Fastly has a blueprint for partners in Asia

On the VSTECS Phils partnership being a blueprint for the region, Nicola Gerber, Vice President of Asia Pacific and Japan at Fastly explained that this is how the company plans to go as local as possible in the region.

Fastly’s recently announced record first quarter for 2026 goes down to its innovation and need for its services as companies continue to deploy AI. Recording a 20% year-over-year growth, with a total revenue of US$173 million, Kip Compton, CEO at Fastly stated that the success is reflects the expansion within its installed base and robust new business wins, enabling the company to raise its 2026 guidance.

Indeed, Fastly has taken a big focus in 2026 with the Asia Pacific region a key strategic market for the global edge cloud platform company as it looks to double down its presence in the region.

With analysis of traffic across Fastly's global network revealing that AI requests grew approximately 30% between January and May 2026, which is about 6.5 times faster than human traffic during the same period, the challenge here is the shift on how AI systems interact with digital infrastructure, especially in Southeast Asia, whereby there has been a surge in AI usage and deployment by organizations across the region.

According to Nicola Gerber, Vice President of Asia Pacific and Japan at Fastly, a lot of customers in the Southeast Asian region want to make sure that everything they do when it comes to AI is secure, especially when it comes to how developers are building AI applications in this region.

“We call ourselves an edge compute platform because we have the cloud native applications and the serverless development for developers to develop as quickly and as securely as possible, scaling out these applications for their customers and ensure that they get it in real time. We have our distribution and our compute in order for that to be delivered in real time and at scale. And then finally, we wrap the whole security aspect around these offerings,” Gerber said.

With leadership now focused on ASEAN and partnerships expanding across key markets, the company is moving to embed itself more deeply within local ecosystems. Gerber explained that Fastly’s focus on edge computing, AI-ready infrastructure and integrated security positions the company within one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing technology segments.

Partner-led expansion gains traction

This creates both opportunity and pressure for channel partners. As enterprise demand evolves, partners will need to move beyond resale toward delivering integrated, outcome-based services that combine performance, security and application delivery.

A defining element in the company’s strategy is its reliance on channel partners to scale locally. In April, the company expanded its footprint in the Philippines by appointing VSTECS Phils (VSTECS) as its country distributor.

The partnership gives Fastly access to a broad regional distribution network spanning markets including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, while strengthening its ability to reach local enterprises through established partner ecosystems.

“We do partner, we don't ever do this alone. We have these 250 plus partners in the region, but a lot of them here are quite dormant. We actually re-engaged them. Our customers don't just buy plain products. They really need people who will support them through the complexity of their architecture. They need end-to-end security. They need analytics in order to drive everything and ensure that they can deliver it to their customers. And so we work with these partners very not just from a retail perspective, but actually from a perspective in where we are working towards value add through managed services, which might even be built into solutions,” Gerber explained.

For Gerber, the value-added distributor’s services are also well received by the customers over there.

“They're a trusted brand. They have solutions. They know how to integrate this into broader product portfolios for their customers. And that truly is a blueprint that we intend to replicate across every country in the Southeast Asian region and across J-PAC (Japan and Asia Pacific),” she added.

On the VSTECS partnership being a blueprint for the region, Gerber explained that this is how the company plans to go as locally as possible in the region.

“We're not going to do this with a multitude of distributors either. We're actually going to go with a single distributor. We're also going to go with very focused partners that are very similar in our culture and have capabilities. The quantity over the quality is really going to matter to us,” she said.

Another interesting area that Fastly is looking at is the managed services opportunity for partners. Gerber pointed out that customers are facing cost consolidation issues, given the current economic environment.

“Managed services is actually a great way for them to lean in and know what they can calculate. They can manage their op-ex in a very predictable way. So, I see it actually becoming really strong for us here at Fastly because I think we play well into that scenario with our partners as well. So, they can package our offerings, and they can put us into any of their services and then they can offer out over multi-tenancy and such,” she said.

Put simply, the opportunity for partners is tied to growing demand for integrated performance and security solutions, especially since Fastly’s platform enables organizations to reduce latency, improve reliability and respond to cyber threats in real time—capabilities that align with the needs of enterprises rolling out AI-driven applications.

At the same time, the vendor has been investing in partner enablement. Its certification programs are designed to deepen technical expertise around edge security and help partners expand into higher-value services, including deployment and managed security offerings.

This reflects a broader shift in the channel, where cybersecurity is becoming increasingly platform-driven and requires scale, automation and specialised skills, which are trends that are already reshaping partner business models across Southeast Asia.

Continuous growth in region

Given the strong quarter performance, Gerber added that Fastly will continue to invest in the region with India being a key market for them as well. While Singapore remains the hub for APAC, she believes there is a lot of the innovation that comes from around the region.

“Nothing like this can happen overnight, not in the time that I've been here. The way it happens with our partners, our partners will be the ones who will provide that offering to them as well, which is perfect because not only are they offering those value-added services, but they speak the language. They understand what pricing they need to offer,” she said when it comes to dealing with customers around the region.

For Gerber, the focus for the rest of the year would be to enable partners to eventually run on their own.

“This is why the quality matters over the quantity because if we don't want partners to operate the way we do and scale with and through them and add that value to our customers, that is the way we need to approach it. As my strategy goes, one is proximity and localization of partners, and two is the quality of the partnerships,” she concluded.