As India’s digital population grows and the demand for faster, more secure, and inclusive web experiences increases, a critical shift is underway from centralised monoliths to decentralised edge-powered apps. This talk investigates how we are serving and building web applications using the community-powered and open-sourced Next. JS framework along with Edge Middleware.
Let's talk about the privacy-centric logic aspects of routing, geo-localization, A/B testing, dynamic redirects, authentication, or anything similar which can now be done at the edge using Next.js Middleware, integrating silos without deploying backend-heavy infrastructure.
In terms of free and open-source software, this talk will clarify the logic of decentralization in relation to geo-diversity bandwidth, regional language requirements, increasing utilization of serverless architecture and JAMStack in India.
Examples where middleware is actively employed will be explored, such as:
Serving regionally, device-customised content
Secure cookie/header injection at the edge
Non-round-trip transcoding to region-specific languages
Understand what Edge Middleware in Next.js is and how it works
Learn how to shift from centralized backend logic to decentralized, edge-distributed user experiences
Discover how this model promotes open, privacy-first, and performant web applications—crucial for India’s digital scale
See real FOSS use cases where edge logic improves localization, compliance, and developer agility
Get inspired to contribute to the Next.js ecosystem and build OSS tools for middleware, i18n, caching, civic tech, and more
Understand deployment patterns across Vercel, Netlify, and open platforms like Deno Deploy or Cloudflare Workers