
Global CDN provider Cloudflare is currently cooperating with Deno and individual core contributors of the Node.js open-source project, bringing together three of the most popular JavaScript environments. It would give developers flexibility and choice while shaping the future of edge computing standards.
The effort will seek to ensure that code produced in one environment will operate in another by working around a shared set of standards. Any developer would be enabled to build and run code that adheres to the set of standards - as well as simply transfer it - across Cloudflare Workers, Deno, and Node.js without having to redesign an application.
“Cloudflare Workers has helped to define the standard for edge computing. Since 2017, more than 450,000 developers have built on Cloudflare’s developer platform and more than three million applications have been launched,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “But we know we’re not going to be the only one. We think that standards are important to driving the industry forward. That’s why we’re proud to be working with these other organizations in the serverless computing space to help define the standard for edge -what we believe will be the standard by which the applications of the future are developed.”
JavaScript Environments

Today, once an application has been created in one environment, it is difficult to migrate it to another, stated Cloudflare. This may lead to development teams retaining expensive architecture and squandering resources in order to ensure that their code and apps continue to operate for users when they migrate to new environments
Cloudflare, Deno, and Node.js are three of the most popular JavaScript environments on the market today. Developers would benefit from universal standards as a result of this endeavor, as they will be able to easily work across all settings based on their business needs and have confidence that their code will function for users today and in the future.
“The future of JavaScript is Universal, the ability to move JavaScript between many environments. That future needs to be intentionally designed,” said Myles Borins, member of the Node.js Technical Steering Committee. “Historically developers have had to rely on tacit knowledge and build tools to share code across the various JavaScript runtimes. The promise of ‘write once, run anywhere’ will only be possible with collaborative initiatives like the Web-interoperable Runtimes Community Group.”
“Deno’s broad ecosystem success can be attributed in large parts to our strict adherence to web platform standards,” said Luca Casonato, Software Engineer at Deno. “We knew from the start that Deno could only be successful if it went all in on browser interoperability - developers and broad ecosystem trends have shown us this bet was right. In addition to our existing standards work with the WHATWG and W3C, we’re excited to be working with Cloudflare and Node.js collaborators on even better runtime interoperability.”
“Developers are asking Node.js for more interoperability with APIs defined by web standards,” said Matteo Collina Ph.D., Chief Software Architect, NearForm and Node.js Technical Steering Committee member. “However, those APIs have not been designed with servers in mind and might require some adaptations. The WinterCG group’s goal is to define how those APIs would behave on servers, paving the way for better interoperability between runtimes.”
NearForm, Vercel
The Web-interoperable Runtimes Community Group is collaborating with industry leaders such as NearForm and Vercel to guarantee that developers’ opinions are heard in the formation of a new community group that will operate inside current standards bodies. Developers can use the API Standards to:- Use the best tool or framework for the job - It would be simpler to use community-developed tools and integrations across runtimes, allowing developers to select the best tool for the task
- Have a uniform approach to writing server side code - Developers may ship better code by reducing platform-specific subtleties and the requirement to master numerous platforms and focusing on functionality
- Move applications as technology needs change - There is no need for significant rewrites or adding or moving suppliers as application requirements expand and change over time