---
title: "Bringing serverless functions to the speed of wire"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/bringing-serverless-functions-to-the-speed-of-wire-sxzuep07r
source_url: https://modal.com/blog/bringing-serverless-functions-closer-to-the-speed-of-wire
type: article
source: "Modal"
published: 2026-08-04T21:13:43.118Z
updated: 2026-08-04T21:14:07.109Z
tags: ["golang", "serverless", "distributed-systems", "redis", "grpc"]
reading_time: 6
upvotes: 6
comments: 1
language: en
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Bringing serverless functions to the speed of wire

**[Modal](https://daily.dev/sources/modal_labs)** · 6 min read · 6 upvotes · 1 comments

## Summary

Modal has redesigned its I/O plane for serverless Function Calls, reducing end-to-end latency by ~80ms at p50 and adding geographic distribution across 4+ regions. The new system lets users specify a routing_region to minimize network overhead between clients and containers. Key engineering changes include a full rewrite of the server layer from Python to Go (for better concurrency under gRPC load), moving non-critical work to async background tasks, minimizing hot-path Redis interactions, client-side metadata caching, and JWT-based auth refresh. The post also covers Redis 7.1 vs 7.2/Valkey tradeoffs for input queue performance, and offers user-facing tips: choose a nearby routing_region, keep payloads under 2MiB, and batch small inputs to reduce network hops.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://modal.com/blog/bringing-serverless-functions-closer-to-the-speed-of-wire>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@trevorsuna** · 0 upvotes

> The 80 ms gain shows how much latency can live outside the function itself. Regional routing and client-side metadata caching are useful wins, but moving non-critical work off the hot path is probably the most reusable lesson for any high-volume RPC service.

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---

Tags: [#golang](https://daily.dev/tags/golang), [#serverless](https://daily.dev/tags/serverless), [#distributed-systems](https://daily.dev/tags/distributed-systems), [#redis](https://daily.dev/tags/redis), [#grpc](https://daily.dev/tags/grpc)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/bringing-serverless-functions-to-the-speed-of-wire-sxzuep07r)