4 min read
Vercel was born to help frontend teams succeed at scale. From the ideal developer experience on localhost, to the best performance for your end-user via our Global Edge Network.
Today we are introducing major end-to-end enhancements, starting with a realtime developer workflow (with Next.js and Vercel CLI) and finishing with serving pages up to 6x faster.
Our new dev experience
While we've seen low-level cloud infrastructure dramatically improve in the serverless era, developer experience has consistently taken a backseat.
Features now standard for a performant and dynamic frontend, like CDN caching or serverless functions, have been practically impossible to develop locally.
These limitations inspired our investment into Next.js and the Vercel CLI dev experience.
Next.js: designed for the cloud – and localhost
Next.js was designed to bring the entire modern development stack to your local machine, with unmatched performance.
With our new Fast Refresh capability, changes to complex UIs and components are reflected in a matter of milliseconds, up to 10x-20x faster than other React frameworks.
Next.js also brings all the capabilities and optimizations of a modern edge network to localhost. For example, when you use incremental static regeneration or API routes, you never need to reach for additional tooling or be left wondering what will happen when you push and deploy.
Vercel CLI: enhanced local dev and env sync
While Next.js's next dev capability comes with built-in support for functions and other Vercel capabilities, other frameworks do not. In those situations, you can run Vercel CLI's vercel dev to replicate Vercel on localhost.
For example, if you use Gatsby or Vue.js, you can work with functions simply by creating an api/my-function.js file, running vc dev and then navigating to http://localhost:3000/api/endpoint.
With the new Vercel CLI 19, you can now enjoy:
Faster startup.
vc devinvokes your framework's dev command (if any) more quicklyBetter stacktraces. Made a mistake in a function? We now tell you exactly where
Improved memory usage. Long development sessions are now lean and stable
Seamless env sync.
vc devnow automatically pulls your dev env from the cloudSpeedy invocations. Your Node.js functions are much faster to run locally
Our new edge infrastructure
A great developer workflow is a means to an end: creating a delightful product that users enjoy. Delivering on both with no extra work is the primary goal of the Vercel platform.
We have completely overhauled our edge infrastructure, and done so entirely without disruption to our user traffic. Vercel processes 4.5+ billion requests every week, but now it does so much faster.
Vercel's own Anycast IP range
Not all IPs are created equal. While the IP that identifies your computer or phone is linked to one exact location, some are special.
IPs like 8.8.8.8 (Google Public DNS) have minimal latency no matter where in the world you use them. Now joining in those ranks is Vercel's very own IP range: 76.76.21.0/24.
If you've set up a domain recently with Vercel, you might have noticed we now offer you A and CNAME records (pointing to 76.76.21.21 and cname.vercel-dns.com respectively).
In practice, all sites and APIs served by Vercel enjoy:
Faster page loads. Up to 6x faster– depending on location, ISP and DNS involved
Optimal routing. We now route at the most fundamental layer of internet infrastructure
Apex support. Use
Arecords with confidence, no need forALIASorANAMErecordsGlobal redundancy. We automatically re-route traffic if any of our global regions are down
Improved interoperability. Use Route 53, Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, etc with no loss in efficiency
Improved handling of large attacks and traffic spikes
In addition to a great dev experience and optimal end-user performance, customers are drawn to Vercel to stop worrying about scaling infrastructure.
On one hand, due to increasing popularity of our service, we have upgraded our global network to automatically scale and manage large amounts of traffic, including unpredictable spikes.
On the other hand, as the number of sites we serve increases, so do the chances of malicious attacks – especially DDoS. We have made huge improvements to our technology to stop them.
Conclusion
If your journey begins with Next.js, Vercel has ensured your dev experience is unmatched. From realtime editing, to unique optimizations and features that replicate what's possible at the edge.
The Vercel CLI has likewise improved, with its new capability to automatically sync your team's environment and speed improvements when using other frameworks or just writing functions.
As far as the end-user is concerned, our edge is now faster, more robust and more versatile than ever before. Your pages just load faster and more reliably.
Remarkably, all the changes we outlined went live with zero interruptions – to visitors or developers. By choosing Vercel, you choose to focus on improving your product, while we take care the rest.