Fastly – the edge cloud platform that powers fast, secure, and scalable online experiences for the world’s most popular businesses – continues to grow and expand rapidly, now adding Africa to its fast-growing global network reach. Privately owned global Network Service Provider, Workonline Communications and data centre service provider Teraco have collaborated to make this move possible for Fastly. 

Fastly has been adding global reach to its network in support of increasing real-time web, app, and API content delivery traffic. Fastly helps the world’s most popular digital businesses – including Airbnb, The New York Times, and Ticketmaster – keep pace with their customer expectations by delivering the most secure, and scalable real-time experiences. 

“We realise the importance and the benefits of a CDN deploying in our market, particularly in terms of improved quality and cost reduction.  Major CDNs like Fastly’s offering add enormous potential to the development of the local market as a whole. Workonline Communications is committed to providing the best for Africa as well as to developing the African market in every way possible. We are excited to be involved in the launch of Fastly in Africa,” says Workonline’s director of Business Development, Edward Lawrence. 

CDNs are an essential tool to successfully conduct business online, as the Internet was not originally built to handle the demands of massive amounts of data, live HD video, flash sales, and large downloads that have now become the standard. CDNs ensure that the Internet works better, delivering media at scale, and enabling a better experience for the end user.

“Our collaboration with the teams at Workonline and Teraco enabled Fastly to quickly deploy a Fastly MegaPOP into Johannesburg. Our expanded reach reduces latency, improves performance, and enables a more robust user experience in South Africa and neighboring countries. We feel that this is a win-win-win for the Internet ecosystem of South Africa,” says Tom Daly, vice president of Infrastructure at Fastly. 

Michele McCann, head of business development at Teraco, agrees that it is consumers who ultimately benefit from access to a CDN rich in content: "Fastly provides a CDN service to digital organisations like BuzzFeed, Pinterest, Shopify, Shazam, and Alaska Airlines from key access points on the Internet (POPs). This indispensable service reduces network transit time when delivering content to end-users who are now able to enjoy a richer experience from these online organisations.