[kentonv]

Cloudflare Workers uses isolates, not processes.[0] They start much faster, typically in single-digit milliseconds.

In fact, Workers can usually spin up an isolate in parallel with the TLS handshake.[1] After receiving the SNI packet containing a hostname, it'll go start up the isolate for that host, if it isn't running already. TLS typically needs another round trip from there to do a key exchange before application data starts flowing, by that time the isolate is ready to serve. In that case, there is no added latency.

(I am the tech lead for Workers.)

[0] https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloud-computing-without-containe...

[1] https://blog.cloudflare.com/eliminating-cold-starts-with-clo...

[riedel]

Thanks for the article link. It is quite interesting to me that is only possible because we all need to trust the V8 sandboxing anyways. It makes sense since it should not be compromised on the other end of the connection either. However, one should still probably be aware that any exploit would be probably much more practical than e.g. a spectre attack.

[metadat]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing this @kentonv. After four years it might warrant a fresh follow-up conversation, so I submitted:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32289979

I hope to learn if anyone else has been using Isolates to great, or any, effect.

[happyopossum]

That is crazy cool - thanks for sharing!

[immrammc]

Wow hadn’t heard about isolates at all, really cool! thanks for sharing!

[DeWilde]

Cool, thanks for pointing this out :).

[humbleharbinger]

Any tips on getting a job at cloud flare as a new grad; it's one of my dream companies.

[aaaaaaaaaaab]

https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/careers/