Fastly

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…

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.

1. 2025Kip Compton becomes CEO

   Kip Compton succeeded Todd Nightingale as chief executive.

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2. 2023Domainr acquisition and partner expansion

   Fastly acquired Domainr and expanded partner access to its network and web-application-security products.

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3. 2022Glitch acquisition

   Fastly acquired the collaborative web-coding platform Glitch.

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4. 2021Major CDN outage

   A software bug triggered by a customer configuration caused widespread service disruption across prominent websites.

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5. 2020Signal Sciences acquisition

   Fastly agreed to acquire Signal Sciences to strengthen its application-security portfolio.

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6. 2019Initial public offering

   Fastly completed its IPO and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under FSLY.

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7. 2017Edge cloud platform launch

   Fastly launched a broader edge cloud platform with delivery, image optimization, load balancing, and web application firewall functions.

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8. 2014CDN Sumo acquisition

   Fastly acquired CDN Sumo, a CDN add-on for Heroku.

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9. 2013Series B financing

   Fastly raised $10 million in reported Series B financing.

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10. 2011Fastly is founded

    Artur Bergman founded Fastly as a company focused on programmable content delivery and internet infrastructure.

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A programmable, developer-oriented edge cloud platform for enterprise content delivery, application performance, security, and distributed computing.

• Fastly CDNContent delivery network2011

  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.

• Fastly ComputeEdge computing2017

  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.

• Fastly Next-Gen WAFWeb application security2017

  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.

• Fastly DDoS ProtectionNetwork security

  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.

• Fastly Bot ManagementApplication security

  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.

• Fastly Image OptimizerMedia optimization2017

  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.

• Fastly Load BalancingApplication delivery2017

  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.

• 2024Workforce reduction and financial restructuringStrategy

  Fastly undertook operating and balance-sheet measures while managing investment in its platform.

  What changed. 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.

  Source
• 2023Broaden partner access to Fastly productsStrategy

  Fastly had previously limited some partners to selling particular products, such as its web application firewall.

  What changed. 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.

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• 2020Acquire Signal SciencesM&A

  Fastly wanted to strengthen its security capabilities and combine application protection with its delivery and edge platform.

  What changed. 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)

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• 2017Expand from CDN into edge cloud servicesStrategy

  Fastly sought to address more of the application delivery stack rather than remain focused solely on conventional CDN caching.

  What changed. 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.

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• 2024Fastly announces workforce reduction

  Fastly announced a workforce reduction affecting approximately 11 percent of its employees as part of a cost and operating review.

  Other
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• 2024Fastly announces convertible senior notes and debt restructuring

  The company announced an issuance of convertible senior notes as part of a broader debt-management and restructuring effort.

  Other
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• 2023Fastly expands partner access to its network and security portfolio

  Fastly made its network services and web application security products available more broadly to partners.

  Other
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• 2023Fastly announces an Oblivious HTTP relay service

  The company announced an Oblivious HTTP relay service intended to help customers such as Google Chrome improve end-user anonymity during data collection.

  Product launch
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• 2023Fastly acquires Domainr

  Fastly acquired Domainr, a provider of domain-status API services.

  M&A
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• 2022Fastly acquires Glitch

  Fastly acquired Glitch, a web-coding platform with a large developer community, to deepen its developer and edge-computing ecosystem.

  M&A
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• 2022Todd Nightingale becomes Fastly CEO

  Todd Nightingale, formerly an executive vice president at Cisco, succeeded Joshua Bixby as chief executive.

  Leadership change
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• 2021Fastly CDN outage disrupts major websites

  A software bug triggered by a customer configuration caused a widespread outage affecting websites including Reddit, Amazon, the BBC, The New York Times, The Guardian, and GOV.UK. Fastly resolved the incident within hours and attributed it to the configuration-triggered bug.

  Other
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• 2021Fastly appoints Ronald W. Kisling as CFO

  Ronald W. Kisling, previously associated with Alphabet's Fitbit business, became Fastly's chief financial officer.

  Leadership change
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• 2020Artur Bergman gives up the CEO role

  Founder Artur Bergman moved to executive chair and chief architect, while Joshua Bixby became chief executive.

  Leadership change
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• 2020Fastly agrees to acquire Signal Sciences

  Fastly announced a roughly $775 million acquisition of cybersecurity company Signal Sciences, combining application delivery with web application security.

  M&A
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• 2019Fastly completes its initial public offering

  Fastly began trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FSLY.

  Other
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• 2017Fastly launches its edge cloud platform

  The company introduced a broader edge cloud platform incorporating content delivery, image optimization, load balancing, and web application firewall capabilities.

  Product launch
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• 2015Fastly partners with Google and other CDN providers

  Google partnered with Fastly and other CDN providers to offer content delivery services to users.

  Other
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• 2014Fastly acquires CDN Sumo

  Fastly acquired CDN Sumo, a CDN add-on associated with Heroku, strengthening its developer-focused distribution capabilities.

  M&A
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• 2013Fastly raises Series B financing

  Fastly raised a reported $10 million in Series B venture financing to support expansion of its programmable content delivery business.

  Other
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1. Fastly
2. Fastly official website