment, often breaking functionality in the process. Akamai is flipping that model.

“We want security to be an integral part of how you design and develop, not just something you use to secure a deployed application,” Ari said. The platform now offers continuous discovery as developers build, automatically identifying APIs, assessing protection status, determining access permissions, and recommending firewall rules based on actual traffic patterns.

The key difference? These security measures work with developers, not against them. Instead of wholesale blocking access between microservices because the system doesn’t understand their purpose, Akamai’s approach provides lightweight configuration options and ongoing testing integrated with observability tools.

Developers can see what’s happening in their applications and make informed decisions about security policies Akamai recommends. As the platform evolves, this becomes conversational: Should you approve this? What’s the risk profile? Do you need adjustments for this specific instance?

Why Cloud-Agnostic Matters

Both leaders emphasized that enabling developer capabilities requires staying as open as possible. The platform accommodates multi-cloud architectures from the beginning, with observability and security posture management working across environments.

This cloud-agnostic approach isn’t just about flexibility — it’s about building more resilient applications that can scale without being locked into a single vendor’s ecosystem. For enterprises managing distributed workloads across multiple clouds and edge locations, this flexibility is essential.

What This Means for Enterprise Teams

The Fermyon-Akamai integration signals a broader shift in how edge computing platforms compete. It’s no longer just about raw performance or geographic distribution. The winners will be platforms that solve the developer experience puzzle while maintaining enterprise-grade security and operational simplicity.

For CTOs and engineering leaders evaluating edge strategies, this conversation highlights three critical questions:

Can your platform take you from development to deployment in minutes, not hours? Does security work seamlessly with your development workflow, or does it create friction? Are you locked into a single cloud provider, or can you distribute workloads based on your needs?

The answers increasingly determine whether edge computing delivers on its promise or becomes another operational burden.